I have been interested in fishing for my entire life. Like most of the fishermen I know my family played a key role in encouraging and inspiring my love of fishing, nature, and the outdoors from a very young age. Some of my earliest memories are of time spent fishing and camping with my grandpa.
My grandfather taught me to respect nature and to appreciate the unique gifts it offers while we spent countless hours of my childhood fishing together. Those are definitely some of my most cherished memories.
Eventually our paths diverged. My grandfather’s interest was mostly in catching his dinner and I had started to become fixated on catching big fish.
Shortly before my teens I started fishing often at Laguna Niguel Lake. At the time, 2000-2005, this lake offered some of the best largemouth bass fishing in Southern California with multiple bass over 10lbs known to inhabit the lake. After catching a few very large bass between 4 and 6 pounds on almost every outing is it any surprise that I was hooked on the big fish experience from then on? That doesn’t mean I stopped fishing with my grandpa though!
As I grew and matured I was old enough to go on the deep sea fishing party boats when out of school for summer both with my dad and alone. What an incredible experience that was which eventually culminated in me working as a deckhand (after a short time as a pinhead) for a couple summers when I was feeling well enough. This definitely helped keep my fishing obsession satisfied for a while but it would all be turned on its head soon…
The family vacation to Alaska in 2006 is one that I will truly never forget. I have never caught so many big fish in such a short time and I suspect I may never have that experience ever again. Almost all the fish I caught on that trip were over 10lbs. The salmon were in full run and were biting bright colored spoons in the rivers and in the ocean. When my dad and I went fishing on the boats the salmon we caught were all over 15lbs.
Finally we went deep sea fishing on a charter boat out of Seward, Alaska. The crew told us the target species for that day were halibut, lingcod, and yelloweye rockfish. After catching my limit of lings and rockfish I was taking a break from fishing and watching the action. While the captain was helping someone with a fish he handed off his brand new custom rod and Shimano Calcutta jigging setup to me. After about 5 twitches of the rod a tense battle began between me and a giant fish 400 feet below us!
The captain was stressed out by this teenager having a huge fish on his very expensive setup but kept his cool and let me fight the fish myself.
After they gaffed and landed the fish it absolutely beat us all up on deck! My ankle hurt for a week after but it was all worth it. The captain admitted after that he didn’t think it was such a big fish until it was right at the boat and he could see it or he would have been ready to shoot it before bringing it on board.
That 82lb halibut is still my biggest fish to this day! On that trip the lingcod were all over 36inches and 25lbs, and the yelloweye rockfish caught were all over 15lbs! A once in a lifetime experience for me and my dad.
After returning from that trip the fish in California sort of lost their shine. Life and health issues then got in the way and I did not do much fishing at all for the next 15years or more…but it was always something I told myself I would get back to someday.
In 2024 I made a return to fishing caught a beautiful legal sized calico bass on my very first outing to the surf in more than a decade. To say that I was glad I still had my knack for fishing would be quite an understatement!
I stacked up some other decent fish from the surf during 2024 including a 22.5″ corbina, multiple 14″ (or larger) barred surf perch, a 23″ striped bass, some short white sea bass, a 23.5″ halibut, and 32 calico bass!
I also started to design and make my own lures in 2024 and began exploring applying my design, 3D modeling, and machining skills to making some of my own fishing gear. You can read about that in other posts on this blog.
So far 2025 has been an awesome year with a 31″ striped bass, a 20″ calico bass, a 22″ calico bass, and some huge fish that got away… Lets take a look at a couple highlights of my year instead of dwelling on the subject of lost fish!
Hopefully there are many more lunkers out there just waiting to be caught in the future as I perfect these bait designs!
