<i> ‘Fishing here is relaxing. It’s good therapy. The best.’ </i> : Barge Anglers Hunt Grandpa Halibut

The halibut weren’t biting, but that didn’t stop Cosette Nieto from dropping two fishing lines into a well of the Annie B. barge.

Nieto, unofficial halibut queen of the Annie B., moored just inside the breakwater off Terminal Island, watched as the 15-pound test line on one of her poles bobbed slightly.

“That’s a halibut nibbling. He’s teasing me,” the 43-year-old Downey resident said. Last month she hooked 32 of the tasty fish. But today about the only things biting were the less tasty mackerel and the fishy smell that all barges suffer from.

In the distance of San Pedro Harbor, skipper George Edwards of Wilmington guided the shuttle boat Billy V. on its 20-minute ride to the barge on one of several passenger runs.

“A good day here is maybe 70 people during mid-week,” Edwards said. “It’s difficult to predict which day will be a good one anyway.”

Nieto had been on the barge since 5:30 a.m., long before the stubborn overcast melted into a powder-blue sky. She, like many of the people Edwards brings from the mainland, says barge fishing offers more than just a chance to put food on the table. They say they share a special life.

“Fishing here is relaxing,” said Bill Culp, a retired tile setter from San Pedro, whose line was set up near Nieto. “It’s good therapy. The best.”

Bonito, mackerel, halibut and an occasional barracuda bite here, just as they do off sportfishing boats trolling outside the breakwater. The big difference in barge fishing, says Annie B. co-owner Paul Berube, is the types of sports fishermen each attracts.

“The guys on the barge are not die-hard fisherman as they are on the boats,” he said. “On the boats they are there to fill the freezer and (catch a prize-winning fish). You get one kid on a boat who lands a big barracuda and he tangles up 50 lines. On the barge, if you get a tangle it’s no big problem.”

The ethnic makeup of barge fishermen has also changed in the past 20 years, according to Edwards.

“We’re seeing more Orientals and Mexicans,” he said.

The change in racial balance on barges has also changed the way most people fish, he said. At a cost of $13 a day, many minority fishermen hope to catch enough to feed their families.

The line of Nieto’s pole bobbed a little more. She eyed it carefully. Maybe this time the nibbler was Grandpa, the 40-pound halibut many say they have seen on a hook but never brought to gaff. Nieto predicted that, someday, she will hook Grandpa for good.

The product of a “very poor family,” she began fishing when she was 5 in Port Hueneme, using string and a bent safety pin.

“It was a matter of survival,” she said. “When you are hungry, you learn how to fish.”

Seconds later she yanked the pole out of the water in trademark fashion that has produced whoppers. The motion is designed to make fish deep in the murky water lunge for live anchovy on the hook. This time the halibut stole the bait.

In fact, few halibut were caught, none reaching the minimum 22 inches required by the state Department of Fish and Game. Smaller catches must be returned to the sea.

“A dog day” for fishing, said barge master John DeMong, a 25-year veteran.

Until March the Annie B. had been moored off Seal Beach. Berube and Bill Verna, who has the only live bait concession in the harbor, brought the barge to its present location because the water is more calm. The Annie B., named after Berube’s wife Annette, is moored by two buoys over a pile of rocks. Fishing is allowed over the side, or in a pair of wells in the center of a deck divided by a galley. The Annie B. has quarters for a night watchman on a deck above the galley.

DeMong opens the barge at about 5:30 a.m. with South Gate galley hands Francis Stewart and Ray DaForno. DaForno once brought Grandpa to the surface, only to loose him. When the galley gets slow here, Stewart and DaForno drop lines near the galley’s back door.

Stewart, a retired group health insurance executive, traded life in the fast lane several years ago for a job over the griddle of the Annie B.

“You meet a lot of neat people here,” Stewart said. “You see a lot of weird people, too. A lot of families. You see a lot of grandpas teaching kids to fish.”

Barge fishing lends itself to the family element, the regulars say.

“We stress that this is a nice place to bring kids,” said Stewart. “A parent can drop them off and they can fish and the parents know they will be safe.”

DeMong, wearing a gold chain around his neck that says “Live, Love, Laugh,” agreed.

“People. It’s people I love. We get the kids out here and it is fun to teach them.” He wore an old tank top, crusty baseball cap, pants and construction boots soaked by saltwater. At his side was a large knife.

Nieto, having rebaited both hooks, was still looking for that first halibut.

“(On the barge)there is a good, friendly family atmosphere. . . . Even first-time fisherman catch fish,” she said. “If we see someone is a newcomer, we help them out. It’s that way out here.”

Nieto said helping others is a reward for going to the barge at least once a week.

“Most people don’t realize that when you hook a fish and it starts running, you get a lot of good exercise,” she said.

One of the best exercise fish is the mackerel. “It’s a good game fish,” Nieto said.

A handful of youthful fisherman had a field day catching them. There is no limit on the number of mackerel an angler can take home.

Jonathon and Justin Thomas, who made the trip with their grandfather, Bill Manfrass of Lomita, had their hands full with mackerel in a tank. Jonathon, 9, displayed 11 good-sized fish in a burlap sack caught in five hours. Justin, 13, had eight mackerel and one sea bass.

“Jon lost three more and let another one go,” Manfrass said.

Young fishermen often do better than older ones on the barge, DeMong said, because they have “the touch.” The lighter, steadier grip of a youthful fisherman often persuades hardy fish to take the hook sooner.

No one demonstrated the touch better than 13-year-old Jose Ortega of Cypress. Making his sixth trip to the Annie B., Ortega put on a show. By noon he had filled a gunnysack with 15 mackerel caught with a fly line of 15-pound test. In the afternoon he switched to another well and reeled in three sizable mackerel in the first five minutes. Another got away.

Ortega’s aunt, Candy Soriano, also of Cypress, said she would ship most of the mackerel to relatives in Canada.

“All they catch up there is salmon, and they are tired of it,” she said.

At the other end of the barge, John Cicala, a bare-chested construction worker from San Pedro, wasn’t as fortunate. Although he hooked a sculpin late in the day, the bites had been few and far between for him and fishing buddy George Billings of Torrance.

But they didn’t seem to care.

“I’m just out here ‘cause I enjoy it,” Cicala said. “I want to get a tan, have a few beers. If I catch something, well, that’s all the better. I’m just enjoying myself.”

Britt Kayaian of San Pedro boarded the barge with her 13-year-old nephew, Leo Segerstrom. Kayaian, who has never fished, looked out of place in a stone-washed denim jumpsuit and heels. Leo, a native of Sweden, was spending his last day in the United States.

“I gave him the choice of going to Magic Mountain or here,” Kayaian said. “Here we are.”

At 3 in the afternoon the clicks and whines of fishing reels stopped. A sudden hush came over the barge. DeMong, DaForno and Stewart herded Nieto and the rest of the fishermen onto the Billy V. and Edwards throttled the boat away from the barge.

A stiff breeze whistled into the sun-baked face of DeMong as he, Nieto and Stewart made their way to the top deck. The Annie B. grew smaller and smaller to the eye as the Billy V. weaved between huge freighters on its way to its Ports O’Call landing.

DeMong popped a Budweiser and let out a sigh. A smile came over his face. They were family, up there on the top deck, and it made him feel good, just as he feels good about running the Annie B.

It would all begin again tomorrow morning. But for now, Grandpa had the barge all to himself.