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Things might be slowing down on the fishing frontier, but that didn’t discourage anglers from participating in two recent fishing tournaments out of Santa Cruz. Both the “Who’s Your Daddy Lingcod Tournament” and the “Grandfathers Day Kayak Tournament” drew decent crowds and raised money for the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project.
Sept. 20 marked the annual kayak fishing tournament out of the Kayak Connections shop in the Santa Cruz Harbor. At 7 a.m., fishermen gathered at the launch ramp in anticipation of who would win the prize, a brand new kayak.
I entered the tournament and prepared for my first day of fishing. Having spent little or no time ever on a kayak and realizing how far I was planning on paddling out to sea in search of a big fish, I had my doubts.
Allen Bushnell, my fishing partner and kayak fishing mentor, set me up on his craft and gave me some last-minute advice. I made the shaky paddle out to the lighthouse and started to feel more comfortable. I caught one lingcod that was just shy of the legal mark. I had a fun, safe day and will be trying the sport again.
The winner of the event was Tom Teaford, who landed a 4-pound, 8-ounce lingcod.
Sunday’s event was the sixth annual “Who’s Your Daddy Lingcod Tournament.” This event drew a crowd of 125 people on six different charter boats, all or which headed up to Franklin Point and Pigeon Point to spend the day in search of giant lingcod.
With the help of live sardines for bait, donated by Bocci Boy Bait, the scores were good and large lings taken.
First place went to Darryl Davis with his 20-pound lingcod. Dennis Zack took top honors for the non-lingcod big fish category with a 32-pound halibut.
The contestants had a great time, and the event raised close to $3,000 for the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project.
Local ocean fishing remains fair with rockfish and — if you couldn’t tell by the tournaments — lingcod at the top of the charts. A few halibut have been taken, and the mysterious albacore have actually been caught as close as 50 miles out of Santa Cruz.
Mike Baxter has fished in the Monterey Bay Area since he was a boy and has been a licensed charter boat captain for more than 15 years. He can be reached at
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