Point Reyes Adventure Aboard The New Huck Finn   By: Cal Kellogg July 18, 2007 More Articles by Cal

The mystique of the Pacific includes the dark foam streaked water, the squawks of a dozen varieties of marine birds and the lure of big hard charging gamefish. As exciting as freshwater fishing can be, very few freshwater fishing experiences can rival those encountered on the salt.

My 2007 saltwater season officially kicked off on Wednesday, June 20th. Itching to get out on the salt and with a good weather forecast for the middle of the week I'd called Craig Stone at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center on Monday to see if there was room on one of the Emeryville charter boats for me along with my dad and brother Erik. Craig asked if we wanted to fish for salmon or rockfish. When I told him we wanted rockfish he booked us on the New Huck Finn piloted by Captain Jay Yokomizo.

I'd never fished on Jay's boat before, but he was Art Roby's deckhand on the old Huck Finn when I took my first charter boat trip 20 plus years ago. On that trip, he netted my first ever king salmon, a massive 33 pounder. After my first trip on the old Huck Finn, I fished aboard the boat many more times and I came to know Jay as an extremely talented deckhand, so my expectations were soaring as we boarded his boat on the morning of the 20th.

As we cruised out of the harbor, Jay's deckhand, Dave told us that we'd be using 3 way live bait leaders and demonstrated the proper method for pinning live anchovy on the hook. On the way out it was unclear whether we'd be fishing at the Farallon Islands or off the Marin County coast. After pushing through some bumpy water in the Potato Patch the ocean laid down, and Jay headed north along the coast.

I kicked back inside the cabin and took a nap. When I woke up 2 hours later, Dave announced that we were about 20 minutes from the fishing spot, so I got my camera out and looked around to see where we were.

I could see the beach in the distance, so I knew we weren't near the islands. A short time later Point Reyes came into focus off the starboard side. I'd fished the area for salmon before, but I'd never traveled that far north for rockfish.

For the first drift we moved into a cove just north of the point and dropped live anchovies down to the bottom in 40 feet of water. The bites didn't come instantly, but within minutes husky 3 and 4 pound black rockfish started coming over the rail.

After working the shallows for about 20 minutes, Jay maneuvered the boat out into deeper water and the action got hot and heavy as a colorful assortment of big rockfish and lingcod started grabbing baits.

One of the highlights of the trip came when Randy Markwith boated an 11 pound vermilion rockfish. It was by far the largest vermilion I'd ever seen.

A little research at the office the next day revealed that the world record vermilion stands at just over 12 pounds. Randy's 11 pounder was quite an achievement for a guy that hales from trout county up in Burney, California!

By late morning Erik's sack held 7 or 8 quality rockfish and a limit of lingcod to 8 pounds. Dad also had a limit of lings along with an assortment of big blacks and widows.

I'd promised to teach Erik how to work a jig, so I racked his rod and broke out my new 8' Lamiglas XC 807 rod topped with an Abu Garcia 7000 ICS Pro Rocket reel loaded with Spiderwire Ultracast braid. It didn't take him long to get the hang of working the Megabait and he quickly filled out his limit with a pair of big vermilions.

Dad was limited out, too, so him and Erik took a seat and got out their lunches. Needing a couple more rockfish and one more ling, I started working the bottom with the jig. I'd pumped the jig 3 or 4 times when the rod doubled over. For several seconds I thought I'd snagged, but when line started surging off the reel, I knew it was a fish.

Dave had seen the fish hit and the next thing I knew he was standing next to me with the gaff at the ready. Minutes dragged by as the fish grudgingly came toward the surface. I felt the surge of excitement that all anglers feel when they hook a big fish, tempered by the fear of losing it.

Well, luck was on my side and at long last a mass of mottled brown materialized below the surface, gradually morphing into handsome lingcod. With a quick stroke of the gaff Dave swung the big fish over the rail. As Dave went into the cabin to get a scale, I pried a semi-digested rockfish out of the ling's throat. The ling weighed in at just over 18 pounds. "If he hadn't coughed up that rockfish, he would have went over 20," Dave quipped.

With a limit of fish in my sack I headed up to the pilothouse and asked Jay, if he was surprised by the quality of fish we'd boated? "No not really. This is a great spot, but you can only fish it a few times a year. Today the conditions are perfect, but on the average day the wind works against the current and you get a lot of choppy swells. When you get the chance to hit an area that doesn't get a lot of pressure you almost always get some really nice fish," Jay related.

The final tally for the day was full limits of rockfish and lingcod for the 19 anglers aboard. All in all it was one of the best bottom fishing trips I've ever taken. The weather was great, the quality of the fish was exceptional and I took home the big fish jackpot. I can't wait until the next time I get out with Captain Jay!