Ian Will-Orrego, 21 years a commercial fisherman
Ian Will-Orrego. 21 years a commercial hook and line fisherman, on his boat the Grey Light. Emeryville, California. 31 August, 2026
… the water was 62 degrees where we're fishing today. Normally we would see it in the high 50s, so it's a couple degrees warmer than my liking. I believe that's why we're not getting as many big keeper fish here.
I mean, less fish means less money. Less money means less food in the fridge, less opportunity to go out to dinner, to buy new clothes, or buy new paint to repair the boat. If you're not catching, you're not making.
I'm a commercial fisherman, a hook and line fisherman.
(I grew up) pretty close to here. I just gravitated towards (fishing). The idea of being free. Not having a set schedule, or set time you had to be anywhere, just kind of coming and going as you please sounded very appealing to me.
I got my commercial license when I was 15 years old. I’m 36, so I guess that would be 21 years. I did have a couple other gigs from time to time, but I always found my way back here.
Without a doubt we are connected to the sea. (As someone who) survives, sustains oneself by harvesting the animals underneath my feet you, one hundred percent, have a bond with it that you won't find anywhere above the surface. That's for sure.
The ocean, it’s an incredibly abundant, beautiful place. But you must also proceed with caution. The ocean, at any moment, can take life just as easily as it provides. So you have to be very, very careful in the ocean. Always.
..
The majority of the boats we saw out on the fishing grounds today were just one guy, on one boat, with one rod and reel. That's how we catch them. We troll.
You can see the leader* here. There's a dozen skirts** spread out on a long line. You troll this around, hold this in your hand with the heavy lead ball, and drag it around waiting for halibut to bite it.
That method has been perfected here in San Francisco, and it's exclusive to San Francisco. It's been maybe 50 or 60 years in the making.
It’s called wire lining, and that's what we do. If you look at the reel, there's actually wire on the reel. It's not the plasticky monofilament fishing line. This is a wire cable, and the idea is that there's no stretch at all. So, if a fish were to bite any of the hooks, doesn't matter if it's the first or the last, you're going to really feel a severe strike on the end of the rod. And you're going to catch them. You're going to hook them.
..
Today we did capture a white sea bass, kind of a rare bycatch, but primarily we catch halibut, California halibut.
We're seeing different trends with water temperatures, wind directions. There's a lot of smaller fish in our area right now. Our big run of halibut that we've had here for seven, eight years consecutively, did not arrive here this year.
Temperature thing? Cyclical thing? We're really not sure, but the water was 62 degrees where we're fishing today. Normally we would see it in the high 50s, so it's a couple degrees warmer than my liking. And I believe that's why we're not getting as many big keeper fish here.
I mean less fish means less money. Less money means less food in the fridge, less opportunity to go out to dinner. Less to buy new clothes, or buy new paint to repair the boat. If you're not catching, you're not making.
So last week this boat was fishing in a different harbor, we were fishing 35 miles away from here because we had heard reports and we had to strike while the iron was hot. We absolutely capitalized, and had some of the best fishing this boat's ever seen - 63 halibut - and the boat carried more than a thousand pounds of fish home.
..
A typical day start to finish, you'd get down (to the dock) maybe at seven or eight in the morning. You'd fish until six or seven, and then you'd have to run back across the bay.
Come back here, and hopefully you're tied up before 8 p.m.
Then you're going to be loading fish and ice into coolers, and washing the boat down. You have to flush the engine, wash all the fishing gear off. You might be lucky enough to get back in your home by nine o'clock at night.
I feel fortunate to have such a supportive family, friend group, my crew, and girlfriend. Without them, none of this would be possible. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes to make this work. I feel extremely lucky.
..
Our schedule is weather dependent, so it's really hard to make fixed plans around something that is quite alive and wild, like the wind, the tide, and the swell.
Weather, it definitely affects whether we go out. And it greatly affects the fishability of the boat. There's many times that you will go to an area and you are absolutely at the right spot, but the weather will make your drift too fast. It'll really hinder your trolling effectiveness. The boat jumping up and down, slamming really hard, the gear doesn't track straight and you just don’t catch them the same.
