Excitement Abounds During Fish Sniffer/California Dawn Lingcod Special   By: Cal Kellogg August 10, 2006 More Articles by Cal

Back in the day, when there was no limitation on how deep anglers could fish and the lingcod limit was five fish, San Francisco Bay Area charter boats such as the Jubilee scheduled trips dubbed “lingcod specials” that specifically focused on hooking big numbers of heavy lings.

These days in the era of shortened seasons, depth restrictions and a drastically reduced limit of two lings per day, lingcod specials are a thing of the past. Sure there are still plenty of lings being caught, but most of them are hooked on general bottom fishing trips where the focus is on targeting rockfish.

Last summer I had the good fortune to go on a rockfish trip out of the Berkeley Marina with Captain James Smith on the California Dawn. On the trip we stopped near Duxbury Reef and caught some kingfish to use as live bait for lingcod.

To make a long story short, it was one of the best days of lingcod fishing I’ve ever experienced with big lings vigorously gobbling up the kingfish. There were 25 anglers on the California Dawn and we ended up with 40 lings to 21 pounds.

Over the winter my thoughts kept returning to that trip. Smith is among the most talented skippers in northern California and I was impressed with his innovative approach to tempting lings.

This spring I came up with the idea of putting together a lingcod special aboard the California Dawn and gave Smith a call. He was as excited about the idea as I was and the Fish Sniffer’s Lingcod Special was slated for July 12. As soon as we advertised the trip, our readers threw their full support behind it, filling all the available spots in a short time.

After weeks of increasing anticipation, Allen Bonslett the Fish Sniffer’s Publisher and I arrived at the Berkeley Marina well before daylight on July 12, joining my Dad, brother Erik and 20 other Sniffer readers aboard the boat. Just after sunrise Smith guided the California Dawn from its slip, cruised beyond the breakwater and opened up the throttled for the trip across the bay.

Smith’s plan was to run out to a point near the Farallon Islands where we would spend a half hour or so catching sanddabs for bait before moving to a series of rocky reefs north west of the islands. The seas were forecast to be calm, but the swells and white caps we encountered outside the gate left us wondering if the forecast was wrong as we scrambled for the cabin to avoid the spray.

Fortunately, the further offshore we traveled the calmer the ocean became. By the time the islands were in sight, the surface was greasy calm, punctuated by weak widely spaced swells.

For catching sanddabs we rigged up with P-Line Johnny Rigs, baited them with bits of anchovy and dropped them to the bottom with 12 ounce weights attached. Almost instantly, sanddabs began joining the live anchovies in the bait tank. In a short time we had brought well over one hundred of the diminutive flatfish aboard and it was time to turn our attention to bigger game.

As Smith piloted the boat to the lingcod grounds, Mike Gaddis, the California Dawn’s deckhand explained that we would be drifting the sanddabs on three way leaders adorned with 1/0 treble hooks and 12 ounce weights. The air was electrified with excitement as Smith lined us up for our first drift.

“Okay guys, drop’em - there’s a lot of life down there,” Smith declared over the loud speaker. Seconds later anglers began yelling “fish on” here and there around the boat and the first sprinkling of lingcod were brought aboard. After an initial surge of activity, the action died and Smith told us to reel in. The seas were so calm that were weren’t drifting and covering ground, but rather setting almost stationary.

“Well, guys the fish are definitely here, but since we aren’t drifting, we are going to have to do some rock hopping until the current picks up,” Smith announced as we moved to a new spot. The action was much faster at the second spot as several anglers, including Erik hooked heavy fish as soon as their baits got to the bottom. Much to our surprise they weren’t lingcod, but rather bocaccio in the 5 to 12 pound range. The limit on bocaccio is one fish and we had limits aboard in a matter of minutes.

Since the drift was so slow and the bocaccio were so abundant to the north of the islands, Smith opted to run back to the west in hopes of finding a better drift. Once again the current was sluggish and the surface was nearly dead calm, but at least we’d gotten away from the bocaccio. Smith worked hard moving from rock to rock as the anglers aboard picked up a handful of lings at each spot along with some impressive rockfish.

Around 11 o’clock I took the sanddab off my leader, replacing it with a live anchovy and my brother did the same. Our intention was to put some rockfish in our sacks, but it didn’t work out that way. As soon as Erik’s bait got to the bottom his rod bent hard and it was clear he was into his first-ever lingcod.

A beat later my anchovy got hammered and I had a ling of my own. Erik’s fish was a handsome 9 pounder, while mine was a shaker. Well, for whatever reason, the lings wanted anchovies and on our next drop Erik nailed a shaker while I battled a 10 pound keeper.

A little after noon, Smith put us over a big school of rockfish. “It doesn’t look like we are going to get any drift today. Go ahead and bait up with anchovies and put some rockfish in your sacks. We’ll make a drift or two and then I want to make about an hour run over to the wreck of the Davidson near B Buoy. As calm as it is we should be able to drop our gear right down on the ship. The Davidson hasn’t been fished in years, so there should be some big lings and rockfish on it,” announced Smith.

The run to the Davidson was pleasant with whales and porpoises constantly in view. The action at the wreck was hot. Anglers were calling for the gaff all around the boat. Allen and my dad were nailing big widow rockfish on jigs, while Erik and I filled out our lingcod limits with two more quality lings on the final drop of the day.

The Fish Sniffer’s Lingcod Special was a resounding success. The 24 anglers aboard ended up with limits of big rockfish and bocaccio along with 33 lingcod ranging from 7 to 21 pounds. Pat Duffy won the first prize with his 21.8 pound lingcod, taking home a new Penn Power Stik rod. Brad Schmidt nailed down second place with a 14.12 pound ling winning a Premier Ocean Striker rod while Jerry Turner took third place with his 14.8 pound lingcod, winning an Ugly Stik rod.