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Pot Luck Flatties for Golden Eye 2000

By BILL MAYS
WON Field Reporter

Berkley - Standing on the starboard side of the sport fishing boat Golden Eye 2000, in a controlled drift across the Berkley Flats, I was watching the light gray fog lift and the thousands of people heading for work across the Bay Bridge. I was thankful my job for the day would be how many halibut could I catch and thankful that I wasn’t in one of the cars on the bay bridge. When you see how beautiful and dynamic the city looks at first light from the water, you forget all about getting up at 2:00 am to make the travel form Sacramento to the Berkley Marina, (Ah life is good).

We hadn’t been drifting for 5 minutes with live bait when we heard a cry out from the port side of the boat, "fish on", and all 3 deckhands including captain Quang Vo were running with nets in their hands. John Barron, from San Pablo had landed the first fish of the day, a nice 8 to 10 pound halibut.
POT LUCK - trip pays off for Golden Eye 2000 anglers as every one displays their catch for the day. High winds prevented the anglers to fish outside the Golden Gate, but bay fishing is still producing quality Halibut. Photo by Bill Mays.

Captain Quang Vo, "said we had an incoming tide which makes for good fishing in the Berkley Flats area." As the boat kept drifting over the flats with different pin pointed areas mapped out with the electronic coordinates from previous trips, the fisherman in the bow seemed to be catching all the fish. Dennis Carigton and John Robinson both from Modesto had 2 keeper Flatties apiece. I tried to talk my friend Gary Silva into fishing the bow when we first boarding the boat, but he gets a little sea sick at times when fishing the bow, so we didn’t want that ugly seen. Of coarse I had to remind him we could be the ones with 2 halibut in the fish locker had we not chose to have fished starboard.

It wasn’t long and my bow theory faded away as everyone started catching fish from every station on the boat. It was about 8:00am when my other friend, "Big Al" Azel from Orangevale, landed the first fish in our group. It was a 10-pound halibut that put up quite a fight. Al wanted to go salmon fishing instead of drifting for halibut, but the high wind and small craft weather warnings prevented us from getting outside the Golden Gate. After a good fight and knowing how good a halibut can taste on the bar-b-q grill, Al settled in with the halibut fishing.

I landed my fish at 10:15 am; it was the 10th halibut caught on the morning. I was busy interviewing Vo in the cabin when Gary Siva started yelling, Bill fish on, come get your rod. I was lucky enough the halibut was still on the hook, the fish had swallowed the hook and I was able to land the fish.

Our second fishing spot for the day was near Angel Island, a favorite fishing spot for the live bait party boaters looking for the bigger halibut. With the right tide, an outgoing tide, it’s not uncommon to catch halibut up to 30 pounds. The water was much deeper and current much faster than the Berkley flats. We kept drifting over the sand flat, continuing to catch halibut with a few stripers in between. One of the stripers weight 15 pounds, but we were looking for the "barn door" halibut, the one over 20 pounds.



THE BIG FLATTIE - was caught by John Barron from Richmond aboard the Golden Eye 2000 near Angel Island. Many quality halibut are caught in the Angel Island on the out going tide. Photo by Bill Mays.
It was getting late in the day around 3:00 pm, and then it came, "fish on" cried Don Barron, Don caught the first fish of the day and by the way the fish ran line out and under the boat, he was going to land the "big fish pot." When we finally got a look at the "big barn door," it floated up like it was in slow motion, and it made its grand presence. With one scoop the deck hand had the huge fish in the net and could barely pull the 30-pound halibut over the rail. Then came the "Yea" as every one yelled and celebrated the catch.

Angle Island gave up at least one more big fish, and held up its reputation as the "big fish spot."

Barron’s boss Archie Held, a sculptress from Richmond, paid for his trip and 14 other employees as well as his 2 young sons. Not only did Barron not have to pay for the trip, he won the "big fish pool." What a great way to show your appreciation for your employees.

We fished for about another hour picking up a couple of fish and headed in about 4:00pm. Every time I’ve fished with Captain Vo, he’s always been the last boat to head in. The Golden Eye 2000 with its catamaran style hull is a very fast and smooth ridding boat, so you get the extra fishing time.

Captain Vo said, " When the wind has died down and the boats have been able to get outside the Golden Gate, the salmon fishing has been wide open." Some of the bigger schools are running in the 19-pound range. If it’s too windy to get out, the halibut are still a good bet. Our boat for the day ended up with, 26 anglers, with 24 fish, 20 halibut and 4 stripers. If you would like to book a trip with the Golden Eye 2000, call, (510-618-0888) or (510-548-7138)