Captain Virginia Salvador: From Catching Peacock Bass to Targeting Halibut and Sturgeon
SAN FRANCISCO – Virginia Salvador of Vacaville took a well-deserved break from her full-time job as a laboratory scientist and weekend occupation as a charter boat captain on San Francisco Bay out of Fisherman’s Wharf to pursue the vibrantly-colored peacock bass in Florida.
Salvador attended the ICAST sportfishing trade show in Orlando from July 10 to July 14 as a representative for Old Town Kayaks — and went fishing with Captain Bill Lepree of South Florida Bass Charters for the introduced tropical fish species in Lake Worth, Florida.
“It was an epic half-day trip,” said Salvador. “My friend, Kanani Wong, and I caught and released 20 plus peacock bass. The fish ranged from 1 to 5 pounds. Wong caught the biggest fish, a 5-pounder, while using live shad.”
“These bass are incredible fighters,” she said. “They are way more aggressive than smallmouth bass, but are very similar in how they shake their heads when you battle them. You can tell right away that you have hooked a peacock by the way they shake their heads.”
Salvador has fished for peacock bass with Lepree since 2017. On the latest trip, Salvador also hooked and released an African cichlid while Kanani landed a clown knifefish, another exotic species.
“I have fished the canals and lakes of Florida for these fish,” she added. “The South Florida waters are flooded with the peacocks.”
The peacock bass (or Brazilian tucunaré) is a genus of large cichlids, predatory freshwater fish native to the Amazon, Orinoco basins, and Guianas rivers in tropical South America. The fish (also called butterfly peacock) was introduced to South Florida from the Amazon Basin in Brazil and Peru in 1984, according to Bassonline.com.
“The peacock bass is readily caught by shoreline and boat anglers using various tackle and bait, ranging from live shiners to artificial lures and flies. Peacock bass in South Florida prefer live fish and fish imitating baits often used by largemouth bass anglers, but they rarely hit plastic worms commonly used to catch largemouths,” the website states.
The butterfly peacock fishery, now self-sustaining, extends through 330 miles of canals in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
Salvador has been fishing with her family all her life and has been a licensed charter boat captain since 2019. Salvador started Gatecrasher Fishing Adventures in 2017 with Zack Medinas, her business partner. Her favorite two fish to target are Chinook salmon and sturgeon.
The closure of salmon season has been tough on the business of her and other captains. “Salmon make up maybe half to two-thirds of the fish we target in the summer out of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco,” she said. “This year we are fishing for halibut and striped bass on San Francisco Bay and plan to do rockfish trips on the ocean soon.”
During the fall and winter months, Salvador and Medinas book catch-and-release trips for white sturgeon out of Pittsburg Harbor.
“The salmon closure has significantly impacted our business and those of other captains,” she stated. “However, halibut and stripers provide lots of action in the meantime. They are fun to fish for and people don’t get bored. People still experience great fishing with a lot of action-packed days. People may be not getting salmon, but they are still able to put quality fish in the freezer.”
Salvador noted that Medinas and herself piloted the sturgeon PIT tag program in Northern California, the first of its kind in the state. This tagging method, used to conduct scientific research of sturgeon populations, is used widely in Washington and British Columbia. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife( CDFW) is currently evaluating white sturgeon regulations to preserve these iconic fish into the future.
“You don’t need to be a scientist to know that sturgeon are in trouble,” she emphasized. “These fish are our business partners. It is in our best interest to protect our business partners in the future viability of our fishery. Our hope is we will still be able to fish for sturgeon for generations to come,” she said.
At this time, Salvador and Medinas are concentrating on live bait fishing for halibut and striped bass and are looking forward to going rockfishing outside of the Golden Gate, now that rockfish and lingcod fishing is open at all depths in the San Francisco Management Area.
On their latest trip on Sunday, July 16, the 5 anglers fishing with Gatecrasher Fishing Adventures caught 4 halibut to 20 pounds and limits of striped bass to 12 pounds, according to Salvador.
The anglers were drifting live anchovies at the Berkeley Flats and Southampton Shoal in San Francisco Bay. The halibut fishing is expected to rebound with the arrival of smaller tides in the bay.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Captain Virginia Salvador: From Catching Peacock Bass to Targeting Halibut and Sturgeon
