Puget Sound Ling Cod Season

Well, after going on 3 to 4 years of owning Pontus, we finally got her out for Ling Cod season. It’s actually pretty hard to believe we’ve had that little dive boat project as long as we have, especially as we are already eyeing the next dive/cruise/fishing boat… Two foot-itis is strong with us… 😛

The first day we went out, we launched with a weather report of slowly building to 1-2′ wind waves. Basically nothing, but as we rounded the point into the sound there was a lot of 3’+ chop thrown in between a lot of 2′ chop… We slowed down and worked our way to the dive site. Fussing with the down-imager, as it’s been awhile since I had used it and apparently I had tweaked the settings when we were out shrimping… Alas, we finally found something that looked like a large pile of concrete, and I rolled in.

I dove in for my first solo dive in a long while with my self sufficient side mount setup, and my first spear fishing trip trip begun. I spent the first hour going all over the reef looking for a ling in poor visibility. I had large rock fish following me, but in the sound they are closed for fishing… After that hour, I was pretty sure I was going to be skunked… As I got lax, and was doing a few more circles, I came around the corner and fully was not prepared for the ~30″ ling that I saw.  I quickly fumbled with the spear and got a shot off as fast as I could! It glanced, and swam off! Crap!!! I fought with the speargun to reload for what was at least 5 or so minutes… Reloaded I went back on the prowl for the ling I had finally found! I found it, and it was much harder to approach for the second attempt. After it swam away from me the second time, I had found it around the next corner and got a shot off that fully pierced and landed the fish.  Ling Cod is a robust fighter it and it took awhile to get it to the point I could bleed it out and get him on the stringer.

With how the anchor was set, we anchored a couple feet up current of the reef, and the boat was sitting directly over where I was wasting air, cursing while trying to get my fish on, and a storm of bubbles was surrounding the boat that my wife was tending while I dove…

The next trip we headed up to, we were way behind schedule on diving at slack. The information I could find on this site pretty much said it was hit or miss for life or visibility. Fairly non current sensitive, but a large top current can form on tides like we were diving so it was best to dive as a live boat or at slack. Well the top current was definitely there, but it was nothing like what I imagined (not bad at all)… We dropped down to 25′ to 35′ of visibility! Anytime I had talked to people the week prior they said it was pea soup across the board in the Sound, and wasn’t worth going out for spear fishing…. Well, my dive buddy and I each quickly got our limits and headed back to the boat. We had just found the most magical dive site with amazing viz, and ling cod abound!

The next day we headed to the dive site with high hopes for a repeat of the magical conditions for another amazing dive! This time we hit slack dead on with a low tide going into a flood. We dropped into pea soup, and clawed our way down the anchor line… After we got to the bottom, I ran a spool to search for the reef, but after we got on the rock piles, viz was so bad that I could hardly see my hand let alone the tip of my speargun… So we thumbed the dive and reconvened on the boat. We rechecked the tide/current tables and came to the conclusion that yesterday we were dead center of a very very large exchange at full flood. So we decided to wait a couple hours on the boat for the current to pick up and hopefully have another magical dive, or at least a productive fishing dive. After a painfully long wait the top current was again ripping and we geared back up for the second dive.

We dropped in on amazing 20-30′ viz, 180 degrees from our initial dive of the day for  another amazing fishing dive! We got Tyler’s Ling, and since I was on doubles we had previously discussed going back to the anchor at his turn pressure, and I would continue on as a solo dive so that I could get my fish since I was on doubles. I hunted around until I got my second ling, and missed 2 greenlings as well… Those buggers are like lightening! We headed back to the launch, and I was stoked to finally have some ling to bbq! Ling Cod is amazing, flavorful, and one of my favorite fish to eat! We’ll be set for the summer! 🙂