Saturday - June 19, 2010

Coastside Fishing Club OPM Halibut Derby

My crew for the derby was Don Harrell, Chris West, Dan Banuelos, Ralph Mendez, Jacob Rodriguez (12 years old) and fellow Coastsider, el jefe chingon (Gerry Del Campo).

We started the morning getting some medium large bait from Pier 45 and headed to Alcatraz where Jacob nailed the first halibut on the Osprey for the day at 8.5 lbs � this put him in the running for the kids division of the derby. We made a couple more drifts for no hits. We went to the next spot by Angel Island for a couple of drifts for no fish. The next spot we went to was the South Side of Red Rock. First we had a short flurry of smooth hound shark action with Ralph, Jake and I all landing several small sharks that kept the adrenaline going and everyone awake. Finally, Chris hooks into and lands a nice 28 inch butt. This was followed by Ralph hooking into another nice striper around 8.5lbs. The crew then got into a slow but steady pick of 7 to 10 lb halibut. I decided to take my grandson Jacob up to the bow to fish. It didn�t take him long to hook up again on another halibut and then another. Since the crew was now in a groove, I threw my own line in along with my grandson on the bow of the boat. No sooner than I dropped an anchovy into the water and BAM!! Fish on!! After a nice fight, I ended up gaffing a beautiful 17.5 lbs halibut.  We ended the day with 7 halibut and 2 stripers at 1:30pm so we could go weigh in our fish at the derby. I think the closer we got to Oyster Point, the harder the wind blew. We got to the weigh in spot in plenty of time to spare. Jacob weighed in his halibut and took 4^th place and won a rod and reel. He was a most happy kid. I weighed in my halibut and took 1^st place.  The whole Osprey crew shares the prize and gets a free trip.

Once again, everyone from Coastside from the event organizers to the grill crew to all the club members involved in the tournament made the event first class!