Cal Kellogg School Of Fishing Trips Aboard California Dawn Yield Halibut And More   By: Cal Kellogg July 21, 2009 More Articles by Cal

We've all heard the old saying that goes, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." In most of our endeavors this saying has a lot of validity. For example, if you are painting your living room and you leave an open can of paint setting on a ladder what do you suppose will happen? That's right, the paint is going to end up on the floor.

When it comes to fishing, the saying is doubly true since you are dealing with variables that are completely out of your control. Will the fish be where you expect them to be? Will they bite once you locate them? Will the weather cooperate? You really can't answer any of these questions with any degree of certainty until you actually get out on the water.

Back in January Captain James Smith and I planned a series of Cal Kellogg School of Fishing instructional saltwater fishing trips aboard Smith's charter boat the California Dawn. We agreed that the trips during the second half of the summer should focus on how to consistently fool rockfish and lingcod, while our spring and early summer trips would give participating anglers both an overview and insider information concerning tempting halibut and striped bass with light tackle and live bait.

After much discussion, Smith and I settled on May 14 and 15 as the dates for the first pair of instructional live bait fishing trips since we both felt certain that "live bait is always available by the middle of May."

Well, as I write this it is May 18 and live bait still isn't available. So what happened on May 14 and 15 when the biggest thing that could go wrong.the absence of live bait. did go wrong?

It would have been easy to cancel both trips, but since we had 50 plus people that had taken time off work, that wasn't an option. "I know we can catch plenty of halibut if we troll, but everyone will have to really work together to avoid tangles. 24 is the most people I've trolled and we could have more than that on both of these trips," said Smith on May 13.

When dawn broke on May 14, we cruised out of the Berkeley Marina with 23 anglers aboard. As James steered the boat toward the south bay, deckhands Darren and Ian and I talked to the anglers, outlining the do's and don'ts of halibut trolling.

After traveling for about 40 minutes, James slowed the boat to a crawl near the Alameda Rockwall and our anglers lowered their gear into the water. Some rods sported a rigged anchovy while others were armed with a rigged anchovy adorned with a hoochie and teamed with a dodger.

We'd been on the hunt for 10 minutes or so when Gary Yanez hooked up and we soon had the first of what would be many keepers in the box. On the day the action was never hot and heavy, but I don't think we went longer than 30 minutes or so without hooking a fish.

When the trip came to an end around 4 o'clock we had 27 halibut to 11.5 pounds in the box. That would have been a good live bait score, but considering that we'd been trolling our numbers were excellent.

This season my fishing school is sponsored by Berkley and Abu Garcia, so I had some great prizes to award anglers at the end of the day. Dean Deselle took home a Berkley Cobalt rod teamed with an Abu Garcia C3 level wind reel spooled with Fireline braid and a goody bag filled with Gulp! products, Trilene fishing line, a free Fish Sniffer subscription and more for catching the largest halibut of the day.

Linda Balmanno caught the second place halibut, while Steve Yanez caught the third largest fish. They both took home Abu Garcia fishing rods and goody bags. Jim Balmanno and Bob May rounded out the top 5 and took home goody bags for their good fortune.

Despite James's efforts to obtain live bait, trolling was once again the name of the game on May 15. The day started out just like the day before except that we cruised out of the harbor with 25 anglers aboard. Instead of heading into the south bay immediately, James opted to make his first stop at F Buoy near the end of the Berkeley Pier.

The action was a bit slower on the second day, and it took us about 30 minutes to put the first keeper in the box. We worked the area near F Buoy until the middle of the morning and put several good quality fish in the box before heading to the south bay. We left biting fish to hit the area where we'd hooked up the day before. It was a gamble that we hoped would pay off.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on our side. We caught fish in the south bay, but the action near F Buoy was better. After spending less than 2 hours fishing near Alameda, we headed back out to the central bay. By the time we returned the wind was really howling, but we did manage to put more fish in the box. At the end of the second day, we ended with 17 halibut to 13 pounds.

Tony Smith took the top prize on May 15, taking home a Berkley Cobalt rod teamed with an Abu Garcia baitcasting reel spooled with Fireline Braid and a goody bag. Dale Martin and Philip Galloway took home goody bags and Abu Garcia rods for their second and third place fish.

Our final Cal Kellogg School of Fishing Trip for the month of May was scheduled on May 29 as this publication was coming back from the printers. For more information about upcoming fishing trips, give Capt. Smith a call at (510) 417-5557.