We loaded up on a few bars and shrimp fly rigs and headed down to the boat. Powers showed up a few minutes later to take a head count and check everyone's fishing licenses. We had a total of 20 passengers, a very comfortable load considering the New Sea Angler is 65 feet long. After an extremely thorough explanation of the rockfish rules and regulations, we were on our way.

"We'll be making a forty five minute run to the mouth of the Russian River so we can fill out a half limit or so of black and blue rockfish," explained Powers. "I want everyone to rig up a couple shrimp flies above an 8 ounce sinker."

The reason for this is once anglers start bouncing the bottom with bars for lingcod, they tend to catch a lot of the shelf rockfish that have a daily limit of only two fish. If everyone has a good number of schoolie rockfish in their bags, they have a good chance of finishing out their ten fish rockfish and two fish lingcod limits without catching too many of the shelf rockfish.

We arrived at the mouth of the Russian around 8:00 am and Powers began searching various rock outcroppings for signs of fish. He settled the boat over a shallow rock shelf in 40 feet of water and instructed everyone to hit the bottom and bring it up 10 to 15 feet. It didn't take long for anglers to start hooking fish and we began a steady scratch on a mix of blacks and blues. The only thing holding us back from a wide open bite was conditions were actually too calm and we didn't have any drift. It took close to two hours for everyone to bag a good sack of schoolies and we were off on another forty five minute run north to Timber Cove.

We were now geared up with big bars and ready to tackle some hefty lingcod as Powers positioned the boat over a likely looking spot in 100 feet of water. This is where local knowledge really comes in handy. You don't typically see lingcod on the electronics because they hold tight to the bottom. You just need to know where they live and Powers knows these water like the back of his hand.

We were joined on the bow by Albert DeSousa of American Canyon, Mike Maul from Napa and his father Jerry Maul from Nebraska. Within fifteen minutes of our first stop, all five of us had a keeper lingcod in our sacks along with some impressive rockfish. Once again, not a wide open bite, but our initial stop always produced several quick fish, then Powers would make a short move to compensate for the lack of drift.

Most of the lingcod were in the 7 to 10 pound class topped by a 15 pounder landed by Sue Teifel of Yuba City. Sue was fishing with Matt Cottrell, also from Yuba City and the pair managed full limits of lings and rockfish. In fact, the entire boat easily limited out on both species. It really didn't matter what we threw; swim Baits, bars, shrimp flies and scampi tails were quickly devoured. And to top it off, we had a rare sighting of a giant leatherback turtle on the way home.

This would have been a phenomenal trip by most standards, but to Powers it was just another day typical of most they've been seeing for the last two months. "Like I said, this is the best shallow lingcod bite I have ever seen," said Powers on our way back to the docks. "It just doesn't seem to slow down and things should only improve as we head into October and November."