Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3615 July 7-21 2017 - Page 35

SALTWATER
VOL.36 • ISS. 15
L
July 7 - 21, 2017
35
I’VE NEVER HOOKED SO MANY HALIBUT, BUT…
ast Thursday, June 15 I had the
pleasure of hosting the 12th annual
Fish Sniffer/Cal Kellogg School of Fishing
Couples Trip aboard the California Dawn.
Twenty-six anglers turned
out for the trip and with
solid halibut fishing in San
Francisco Bay the excitement
level was running pretty high.
The idea of the Couples
Challenge was born 12 years
ago as a collaborative project
between The Fish Sniffer,
The Cal Kellogg School Of
Fishing and Captain James
Smith of California Dawn
Sportfishing.
Most of the time, charter
boats are the domain of men.
While you do see some ladies,
I’d venture to guess that at
least 80 percent of all charter
boat patrons are men. The goal for the
Couples Challenge was to provide a venue
where guys could bring out their wives and
girlfriends for a day of live bait potluck
fishing on the bay.
To make things exciting we came up
with a boys versus girls “tournament”
structure, with bragging rights between the
sexes being the grand prize.
Of course, since every Cal Kellogg
School of Fishing event is sponsored by
Penn, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Fenwick and
other notable manufacturers, there is always
plenty of fishing gear up for grabs too.
We keep the scoring involved in the
event pretty simple. Every keeper size
gamefish that hits the deck is worth one
point. At the end of the day the total
number of points racked up by the girls and
the guys decide the winner.
Now you would think that the men
would have a lock on this event because
they have the most charter boat fishing
experience. The fact is that the women win
the event the majority of the time.
When there are halibut in the mix the
women generally do very well. They don’t
seem to do as well when targeting lingcod
and stripers. When going after lings and
bass, having a good “feel” for the bottom is
a distinct advantage and this is where the
experience of the men comes into play.
Conversely when fishing for halibut, it’s
generally best to put your rod in a holder
and let the fish do the rest. Women have
the edge in this scenario because generally
speaking they are more patient and less
inclined to pull the rod out of the holder
prematurely.
“There are halibut all over San Francisco
Bay. We could go up north or stay in the
central bay, but I’m going to head down
south and try out the area near Brisbane,”
related Captain James Smith as he guided
the California Dawn through a gap in the
Berkeley Pier and headed toward the Bay
Bridge.
I planned to do more filming than
fishing during the trip, but I brought along
a light Cousin’s baitcasting rod matched
with a Abu Garcia Orra Inshore baitcaster
spooled with 30 pound braid…You know,
just in case…
As James lined up the boat for our first
drift, I got my friends and first time charter
boaters, Jim and Becky King and Amy
Humphries dialed in with their gear and
then I pinned on a lively chrome bright
anchovy on my wife Gena’s rig.
Gena is paranoid about
putting out too much line and
snagging other anglers so I
wasn’t surprised when she asked,
“Feel my rod and see if I’m on
the bottom,” about 30 seconds
into the first drift.
I grabbed the rod, lifted the
tip and lowered it. Not feeling a
thump, I knew she wasn’t on the
bottom, so I spooled out a few
feet of line. The sinker thumped
the sand and I immediately felt a
fish take the bait. I dropped the
tip, gave the fish a few seconds
and jabbed the hook home. I
yelled “FISH ON” and handed
Gena the rod.
She cranked the halibut up and Mike,
the Cal Dawn’s deckhand and relief skipper
deftly scooped the 23 inch keeper into the
net.
I thought, “A minute or two into the trip
and we already have a keeper halibut in the
box. This is going to be an epic trip.” And it
was, with a few twists and turns.
Bites and hookups were plentiful and
halibut were caught all around the boat all
morning long, but most of the fish were
shakers in the 14 to 20 inch range. I’d
say that for every keeper we landed our
anglers landed five or six shakers. This is
an indication that we’ll have great halibut
fishing in the years to come, but it can be
a little frustrating when you want to box a
halibut dinner right now.
Prior to the trip, I’d rigged up a Fenwick
baitcasting rod teamed with a Abu Garcia
low profile reel spooled with 30 pound test
braid. I told our a nglers that the angler
that caught the first keeper halibut of the
day would win that rod. Of course, Gena
was excluded from winning it.
About 20 minutes after Gena landed her
fish another keeper was landed by an angler
on the stern and he had himself a new rod
and reel. He immediately rigged it up for
drifting and proceeded to break in his new
toy, catching several more fish throughout
the day.
Throughout the morning, Captain James
made several moves within the South
Bay trying to find an area that held more
keepers. In the afternoon, we sample the
Berkeley’s Flats in the Central Bay, but
we never found a concentration of larger
fish. Instead we continued catching and
releasing undersize halibut, while putting
the occasional keeper into the box, along
with a few stripers and a big hard fighting
leopard shark.
With Chef Marc turning out a steady
stream of appetizers throughout the trip,
folks were spending a lot of time coming
and going from the cabin. Roving the deck,
I would often see an unattended rod getting
hit.
I’d grab it and gently fight the fish until
I could pass the rod off to its rightful owner.
I’ve never hooked so many halibut in my life
in a single day, but all of them save for the
fish I hooked on Gena’s
rod were undersize.
When all was
said and done at the
end of the day, we’d
harvested 19 halibut
to 12 pounds, 3 striped
bass to 8 pounds and a
WHAT’S
HOT SALT
by
Cal Kellogg
Becky and Jim King
teamed up to land this
tasty leopard shark, while
targeting S.F. Bay halibut
aboard the California
Dawn during the 2017
Couple’s Challenge.
Photo by CAL KELLOGG,
Fish Sniffer Staff.
beautiful 20 pound leopard shark.
And we’d released at least 100
undersize halibut! To say we’d had
an action filled day would be a big
understatement!
The ladies, easily outpaced the
men to take the title once again in
our annual, battle of the sexes on
the bay!
Both