When all the weights were totaled and double-checked, Larry Nelson's two fish had a combined weight of 24.5 pounds, giving him top honors and $2,000 for his wallet. Ken came in a strong second with a total weight of 22.1 pounds, claiming $900

100 Lingcod Landed During First Annual Cal Kellogg High Rollers Lingcod Tournament   By: Cal Kellogg Aug. 18, 2009 More Articles by Cal

On July 31, 28 Fish Sniffer readers, 4 crewmembers and yours truly descended on Captain James Smith’s California Dawn for a first of its kind northern California big money lingcod tournament.

By the time all was said and done at the end of the trip some were wealthier, some were elated and some were heart broken, but the day’s common sentiment among anglers and crew was that everyone felt privileged to experience an absolutely wide open lingcod bite that resulted in more than 100 lings coming to the boat!

I came up with the idea of setting up a high stakes lingcod tournament with a mandatory $100 dollar jackpot a few years ago. My vision was to award one or two big jackpots to the anglers that were able to put together the heaviest limit of lingcod. When I brought the idea up to Captain James Smith this spring he jumped on board immediately and the rest is now history.

When we departed from the Berkeley Marina, all 29 anglers had read and signed the rules for the event and each had tossed $100 into the pot. The angler with the top limit was slated to take home $2,000 and the second place angler would earn $900. With flat ocean conditions, a tank full of live sardines and the boat’s bow pointed toward Point Reyes expectations among the anglers were running high.

It’s pretty rare in the fishing world that reality exceeds angler expectations, but that is exactly what happened when we arrived at Point Reyes. Within 5 minutes of putting our lines into the water lingcod and other bottomfish started coming over the rail. The anglers dropping live sardines enjoyed the fastest lingcod action, but anglers working jigs also scored. My first half dozen casts with a 7-ounce P-Line Lazer minnow bar jig resulted in a 4-pound vermilion, 2 small lings that were released, a big brown rockfish, a china rockfish and a hefty 7 pound cabezon.

During the first 90 minutes we put a total of 33 lingcod in the box and were halfway to limits. If we had kept every keeper ling that came to the boat we could have limited out before noon, but James wanted to control the number of fish going into the box so we could continue fishing until our predestinated 2:15 departure time.

James and deckhands Darin and Rachael did a great job of releasing lightly hooked lings that anglers did not wish to count as one of their two jackpot fish. The selective harvest and release of fish kept everyone in the mix and fishing right up until boat limits were reached when lingcod number 66 went into the box at precisely 2:15.

To win one of the jackpots, you had to boat quality lings, but you also had to have a solid strategy when it came to designating which fish you wanted to count as your jackpot fish. This was one of the factors that separated the elated from the heartbroken.

The way things played out for me are a good example of what I’m talking about. Early on I nailed several keep lings, but they were just over the minimum size so I let them go without even bringing them into the boat. Fish were going into the box quickly and I started to worry that we would be limited out before I put any jackpot fish in the box. As a result I opted to keep a 6.5 pounder as my first jackpot fish…Huge mistake! The seeds of heartbreak had been sown.

We figured it would take 25 pounds to win. That being the case I was hoping that I could land an 18 to 20 pounder for my second fish, which is an achievable goal when fishing the rich waters of the north coast.

As the day went on and I failed to connect with a big fish I got pretty anxious, so when I landed a 12 pounder at around 1 o’clock with time running short I kept it as my second fish hoping to contend for the second place prize.

Can anyone guess what happened next? That’s right three drops later the largest fish to come aboard the boat the entire day slammed my jig. I got to take the fish home to eat, but with my “jackpot limit” already filled the fish wouldn’t count in the tournament.

On the other hand anglers like Larry Nelson and Ken Valenzuela managed the fish they selected well. Each of them designating their largest two fish of the day as jackpot fish.

When all the weights were totaled and double-checked, Larry Nelson’s two fish had a combined weight of 24.5 pounds, giving him top honors and $2,000 for his wallet. Ken came in a strong second with a total weight of 22.1 pounds, claiming $900.

Had I played my strategy correctly and not kept a small fish early on would my two large fish have given me the top spot? That’s a tough call. I didn’t weigh my largest two, but it would have been very close. Certainly I would have finished in the money.

In the final analysis the event was a huge success. Everyone thought we’d have a good day of fishing, but I think everyone was a bit shocked when it came to how fast and furious the lingcod action was. At this point I’ve already got Fish Sniffer supporters clamoring to secure a spot on next year’s trip, yet if there was enough support, we might just be able to pull off another high rollers lingcod trip sometime in late September or early October.

If you are interested give me a call at (530) 320-0368 or drop me an email at calkellogg@fishsniffer. If I get enough response, we’ll set a date and start signing folks up.