went with Prof. Salt yesterday to the Bob Hall standpipe..i went up on the pier and cast net some watermelon shad to take out there..the paddle was pretty rough..we tied to the rig and focused on fishing bottom..i was after a ling i decided to leave the kings alone for a day..
i was fishing whole watermelon shad near the bottom chumming them too..Prof. Salt hooked two nice fish on his 1 once jigs that couldn't be stopped from running into the rig..about an hour before sunset i got my bite i was looking for..i cut my anchor line holding me to Prof. Salt's yak as the fish ran away from the rig..a power boat had pulled up and asked if we had seen any ling, i told him no then he saw me hook and fight this fish..the fish went 70yards from the rig then decided he was going back to it..i back paddled and managed to get him away from it he got pretty close..
i tired it out pretty good taking my time (i caught it on my Fin Nor Sportfisher 80 with 40pound mono, the same rod and terminal gear i landed the almost 7 foot bull shark on last weekend, yep on a 80pound mono leader and a 4/0 croaker style hook) when i finally saw it i could tell it was a beast, it had another big ling with it too, i was just glad it wasnt another shark ..the guy driving the power boat offered to gaff and shoot it..i figured i would do my best landing it on my own if it got away i wasn't too worried..i gaffed it in the lip and hauled it on board..i had my hand in its mouth getting crushed by it, i was freaked out till i got it tied down..honestly the ling was pretty well behaved the whole time, it had what looked to be a sting ray barb lodged under its tongue..i thought that was a little weird..
we fished for a little longer then paddled pretty fast to avoid coming through the surf in the dark..i cruised by bob hall to show the ling off, i knew a few of my friends were out there..we measured and filleted it on the beach..it went 49inches and was over 40pounds..we cut both fillets in half..i ran one of the half fillets up to Albert (the shark world record holder) on the pier..i got a big half fillet, Prof. Salt got a big half fillet, and another one of my buddies got the other half fillet..he is a chef and had dinner waiting for me at my house for our two families so he definetly deserved it..that ling is gonna feed 4 families
another awesome day on the water