I’m sure you all heard me talking about going Lingcod fishing over the past week and a half. Now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. Joe and I literally spent hundreds of dollars on rods, lines and tying material in anticipation of catching these honey badgers of the sea. Armed with his video camera, Peter was there to document the whole escapade. Let me first tell you that we really had no idea what fly or even what kind of water to fish. The interwebs do not have a lot of info for a fly guy, but we read everything we could. I spent a week annoying my wife and tying big flies, some of the largest flies I have ever tied. Fast forward to May 6th and, with enough gas to get us to Japan, we launched the Boston Whaler. Off we went.
We studied maps looking for structure but a lot of what we thought was going to be good was exposed due to a -3 tide. We found a nice rocky wall at the Magnolia marina and got in line with about 7 other boats. Wind was up, tide was booking and the 11 weight rods were chucking 6/0 hooks past our heads. Dangerous? Yes. Joe had something grab his fly but produced nada. I cast my fly right where his was and Bam! Fish on. The excitement of my first ling was replaced by a newer joy…My first black sea bass. Very cool but not what we were after.
Fish on!!! Joe yelled and the first ling of the day was on. I look over and the 11 weight was bent to the cork. It was hooked on what Joe calls the chicken fly, meaning it was pretty much two packs of rooster hackle tied on a hook. The fish looked just like the ones in all the pictures we had been looking at over the past week, big, toothy and mean. Not to be outdone I got my first ling to the boat about an hour later on a greenling pattern.
It was a beautiful day on the sound and 3 fish landed is pretty good for our first time out. I would highly recommend this fishery to anyone. Stop by the shop and we will give you all of the very small amount of knowledge we have.