Wacky Jacky, 91, has skippering in her heart, salmon on her rod
“Woo hoo!” Wacky Jacky yells as a customer hooks a salmon on her beloved 50-foot sportfishing boat.
Capt. Jacqueline Douglas, who turned 91 on Oct. 2, still runs sportfishing charters aboard her namesake the “Wacky Jacky” three to four times a week, heading out from her coveted spot next to Castagnola’s restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Thin, with wispy white hair, bright blue eyes and a quick smile, she’s a formidable force at the helm as she plies the sometimes treacherous waters outside the Golden Gate.
“I don’t feel my age. Ninetyone is just a number,” Douglas said. “Thank goodness we can still catch salmon out there.”
The personable Douglas was a cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers when they played at Kezar Stadium, later working in their front office. She also was a model for the Grand National Rodeo at the Cow Palace.
Her husband, George James Douglas XVII, liked to fish, and
after going out with him a few times on a charter boat named “Poseidon,” she was, well, hooked.
In 1972, she got her captain’s license.
She passed the U.S. Coast Guard exam and bought her first party boat, a 38-footer that carried 10 people, and since then has taken an estimated 150,000 people out of the Golden Gate.
“I know the ocean, I know the currents, I feel it in my body,” said Douglas, who used to body surf.
Though Douglas got a lot of flak from some of the local male skippers when she was starting out, Capt. Al Sancimino mentored her early on and encouraged her to buy her first boat from a fellow captain on the wharf and get her license.
“I loved that man. He was so good to me,” Douglas said.
She’s had her current boat for more than 40 years, and it’s adorned with pictures from trips and other memorabilia.
But even the best captain needs a crew, and Douglas couldn’t do it without her two main deckhands, John Dresser and Greg Stimmel.
The pair, who have both been working on the Wacky Jacky for years, are also captains, and when not fishing, they take people out on the boat for tours of San Francisco Bay.
“If it wasn’t for the deckhands, we would not get fish in the box,” Douglas said.
Often working 14-hour days, they bait large hooks with anchovies, help firsttime customers with the nuances of fishing, and net the fish as they’re reeled in.
“She’s been an inspiration for me, especially at her age doing this,” Stimmel said. “I love working with her every minute of the day. It’s a great relationship we have together.”
Though she goes out for other types of fish, Douglas especially loves the salmon season, which runs from May 18 to Oct. 31.
There’s a two-fish limit per person, and the minimum length is 20 inches. Douglas once caught a 52-pound salmon — her record — which is mounted on the wall of her bedroom and stares her in the eye every morning.
She said she was born to be a fisherman and loves her job.
“Going after the salmon is her passion. She works it better than any captain on the bay,” said customer Bert Fichtl of Danville.
Sportfishing is not for night owls.
Douglas wakes up around 4 a.m. to get the boat ready for customers, who may show up as early as 5 or 5:30 a.m. They set out at 6 a.m. sharp to avoid the prevailing northwesterly winds that frequently come up in the afternoon.
On this particular day, it was pitch dark in the wheelhouse as Douglas smoothly navigated the Wacky Jacky toward the Golden Gate Bridge while several passengers napped.
Douglas bantered on the marine radio with another captain who was heading out.
“Wacky Jacky outbound, whoop, whoop!” she said.
“Keep comin’, keep comin’ Jackie,” he said.
“You go light ’em up for me,” Douglas replied.
As soon as the boat got out past the gate and bobbed gently off the coast near Stinson Beach as the sky turned pink, fishing rods came out and the chase for salmon was on.
Slowly trolling at about 3 knots, Douglas used her electronic fishfinder at the helm to scan for schools of anchovies, which the salmon feed on. Douglas had her trusty rod on the bow of the boat and was ready to reel one in.
“It’s a big thrill to catch a salmon,” she said. “I scream like a 16-year-old. I’m 91 going on 16.”
Douglas, the oldest and only female captain of the San Francisco fishing fleet, has some longtime regulars, including George Katayama, 88, of South San Francisco, who’s been fishing with her since the 1970s and goes out on the Wacky Jacky once a week.
All the regulars go fishing with Douglas on Wednesdays, which she calls her “happiest day of the week.”
“I haven’t gone out with hardly any other boats,” Katayama said. “She has a good crew and treats people nice.”
Douglas had four daughters, one who enjoys sailing and was a commodore of a local yacht club, but none wanted to take over the business, so she’ll likely leave her boat to her deckhands.
Now in her 47th year of skippering, she does all the booking herself by phone.
The spry skipper doesn’t show any signs of slowing down and considers herself lucky to live the life she’s living.
“I have tears in my eyes because I love what I do. I go out there and all I want to do is see smiles. I feel it in my heart.”
For more information or to book a trip on the Wacky Jacky, go to wackyjackysportfishing.com.