Central Coast Fishing: 14-year-old Orcutt resident wins Virg’s Landing lingcod contest

He’s batting 1.000 in a sport he tip-toed into for the first time this year. But after taking his first ocean sport-fishing trip in late July just a few days before his 14th birthday, Cody Glynn is the champion of Virg’s Landing’s third annual John Rowley Biggest Baddest Lingcod Competition.

Glynn cranked up a 19.2-pound lingcod Saturday aboard the Princess in the waters off Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, beating out 35 other contest qualifiers in the climactic event to claim $5,000 in first-place prize money.

“When I began fishing Saturday, I didn’t think I had a chance to place let alone win,” Glynn said in a Monday phone interview. “A number of people on the boat had qualified with bigger fish than mine.”

Thirteen contestants made the contest with heavier qualifying fish, to be exact. It mattered not, the object was to qualify. The entire field started the fish-off all even.

Glynn came to this point back in July when he boarded the Fiesta out of Virg’s in Morro Bay, unaware that there was a competition in progress. Glynn made a significant hook-up with a 19.9-pound lingcod that morning.

Several days later, he received a phone call from Virg’s manager Bruce Harwood telling him that he had the heaviest lingcod caught during Week 17 and it qualified him for the Dec. 10 fish-off.

Flash forward to skipper Sergio Bermudez piloting all 36 qualifiers to the waters off Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. At stake was $10,000 in prize money divided into a trio of purses.

It was foggy, but fishing conditions were excellent: 4- to 6-foot swells at 13-second intervals with 5-knot winds.

Glynn, a freshman at Righetti High School, was eager to talk about how he earned $5,000.

“I was prepared,” he said. “I went to Been There, Caught That store in Santa Maria, where I bought a glow-in-the-dark jig. It worked for the only lingcod I caught.”

Glynn, who stands 5-foot-4 and weighs a mere 150 pounds, could not have imagined how the tournament would play out.

He was up against an eclectic group of anglers, some four or five decades older who are accustomed to cranking up large fish from the depths of the ocean.

“On my first drop, I caught a rock cod. My new lure worked on my second attempt. … And then I had to wait a long time until the fishing was over.”

Bakersfield’s Dennis Turner, who will celebrate his 50th birthday on New Year’s Eve, claimed second place with the catch of a 15.2 ling.

No doubt he used one of his homemade jigs. He’s been pouring Jaw Breaker Jigs for 35 years and selling them to clients in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

He advised that the bite slowed down dramatically after 11 a.m.

Lompoc’s Robert Aguiniga placed third with a 14.1-pound ling that paid $2,000.

This story was originally published December 15, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Central Coast Fishing: 14-year-old Orcutt resident wins Virg’s Landing lingcod contest."