For those of you unfamiliar with drift-fishing, Captain Chuck Louie's Guide To Successful Drift Fishing explains it as "a technique by which boat and fishing lines are carefully moved over productive areas in concert with prevailing tides, current and wind. Engine power is used only to control, correct or repair drift direction and speed, sometimes simultaneously."

When the live bait season opened in April, striped bass were very few in the catches, but everyone was hoping that they would eventually move into the bay waters in force. That is just exactly what happened two weeks prior before an outing I made with Captain Jim Smith aboard the Happy Hooker.

"The bass are in and James and I are scoring good numbers of fish averaging 5 to 7 pounds from the San Rafael Bridge to the Brothers," confirmed Smith the day before our trip.

At 6:00 a.m. 19 anglers and I boarded the Happy Hooker with deckhands J.T. and David and headed out of Berkeley Marina to the cable crossing between the San Rafael Bridge and Brothers Islands.

"We have a good incoming tide that should start the day off with some bass," noted Smith. "This is just one of the spots that we hammered them at yesterday when we had limits of bass and 20 halibut for 20 passengers."

This got the blood pumping for everyone on board as we prepared for the first drift. After two drifts with no fish on the hook, Jim maneuvered the boat in for another drift. "Come on guys, we should have some fish in the box already," encouraged Smith. After the encouraging words from the captain, we did our part and put a few fish in the box.

After a few more drifts, Smith was unsatisfied with the total fish landed and we moved to fish the Brothers, which produced five fish on one drift and a few more on the next trip. As the time was nearing for the tide to change, Smith urged us to "catch fish now, because at slack tide the bite will shut off."

Although each drift produced multiple hook-ups, we were losing more fish than we landed, due to a combination of light rods and light, frayed line. By 11:00 am, we had nearly one fish per rod on the deck, but had lost over a dozen fish and lost loads of gear after getting hung up on rocks.

When the slack tide finally arrived, the bite stopped just as Smith had said. "Everyone pick up your lines, we're going for halibut," said Smith. As we boated over to the China Camp area, he told us to make sure that we had a lively bait on the hook at all times to increase our chances of hooking fish. "We will be fishing in sand, so you won't have to bounce your bait as much," explained Smith.

Following several drifts for halibut, it was evident that this would be a little tough, since we had very few bites and only a handful of halibut on the deck. "Those of you with light gear, make sure to watch your rod because you may not detect the bite," said Smith. A few passes later, we had five halibut in the box and were getting ready to target more bass at the Brothers and the cable crossing.

The cool, windy day proceeded and the 20 anglers managed to land a total 28 striped bass to 13 pounds and 5 halibut to 15 pounds. Richard Andres from Antioch had the hot rod of the day, ending up with two halibut and a limit of stripers. His fishing partner, Arturo Garcia, brought in one bass and one halibut for his efforts. Kim Fernandez and her dad, John, from Winters scored a bass and halibut. Vinny Dau of Rancho Cordova nailed two stripers.

Other successful anglers include Dave Purcell of Paradise, who bagged one striper, and Bob Frisen, Dan Dickey and his daughter, Brook, from Atwater, who took home a total of three bass and one halibut. Davis Goldsberry from Willows took the jackpot striper to round out his limit. Mike Sides and Rob Houston from Willows also checked in with one bass each.