I felt a little funny. A twinge of dizziness perhaps, but I didn’t think much of it. My sack was starting to bulge with a half dozen husky rockfish and a keeper lingcod that measure just short of 25 inches.
Most of the time I’m looking for something big, but at this particular moment I was trying to go small, fishing the little bitty anchovy on a three-way live bait rig…I was hoping for something I could use for bait.
A drop or two later that’s exactly what I got when I reeled a feisty 8-inch olive rockfish to the surface.
Dropping the small rockfish into one of the wells on the Happy Hooker’s live bait tank, I grabbed my heavy rod, slapped on a pound of weight, baited up with the rockfish and sent him back to the bottom.
I didn’t think it wouldn’t take long and when I felt rubbery resistance a minute later I knew a husky lingcod was submitting its resume. I let the ling mouth the bait for several seconds before starting to slowly turn the handle of the Penn Baja Special. The big reel had probably sucked up four or five feet of 65-pound braid when Mr. Lingcod decided to get aggressive.
The rod tip pumped down hard a couple times and I responded by reeling the tip down to the water and rearing back on the Ugly Stik Tiger as hard as I could.
Wham…I felt solid weight and a determined surge. Working the reel hard, I pumped the fish off the bottom only to have it surge back down again against the drag. I could tell it wasn’t huge, but certainly a quality keeper.
“Ling on,” I yelled and seconds later long time Happy Hooker deckhand Mike Verrone was at my side just as the lingcod appeared off the starboard corner.
Mike did his stuff with the gaff and I had myself a dandy 10 or 11-pound ling that would yield a big set of snow white fillets! But not everything was ferries and rainbows.
With my second ling of the trip in the box, the funny feeling I’d had a while before morphed into a full blown case of seasickness.
Seasick? I hadn’t been seasick in 15 years and while it was a little sloppy, it wasn’t even that rough. They say it happens to everyone some of the time and this was my day to be lucky.
I already had plenty of fish to take home, so I spent the rest of the trip alternating between snoozing in the cabin and climbing up to the wheelhouse to chat with the living legend himself, Captain Jim Smith.
I’d been wanting to run a Cal Kellogg School of Fishing trip (School of Seasickness might have been a better title on this day…LOL) aboard the Happy Hooker for a long time and it finally came together on Thursday July 14, when 34 Fish Sniffer supporters turned out for a day of chasing rockfish and lingcod.
Captain Jim Smith has been fishing Golden Gate waters for decades and as a charter boat skipper he’s seen and done it all. Jim is probably best known for putting his clients onto outrageous bay and ocean striped bass action. But regardless of what species you’re interested in, be it bottomfish beyond the Golden Gate, halibut inside the bay or sturgeon up in San Pablo and Suisun Bays there are few skippers that can match Jim’s experience and achievements.
Our trip could have easily been a striper and halibut combo trip inside the bay, but I figured a rockfish and lingcod adventure would provide maximum fun and opportunity for my team of Fish Sniffer readers.
Going into the trip I suspected that we’d either head out to the Farallon Islands or work the Marin Coast, but Captain Smith threw me a curve. The weather ruled out an island trip, so Jim opted to head south, rock hopping his way down the San Mateo Coast.
The first couple spots we hit offered slow to fair action, but then Jim got us dialed in and a parade of big bottomfish and a steady pick of lingcod started coming over the rail.
We’d scored a tank full of exceptionally large anchovies and the big bottom dwellers came out in force to greet them. To get hit all you needed to do was keep one of those jumbo anchovies near the bottom without snagging and you’d soon be hooked up.
It was a day of highlights. An angler to my right landed a beautiful 8 pound cabezon. In my view, cabs are the hands down best eating fish caught in Golden Gate waters. Sautéed in butter and garlic, cabezon fillets provide phenomenal table fare!
Beyond the lings and the cab, we saw lots of big rockfish including blacks up to and beyond 5 pounds and some jumbo blues that weighed at least 4 pounds.
The most impressive fish of the day may well have been a vermilion rockfish that was caught up near the bow. We didn’t weigh it, but it was a solid 10 or 11 pounds and turned out to be the second heaviest fish of the day, based on deckhand Mike’s work with the balance beam in determining the jackpot winning fish and the other winners for the day.
The top fish of the day was a 14-pound lingcod that earned a lucky angler a new Penn rod and an Abu Garcia round bait caster. The second place vermilion also earned a round Abu Garcia and the angler that boated the third place ling took home an Abu Garcia Black Maxx baitcaster.
Special thanks goes out to my sponsors at Penn, Abu Garcia and Berkley. Without these manufacturers the Cal Kellogg School of Fishing wouldn’t be possible!
I’ll be back out on the Happy Hooker for another epic killing spree this September. If you’d like to hit the water aboard Berkeley’s Happy Hooker for a day of live bait potluck fishing, give them a ring at (510) 223-5388 to reserve your spot. Dave Marquardt handles the books for Captain Smith and he’ll take good care of you!