I'm not a bio, so my observations are from a purely angling perspective. But I attribute last year's high catch rate off the Edmond's Pier to a strong year class of fish that reached harvestable size. With that said, the vast majority of the lingcod I observed caught during the first week of last season off the pier were 26" to 27" long. This season most of the fish are averaging 29". Am I sensing a trend here?
There were 38 legal fish landed off the pier on the opener last year. The most lincod I've ever seen or heard of come off a public fishing pier in one day. This year there were 18 on day one and about 35 for the week. I'll bet my van we'll never see numbers like last year, ever.