New PB! Not from kayak

[JeffB]

My buddy Ed and I went out today hoping for a yellow, but it was pretty dead in LJ. We fished a cpl rockpiles pretty hard for a big rock fish on the jig. So we made a move to a spot I've been saving. I've caught a few yellows here in the past along with decent halibut and lings. 3rd drop I get doubled up deep with some big big head shakes and a little drag pulled. I knew for sure it was a yellow, but the closer I got it to the top it had me questioning. Wound up being a 40" ling, 20lb plus. The thing was a toad, had a head the size of a basketball on it. I told my buddy that if we adjusted slightly we could make fun of our slow day of fishing. Within the next hour we had 11 lings in the boats, 7 legals, 4 over 8lbs. It was good to see these guys so healthy as well. Caught a few small fries about 12-14" and even they were as fat as there bellies could get. The big one was spitting up all kinds of crab and fish. I'm sure some of them were prego as well.

My buddy was so sad today, but I told him it was good practice for 1 March. I'm ready for it to be here!