Photos
Details
Well I went out with fellow WaLakers ResQ and Tex and my newest fishing partner Lady (the Lab/Flat coat mix pup) to hit the jetty for some lings. We hit the spot at slack tide, and fished for bait. We had two guys on bait, and ResQ on lings throwing a herring. Once we worked out the kinks of missing fish and line breaking, the greenling bite was awesome. After the slow start we started getting nibbled almost every cast. In the first little bit, we had a big ling take on herring, but he got away. After we got a few greenlings, we set up to fish them as bait for lings.
Not very much longer we had a monster ling on on the live greenling. Giant as in probably 20 lbs. We fought the darn thing all the way to the rocks, had it on the ropes and it let go. When I saw that head come from the depths, and then the body that just didn't end, it was pretty epic, and the let down was pretty dramatic. We had some choice words.
I took a short jaunt to the surf side of the jetty to try my luck over there. Gingerly crossing on the slippery rocks, made a few casts with Lady, and hook a very nice sized cabezon. Saw its goofy looking head come up, and had him floating next to a big rock, go to climb down to grab him and WHAMMM! I get hit with a suprise attack wave from Japan knowcks me down, slip and tumble rod fish and all down the slippy facy of the stupid rock hole. About thigh high in water I'm rasing my hands to stop the fall, and this beautiful heavy cabby bites through the line and gets thrown into the ait and flys back to the depths. Better him than me, I say. So that one is gone, Lady's barking at me like I'm dying, I go home to the other side.
This sort of hijinks carried on throughout the day, as I was dedicated net boy, being spry and athletic and most importantly, already wet. IT was fun, but I didn't go to the other side again.
We had another fish on just like that too. Lost the darn thing. We kept bringing in greenling until we ran out of sand shrimp, then we were forced to switch to herring or powerbait jigs. There was a giant school of sea bass right in front of us, and we hooked a few nice ones. The bite was steady and nice, except the rain was being a jerk. We caught and beached these pint sized lings on the jigs. The monsters like the big lively baits, but the little scrappers will readily take the jigs.
We lost another ling on the rocks as I was trying to climb down to net it. Had it on a rocks for like five minutes, I just couldn't get to it.
The wives were starting to miss us, so we had to pack up and go. Before packing up, I threw a rod with a herring on it out and started to put my stuff away. I guess I forgot to look at the rod while packing because the last thing I did was to go and break down the rod to put it in my pack and as I start reeling it up, bang bang BANG with the lingcod head shakes and he runs screaming drag into - yep! You guessed it. A rock. I could feel the thump thump of the fish pulling on me, but I just couldn't pull back on it. Spent a good while trying every which way to try and get him to swim out, but after ten or so minutes, I called it and broke off.
While the hike out was fine and dandy and optimistic with the positive weather reports, the hike out was a different story altogether. Even Lady with her four feet was struggling to find solid footing. It took us 3x longer to get back and several spills and painful falls to get back to the car. But we made the difficult journey proud and with good nature, because we left with packs full of tasty fish!
The big lings wanted live greenling today. The greenling were lights out on sand shrimp. Herring and powerbait grubs were the fallback bait, and came in a close second for productivity. Had a great time fishing with fellow WaLakers and Lady! Looking forward to our next trip out...
Nate Treat Fishing
Official WashingtonLakes.com Sponsor
"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
NateTreatFishing.com
Comments
Why is this comment inappropriate?
Delete this comment? Provide reason.
