The Dog's Story
“The Dog” is a native Los Angelino born in Hollywood, California and
began fishing off the Santa Monica Pier with a green dacron wind on hand
line when he was four years old. He began learning the skills of saltwater
angling aboard “The Gentleman” departing out of Paradise Cove, Malibu and eventually
evolved to the San Diego Landing’s sportfishing fleet. He then progressed
from one day trips on the New Lo Ann to 4 day trips, to 6 day trips, to 8
day trips, to 10 day trips and finally to several 16 day trips aboard the
Qualifier 105, Royal Polaris and Polaris Supreme.
Dog learned his tricks from all the many anglers aboard these sportfishers
and was most influenced by “The Long Ranger” Ralph Mickelsen and Chuck
Miller, DDS. He didn’t really come into the limelight until he purchased a
new 31' Bertram “Fishing Machine” from the Crow’s Nest Michael Gardhella in
1979 and began his private boater offshore saltwater sportfishing adventures
aboard his “American Queen.” He always thought that America should have it’s
Queen like England and what better than Bertram’s legend 31.
American Queen was parked as the first boat at the bottom of the ramp at the
then Kona Kai Club in San Diego, California. This visibility got Steve his
first Presidency amongst fishing clubs with the Kona Kai Anglers in which he
held this position for two years.
In 1982 he, and he alone, founded the San Diego Rod and Reel Club and took
it from ground zero to 500 members. The Club still stands today as one of
San Diego’s premier saltwater sportfishing Clubs and maintains all of
Steve’s creations for structure.
During the 80's Steve was priveledged to be trained by the best offshore
private boaters in San Diego. He enjoyed fishing with Captain Ken Schilling
(Drift-A-Way), Jon Epsten (Belyn and Dos Hermanos), Joe Lops (High Roller),
Captain Ron Costa (Happy Kanake), and Chuck Smith (Sea Trek). Many of these
pros assisted Steve in his many awards in the San Diego Marlin Club plus 10
lifetime buttons and I.G.F.A. award recognitions. Then he purchased his 29
Shamrock Mackinaw in 1989 he named it Bad Dog and began winning tournaments
such as the San Diego Marlin Club’s Labor Day Tournament and the San Diego
Marlin Club’s Small Boat Tournament and winning money in the San Diego Rod
and Reel Club’s $10,000 Big Fish Tournament.
Steve always enjoyed teaching anglers to improve their skills. As an
example, Steve was recognized by the San Diego Marlin Club in 1992 by being
awarded the Thompson-Cottrial Trophy for having his new angler Mike Hein
catch a 215 pound striped marlin on the backside of Catalina Island aboard
Bad Dog and becoming an “active” member in that Club. That fish became the
largest striped marlin caught in Southern California for a 3 year period.
Steve had many awards for the largest marlin of the year from year to year
on different line classes. He has caught a dozen marlin on 8 pound test both
in San Diego and with world record Gil Hernandez in Cabo San Lucas where his
wife Gail caught her first marlin. One marlin caught on 8# test was as an
angler aboard El Pocho with Captain Ken Schilling at the wheel and Barry
Brightenberg as gaffer.
In March of 1993 Steve won “The Largest California Halibut in the World for
1993" by the I.G.F.A. Annual Fishing Contest and in August of the same year
placed third in the world for “The Largest Striped Marlin in the World for
1993" also by the I.G.F.A.
On August 18, 1998 aboard the then Bad Dog in the Kona Kai Marina Steve
married Gail “Kiku” Matsushima and from then on he slipped into the pages of
San Diego saltwater sportfishing history. Proud to be the mentor to the
novice Kiku, he spent all of his time on the water converting this surfer
girl to a larger board.......their Bad Dog that they shared together. She
became an award winning angler recorded in the Yearbooks of the San Diego
Anglers and on their website http://www.gotobaddog.com
The big jump for the two of them came in 1999 when they took their new 30
Mainship Pilot Sedan to the Marina Coral in Ensenada, Mexico and Steve
became known as “The Dog.” They fell in love with Ensenada and began
catching award winning fish. But the one fish that eluded them was a bluefin
tuna. While Tom McInally’s “Wide Open” would catch one right next to them
and other boats would return with a few on board the Mainship Bad Dog was to
be denied a bluefin tuna. They couldn’t even lose one.
1999 held many accomplishments for Steve and Gail. They began meeting many
local Mexicans and becoming friends with everyone almost immediately. One
special person is Juan Lu Cardona-Sepulveda. He is one of the 18 children of
the waterfront famous personality Patron Juan Cardona of Botes Juanitos.
Juan Lu became a constant guest aboard Bad Dog and a part of every
challenging situation they got into including several offshore dives to cut
ropes off of props. He is responsible to keep Bad Dog cosmetically
attractive and provides the diving service. In 2006 he became Bad Dog’s
hired “Marinero” with offshore skills taught by who else.....Bad Dog.
On August 21, 2002 Steve and Gail upgraded their Bad Dog to a new 2002 Luhrs
32 foot Tournament Convertible powered by twin Yanmar 300's. It was with
this boat that they won two high profile Ensenada Tournaments with live TV
coverage and caught their first bluefin tuna.......a San Diego Anglers Club
Record 73 pounder on a 7Strand TCF300. If you’re going to catch one, you
might as well start off on the right foot.
It was January 2006 when Pure Fishing, Inc. contracted Steve “Bad Dog” Ross
as an Elite Captain and sponsored his fishing operations. Steve also began
writing articles on a “How To” platform continuing his quest to school the
novice anglers of the world in The Log’s Fish Rap section as their On Deck
columnist.
It was with great pleasure that on February 8, 2007 Dog’s first article in
the Gringo Gazette was published. This publication speaks to Bad Dog’s most
active audience.
If you are looking for Bad Dog it’s a good bet that you can find him behind
a pesca frito with his favorite waiter Loreto of Las Cazuelas or with a
group of buds frying up today’s catch with Francisco at Bahia de Mariscos
Ensenada. If he’s not eating there, then he’s raising a gin and tonic mug on
his patio with a panoramic view from Ensenada to Punta Banda to the Todos
Santos Islands and the blazing sunset sinking below the Western sky.
Adios amigas and amigos and as Dog says, always remember........”a wet bird
never flys by nite.”