Battling Bay Bass Aboard The Captain Hook   By: Cal Kellogg July 26, 2006 More Articles by Cal

There were a lot of undersize halibut lying along the edge of the break line, where the shallow mudflat dropped away into 23 feet of water. The shaker halibut would grab your live anchovy by the tail and then proceed to gulp it down in one inch increments.

The problem was that big halibut often times bite in just the same way. In this situation if you leave your reel in gear, the drift of the boat will pull the bait away before the halibut gets to the hook and you'll be left with a mutilated bait. To hook these fish you've got to feed out several yards of line and allow the flattie to get the whole bait before setting the hook.

I was dropping the bait to the bottom and instead of putting the reel in gear, I would thumb the spool. This way I could begin releasing line as soon as I felt the first couple taps signaling a bite. Fishing in this manner I'd already landed four halibut from about 17 inches down to one enthusiastic youngster that wasn't much bigger than a pancake.

About the time the office workers in San Francisco were getting to their desks I was feeling for tell tail taps as my bait skimmed across the bottom off Candlestick Point. Without warning something freight trained the hapless anchovy, bursting off with great speed and power.

The rod arched deeply and the braided line strained against my right thumb, as I reached over with my left hand to rotate the Big Game Reel's handle to engage the gears. When the drag engaged, I released my thumb and the strain on the line was relieved as panicked striper shot toward the bow on a frantic run. With Zack the deckhand leading the way I stumbled up the rail, watching the line disappear off the reel.

I'd just gotten to the bow when the line started to rise and the striper swirled to the top slapping its tail on the surface about 40 yards from the boat before diving back to the bottom. For the next several minutes I gained line when could and kept the rod loaded when I couldn't.

Finally the exhausted bass materialized below the bow and lead it into Captain Mike Fernandez's waiting net. The bass was a prize by anyone standards, a thick bodied fish that registered 14 pounds on my Berkley digital scale. I was fired up. Not only did I have a good fish in the box, but the striper slump I'd been in since the fall was broken.

For the fourteen anglers aboard the Captain Hook, including my dad and brother Erik along with James Louie, the boat's owner, the excitement on Wednesday June 28 started about 6 o'clock. That's when Captain Mike steered the boat out of the Emeryville Marina and headed for the live bait docks at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. After taking on several scoops of bait, we headed for Fernandez's hotspot off Candlestick and Brisbane along the western shore of the south bay.

Fernandez had been whacking the stripers at his south bay honey hole. The Monday before our trip Fernadez's clients had boated 21 limits of stripers with a lot of quality fish in the 15 plus pound category showing in the limits. In addition to the bass, 7 keeper halibut had also come over the rail.

The action we experienced on Wednesday was slower but still very good. We started fishing during the end of the outgoing tide. Anglers began hooking a mixture of shaker halibut and 6 to 8 pound stripers on the first drift.

For the first hour and a half the action was slow but steady. When the tide turned things really started heating up as the stripers began feeding in earnest. At one point we had three or four bass on the hook at once.

Fernandez is a very talented skipper. Last summer I had the opportunity to fish for halibut with him on the north bar outside the Golden Gate and was very impressed with his skill as several anglers nailed halibut in the 20 plus pound class. On my latest trip with him I was impressed once again. The fishing was not easy but he made it appear so.

The bass were holding right on the transition from shallow to deep water. When the baits got out of that zone, the number of bites we got fell off considerably. Fernandez constantly monitored the drift using his electronics to reposition the boat such that we systematically worked our way along transition zone. There were a few other boats working the area around us, but I didn't see them land a single fish.

I had to pry this information out of Fernandez. He's one of those easygoing, humble guys that doesn't like to blow his own horn. I wouldn't have known to press Fernandez for details if Joe Smink, an Emeryville deck hand that was out for a day of fishing himself, hadn't told me, "Mikey's really got these bass nailed down. He found them a while back and so far he's been the only one that can catch them consistently."

The fishing peaked in mid morning, but we had steady action all day long. James Louie ended up landing several bass. I rounded out my limit with an 8 pounder. Both my dad and brother ended up with limits to 10 pounds and Joe Smink landed a hard fighting keeper on a short ice fishing rod adorned with a Newel reel.

In all the 14 anglers aboard ended the day with 21 handsome stripers and 2 halibut in the 10 pound class. When all was said and done, I edged out James Louie and took home the big fish jackpot proving that the blind hog does get the acorn once in a while.

If you've been itching to bust some stripers, give the folks at Emeryville Sportfishing Center a call (510) 654-6040, and book a trip with Captain Mike. The bass are in and the action is only going to get better.