Brendan Walsh was already missing fishing, knowing trips out from Albion River Harbor on the Mendocino Coast would be unlikely once winter storms hit. A house painter by trade, the 26-year-old had asked his parents, Deirdre Lamb and Will Walsh, if he could have one of his Christmas presents early. He hoped he might get in one last angling adventure before January hit, and he knew his present would come in handy.
Last Tuesday, he and his dad went to pull their boat, the Betty, up for the week. “We can only pull it when there’s a lot of water,” Walsh explained. “Our home port is Albion, and the Betty is my dad’s sports boat. We converted a lake boat into an ocean boat, but we can only go out when it’s flat, weather permitting.”
When the two got to the harbor Tuesday morning, although it was raining, the ocean was calm, and Walsh convinced his dad to head out just for an hour or so. “I figured this was the last time for a while,” he said. He also wanted to try out the new pre-Christmas jig he had convinced his parents to give him early. Jigs are metal hooks with a weighted head that bob and weave in the water.
His father agreed they could take one last spin, but only for an hour. “And sure enough,” Walsh said, “just right off Albion, I caught the record.”
The California record for a canary rockfish is held by Cally Coombs, innkeeper at the Little River Inn, who reeled in a 9-pound rockfish in November 2024 that beat the state angling record by a full pound and 2 ounces. Walsh’s catch beats that by another pound and 4 ounces, but he won’t know for sure until the state sends back a letter of acknowledgement.
“I’m confident of the state record,” Walsh said. He filled out forms with a California Department of Fish and Wildlife officer and sent them by certified mail, where the catch will be verified and listed in the CDFW’s Fishing and Diving Records database.
Walsh then looked up the world record — 10 pounds even, set in 1986 and certified by the International Game Fish Association. “I applied for that too,” he said. “Mine is 4 ounces bigger, so I may even have that.”
Walsh took lots of photos and wants a recreation of his prize-winning fish to mount on his wall. His family, including Deirdre Lamb, father Will and grandfather Bill, who lives in Little River, are all ecstatic about what Walsh now calls his “Christmas fish.”