Despite it's proximity, the Marin coastline appeared as little more than a dark mass through a heavy veil of fog. The fog's chill provided a welcome respite from the 100 degree days I'd been enduring in the Sacramento area.

Just as I prepared to drop my anchovy adorned 3 way rig James Smith, the skipper of the California Dawn, walked up to the rail with a struggling 12 inch kingfish in his hand. "Hey Cal, get rid of that anchovy and put on this kingfish. They're lingcod candy," proclaimed Smith.

Seconds later the frisky kingfish was on its way to the bottom. "When you get hit, don't set the hook, just start reeling slowly. The ling likely won't be hooked. He'll just nail the kingfish and hitch hike up to the boat," tipped Smith.

Now your mother told you not to pick up hitch hikers, but then your mom probably wasn't much of a lingcod angler! In bottom fishing circles, a "hitch hiker" refers to a lingcod that latches onto a hooked fish and refuses to let go even though it is being reeled to the surface.

I'd been yo-yoing my rig over the rocky bottom for a couple minutes when a lingcod took the kingfish with a violent slash putting a serious bend in the tip of my stout Fenwick Saltstik SSGC 1870 rod. I fought the urge to set the hook and started working the reel.

"Just keep steady pressure on the fish. If the ling lets go, drop the bait back down," instructed Smith. At first the ling obliged and came toward the boat albeit grudgingly. Just when I figured the fish was halfway up it crash dived on a drag spinning run that took it back near the bottom.

After the run, the fish weakened and once again headed upward. The only question was whether the ling would hold onto the bait all the way to the boat. The question was answered when the lings mottled brown bulk materialized with the kingfish locked crosswise in its jaws. Smith drove the gaff home with a swift jab and the 17 pound battler was brought aboard.

I've been an avid lingcod angler for a longtime. Having caught them on jigs, live anchovies, shrimp flies, mooched dead mackerel, and hitch hiking on smallish rockfish, I thought I'd seen it all as far as lingcod fishing, but Smith's method came as an exciting surprise. Kingfish, or white croakers as they are formally known, are considered annoying trash fish by most anglers. Smith's use of them as live bait is an innovative and highly effective approach to targeting big lingcod.

The trip started out as a standard live bait fishing adventure at the Berkeley Marina. Smith pulled the California Dawn out of its slip around 6:15 am and we headed across the bay to the live bait dock in San Francisco.

From there we headed under the Golden Gate to try for halibut on the north bar. The halibut bite wasn't wide open, but we did manage to pick up five quality flatties.

After our third drift, Smith announced that we were going to head north and catch some kingfish to use as lingcod bait, before hitting a series of rockpiles just off the coast. "We'll spend about 15 minutes here loading up on kingfish," related Smith over the loudspeaker as we came to a stop near Duxbury Reef. It took us a few minutes to get the hang of hooking the kingfish, but once we did, frisky kingfish began coming over the rail at a rapid clip. Before long there were 4 or 5 dozen swimming in the live well.

Once again running northward, Smith told us that we'd focus on catching rockfish at first. Later we would begin targeting lings specifically. Five minutes later, Smith lined us up over some promising structure and we dropped our rigs. We all started out fishing live anchovies on 3 way leaders and immediately began landing an assorted variety of rockfish and a few lingcod. By the end of the first drift, I had two big blues and a good copper in my sack.

It was at the beginning of the second drift that Smith baited my rig with a kingfish. After taking a couple pictures with the hefty lingcod, I placed it in my sack and decided concentrate on filling out my rockfish limit. I love fishing with jigs so I tied on a 6 ounce rattling jig that resembled an anchovy and started working the bottom.

Within a couple of drifts, my sack was stuffed with 10 rockfish weighing from 1.5 to 4 pounds. Interestingly, I didn't hook any lings on the jig, despite the fact that anglers all around the boat were landing them on live anchovies and kingfish.

With my rockfish limit in hand, I went back to fishing with live kingfish and the action was hot and heavy. On my first drop, I landed a second keeper ling that grabbed and dropped the bait 3 times before coming to the boat. In all, I had 8 lings strike my kingfish during the last two drifts of the day.

Most of them let go before they made it to the top, but it was still the hottest lingcod action I'd ever experienced.

James Smith has the reputation of being one of the north state's most talented and hardest working skippers and I found him to be just that. I was very impressed with his knowledge of coastal waters and his ground-breaking approach to catching big lingcod. At day's end, the 25 anglers aboard the California Dawn bagged limits of rockfish, 40 lingcod to 21 pounds and 5 halibut to 18.5 pounds.

If you'd like to experience the top notch live bait action James Smith provides, give the Berkeley Marina Sportfishing Center a call and book a trip on the California Dawn, (510) 849-2727.