There was a really, really strong outgoing (tide). If you look at the rocks now, you can already see the moss on the top of the rocks here on shore. And the tide is just racing out of the bay - maybe three or four miles an hour - a really fast, quick, quick tide.
Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, the water is just pouring out, and the fish don't care for that. They don't like it. I believe they just stay where they are, but they don't feed.
..
Yeah, the superstitions, there's several things. You’re not really supposed to leave port on a Friday if you're going to do a multiple-day trip. That's usually kind of frowned upon.
Bringing bananas is not the best. I know some folks are really into not shaving the day before a fishing trip, or the day of a fishing trip.
I shaved this morning, just cleaned up a little bit, no big deal.
You can get as far into it as you care, but it doesn't affect me too much. But definitely I have lucky tackle. Oh, yeah, definitely have stuff that I believe is tried and true, and you can't argue with results.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda, something your whole life, but you look down underneath your feet and you see a fish with a hook in his mouth, that is indisputable. That's called reality.
..
(Do I eat fish!) Absolutely, almost every day. I'm really, really partial to the tail fillet of a king salmon. On a smoking hot cast iron pan, avocado oil, I’ll just flash that thin side of the salmon. I don't even think one minute per side so the inside is still very, very pink, and the outside has a crisp glaze to it. I really deeply enjoy that part of a salmon.
..
We’re extremely social within our circles, but to outsiders and non seafaring people, I would probably say no. We stick to ourselves, and only kind of associate with folks that accept the lifestyle and who we are.
Commercial fisherman are fiercely competitive. It's not uncommon for guys to catch fish and then tell others that they're not really catching. So, a guy could be having a good day catching a bunch and he jumps on the radio and tells the group, “Oh, yeah, it's one here, one there. Nothing crazy over here”, just to keep the other guys away from his zone.
A term we like to use for that is sandbagging.
..
If my father was a commercial fisherman - he definitely wasn’t - but if he was I'd be extremely proud of him. My father was a sports fisherman. He took me to the docks down here when I was maybe eight or ten years old, and ever since then it was off to the races.
That's what started this whole dream and idea for me - just right down here, you know, several hundred yards from where we are now. So, yeah, 100% fishermen are prideful.
I would only want (commercial fishing) for (my daughter) if she wanted it. It wouldn't be something that would ever be forced.
It's something that if that's who you're going to be, it's going to catch you, you got no control over it.
..
You know, fishermen are your neighbors too. Anytime you buy seafood, let's make sure we're buying stuff that is from a locally sourced person, or place where it is guaranteed to be sustainable. Guaranteed hook and line. Guaranteed caught the right way.
When we're spending good money to buy a good product, we're supporting our neighbors right next to you.
There's a lot of fish, farm raised fish, terrible for you. There's a lot of stuff that, you know, we don't label properly. People think they're getting a hook and line caught halibut, but they're really not. It comes out of a trawl net. And that fish tastes fishy and gross because it comes in the boat dead. All the blood is, the blood never left the animal. It was drug around in a net for hours back there. And it's not the same halibut.
I promise you if you ever want to do a side by side comparison, I'll gladly volunteer up a few pieces of fish to make that happen. Show you guys the difference.
..
Ian Will-Orrego, commercial hook and line fisherman
..
Photo: Robert Gumpert
*A leader is an extra piece of line added to the end of the main line coming off your fishing reel. It may or may not be made of the same material as the line on the reel’s spool, but is almost always of a different strength and texture. A leader serves three basic purposes, though not always all three at the same time. First and foremost, it provides extra abrasion resistance to the part of your line that’s subjected to the most wear and tear. Second, a leader can be of a different stiffness from the main line to help properly present a bait or lure, such as in fly fishing. Lastly, some leader materials offer low visibility, which can be helpful when angling for wary fish in clear water. (From The Fisherman)
**The skirt is a flexible material, often made of silicone or rubber, that surrounds the hook of the lure. It extends from the head of the lure, creating a skirt-like appearance. Skirts are designed to provide a lifelike and enticing look to the lure, with the strands of the skirt offering movement and action in the water. (From Captain Experiences)