Lingcod, the *other* white meat

I have already said this, but it is worth saying again - we have figured out how to catch bottom fish in Ensenada. Last Sunday we went back to our hotspot that we discovered for bottom fish. To say we had a good day would be a gross understatement. I had a good idea of where I wanted to fish and what technique I planned to use so we got right to it. As it turned out, the wind and the current were going in a different direction than they were when we were last at this spot so we had to make some adjustments. But we figured it out very quickly I hooked the biggest lingcod I have caught to date. And from that moment on, it was one right after another.

Now most people would think this is a good thing. But from Jan's perspective, not necessarily so much. To my great pleasure, Jan loves to fish. We have come up with a procedure that makes it very enjoyable to her. There are 2 things Jan really likes about fishing - getting a fish hooked on her line and seeing what comes up out of the water. She is not so keen on fighting and reeling in huge lingcod (or tuna for that matter). So the technique goes like this: Jan hooks the fish and begins the fight. Then I take the rod and fight the fish to the surface. Then Jan gets to see the fish come out of the water. This works really great... until we both hook up at the same time! Then Jan has to fight her own fish until I get mine in the boat. And when fishing is hot (like it was this day), that happens all too often.

We had a great day and filled the boat with fish. We have been looking for a cooler to keep our catch in but as yet have not found one. So we use a bucket which has worked pretty well in the past. This day however was a different story. The first 2 fish were so big they completely filled the bucket. So we just started throwing them in the wheel well in the cockpit. Eventually our cockpit looked like the scene of an axe murder. The biggest problem we had was on the way home the wind and waves picked up so we were constantly chasing the fish around the cockpit as the boat rolled and pitched.

Bloody mess (as Jude would say)

Fortunately we can just take a hose to our cockpit and it cleaned up very easily.

When I was researching how to catch lingcod I kept reading warnings about not putting your hands in their mouths or gills. Well, as you can see, they have some really big, sharp teeth!!

Jan caught the lone rockfish of the day.

On the way back we came across the first sea turtle we have seen.

This is most of our catch for the day. Unfortunately our freezers are now full so we are going to have to start giving them away. We are certainly not going to stop fishing!