Deckhands Nicholas Sakata and Brandon Suguitan greeted us as we hopped on the New Huck Finn at around 5:15 am. Captain Jay Yokomizo soon arrived and we were on our way with only six other anglers on board. "We had over 30 halibut for 18 anglers on our last trip, so hopefully we'll find them again today," said Sakata. "The wind is supposed to blow today, so we'll probably drift around Berkeley and Southampton."

A thick layer of fog was blanketing the entire bay as we headed out of the harbor and a stiff breeze was already kicking the water up into a decent chop. As we cleared the entrance to the Emeryville harbor, Jay made an immediate right towards the Berkeley Flats.

Our first stop of the morning would be at the Southampton Light where we began our drift in approximately 12 feet of water. The outgoing tide was close to topping out and we were hoping to find some action before the water movement slowed. It didn't take long before my rod took a sharp dip and I was tied into the first fish of the day. It had the tell tale pull of a halibut, but didn't pull very hard and as I suspected came in about an inch short of the 22 inch minimum.

Jody was next to get in on the action when his G.Loomis flippin' stick began to bounce wildly. He quickly grabbed it out of the rod holder and this time line was stripping off the small reel and heading straight away from the boat. "This one's fighting like a striper," he said as he struggled to control the hard fighting fish. After a few more runs, the fish finally tired out and Brandon gaffed the fish. It was 7 or 8 pounds and gave Jody all the fight he could handle on a bass rod. A few more undersized halibut were landed before we turned around and headed back up for another drift.

About five minutes into the second drift, we hit a small school of stripers when several anglers on the stern hooked up on small schoolies around 3 or 4 pounds. I also had a fish on, but lost it before I could get the rod out of the rod holder. Toward the end of the 20 minute drift, Andy Magnasco hooked into the second halibut of the day, a small keeper around 23 inches. Jody tied into another keeper a couple minutes later and Won Rim hit his first halibut of the day.

By 9:00 am, the tide was just about slack and we had a respectable count of four stripers and four halibut for 8 anglers. Things were quite slow for the next hour or so, but finally began to pick up steam with the movement of the incoming tide. I couldn't believe my eyes when Jody's rod took a sharp dip and he set the hook into his second halibut of the day. He now had two keeper halibut and a striper while I was still waiting for my first fish of the day.

As the afternoon progressed, the bite held steady with several hook-ups coming on every drift. I finally managed to bag a pair of halibut while Jody landed his third of the day making for his first ever limit of halibut. With such a small crowd on the boat, Jay and both deckhands were able to get in on the action as they landed several small halibut.

By 3:00 pm, we called it a day with a respectable total of 16 halibut and 5 striped bass. Andy Magnasco ended up with a pair of halibut and Won Rim managed two halibut and a striped bass. Gene Phillips landed a striped bass and John Bassaglia ended up with a striper and a halibut. Fred Haase landed three halibut, unfortunately they were all shakers, but he did manage to catch a keeper striper. Lawrence Gibson rounded it off with a keeper halibut.

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