VOL. 36 • ISS. 26

Happy Hooker from the bow it was plain to see that Gabe was hooked up with something big. His rod was doubled over and the deckhand was standing next to him with the gaff at the ready.

In such a situation, with lines and other anglers all around and the boat pitching and rolling a bit, a lot of anglers would get rattled. They might start pumping the rod, thumb the spool or try tightening the drag mid-fight in an attempt to get the big fish into the boat before it can escape. Any one of these things can be the kiss of death when fighting a big fish from a charter boat, but this wasn’ t Gabe’ s first rodeo …

Gabe kept his composure, ground away on the reel handle and good things happened. Presently a huge lingcod came to the surface, the gaff flashed down and the next thing I saw was an absolute monster ling with a head that looked as big as a basketball being dragged across the surface and over the rail.

As anybody that reads the Fish Sniffer knows, I’ m a big lingcod junky and as such it takes an impressive ling to catch my attention. Gabe’ s fish was so massive that I’ d grabbed my camera and was headed to the back of the boat before you could say,“ Photo Op”!

When I came out of the cabin and saw the lingcod up close, it didn’ t suffer from“ deck shrinkage” one bit. Gabe had hit the lingcod lotto and successfully pulled a 30 plus pound California ling out of the depths near the Farallon Islands. Lings of this size are exceedingly rare. To illustrate this point, I’ ve spent thousands of hours over the past 30 plus years targeting Golden State lingcod. I’ ve nailed a lot of fish over 20, but only one that topped 30 … Congratulations Gabe! But the monster fish show wasn’ t over just yet.

A while later I noticed that a lady angler named Cori was hooked up a couple spots up the rail from where Gabe had landed his big fish. Cori was using a fairly light rod and it was super bent. As a result I had no

idea how big the fish she was trading punches with might be, but the fact that she was having a tough time gaining any line with the reel was an indication that she too might be into a fish of epic proportions.

Glancing around, I noted that both deckhands were busy. Awesome, I love gaffing fish!

I grabbed a gaff and chatted with Cori as she cranked away. When I saw the mouth of a huge lingcod materialize about 15 feet down in the water I actually got nervous. It was clearly a trophy size fish and the last thing I wanted to do was screw up and knock it off the hook!

I went through a short mental checklist as the fish seemed to get bigger and bigger. When the ling was just below the surface, Cori led him toward me, causing the fish to lay out perfectly and I drove the gaff home right behind the head. When I lifted the fish aboard, I knew it weighed over 25 pounds. Later on, the balance beam proved it was just a little smaller than the lunker Gabe landed.

The big fish I just described being landed only represent the tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of the sights and sounds I took in while hosting a pair of crab and rockfish combo trips aboard the Happy Hooker with Captains Chris and Jonathan Smith on November 16 and 17.

I didn’ t fish on either trip, opting to spend my time shooting video and laughing with the Fish Sniffer readers that turned out to spend some quality time on the water.

In all more than 60 anglers joined me over the two days of fishing. Lingcod were plentiful. We got 25

Dec. 8- 22, 2017

Farallon Island lingcod and rockfish were plentiful aboard the Happy Hooker on November 17. This skillful angler used an Ahi Assault Diamond Jig to tempt this dandy ling.

Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff.

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Harrison Liu, deck hand Ryan Ash and a couple other anglers show off a few of the crabs that they rounded up on November 17 while fishing aboard Berkeley’ s Happy Hooker during Cal Kellogg’ s last School Of Fishing Event for 2017.

Photo courtesy of JONATHAN SMITH, Happy Hooker Sportfishing.

lings to 30 plus pounds on day one and 32 lings to about 17 pounds on day two. And of course, there were rockfish. I saw lots of olives and blues, plus a colorful parade of hardheads including vermilions, coppers and one big spiny widow that looked to weight upwards of 5 pounds.

What was the most effective presentation over the two days? Well you could pretty much pick your poison. I witnessed big numbers of quality rockfish and a few lings landed on the old reliable shrimp fly and squid strip combo. Jiggers tossing both Ahi Assault and P-Line Diamond Bars rounded up solid numbers of lingcod and some impressive rocks including that big widow I just mentioned.

Of course, the best offering for lingcod overall was a trap rig teamed with a frozen mackerel and a hefty sinker. Trap rigs aren’ t as sexy as diamond bars, but you can round up big numbers of lings on that nasty frozen bait! Both Cori’ s and Gabe’ s big fish came on mackerel, although I personally gaffed a pair of fish in the 15 pound class that

oastal Conservation Association of California and Bill Varney announced this week that the 2018 CCA CAL Sport- Fishing Tide Calendar is now available at tackle stores, landings and all Turner’ s Outdoorsman stores.

This year’ s calendar has more than just great pictures, important dates and tide charts— it has prizes too!

CCA of CA will be holding a monthly drawing with prizes from sponsors including AFTCO, Accurate, Sumo Tackle, HookUp Baits, Costa, Promar, Dana couldn’ t lay off 14 ounce Ahi jigs.

And then there were the crabs, those disgusting, aggressive, scavengers that taste O-So-Wonderful! We rounded up full limits of huge commercial grade crabs both days. In fact, I’ ve eaten little else for the past two days. Crab and French bread, crab and eggs and crab sandwiches have all been on the menu at“ Compound Kellogg”!

I could go on for thousands of words about the fishing, fun and laughs we experienced, but I can’ t because Gena wants me to grill up another of my trademark crab sandwiches. Suffice to say that the crew of the Happy Hooker is one of the best in the business, the late fall bottomfish action is fantastic and when you toss in a limit of 10 Dungeness crabs you just can’ t go wrong.

If you would like to jump aboard the Happy Hooker and top off the freezer for the cold winter months ahead, give Chris and Jonathan a call at( 510) 322-0493 or( 510) 223-5388.

Wharf Sportfishing, The Fred Hall Shows and more.

Each calendar is marked with a special entry number. Winners will be announced the third Saturday of each month on“ Let’ s Talk Hook Up”, radio 1090am.

Stop by your local tackle dealer and pick up a copy for a chance to win. Sales of the calendar help support the many important projects of CCA of California. Dealer inquiries welcome at fishthesurf @ mail. com