Santa Cruz’s Mike Baxter, 56, has taken part in some amazing fishing conquests over the course of his decades-long career as an charter captain.
His pursuits as an angler have taken him from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, and pretty much everywhere in between. Alaska and Hawaii, too.
He has enjoyed plenty of successful trips. He also, on occasion, has endured the heartache of “the one that got away,” which explains his relentless pursuit of reeling in a swordfish, which spanned 50 days and more than 1,000 hours over the past five years. (Baxter finally landed a 322-pounder in early December with cohort Jason Young off the coast of San Diego.)
Santa Cruz angler Mike Baxter, right, inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame on Jan. 17, and cohort Jason Young are all smiles after landing a 322-pound swordfish off the coast of San Diego in early December. (Contributed)
Baxter has several cherished accomplishments among his exploits. In addition to the swordfish, he has also been fortunate enough to harvest a 300-pound wild board, reel in several bluefin tuna that weighed more than 200 pounds, a 100-pound opah from the Monterey Bay, and catch and release several steelhead trout weighing more than 20 pounds.
Ask any avid angler in the Greater Bay Area, even if they weren’t fortunate enough to join him on one of his charter trips back in the day, and they’ve heard of Baxter. He’s a local icon.
As good as he is, you’re not going to hear it from him.
“He’s super humble, quiet, unassuming,” said Allen Sansano, the president and athlete at USA Saltwater Kayak Fishing. “He doesn’t brag.”
In fact, some of Baxter’s closest friends and colleagues were shocked, and overjoyed, to hear that he was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame at the International Sportsmen’s Exposition at CalExpo in Sacramento on Jan 17.
Sansano had spoken with Baxter days before his induction and he didn’t mention his latest honor. That’s just who Baxter is.
The induction class also included legendary sea captain Frank LoPreste; Pat McDonell, a former Editorial Director of Western Outdoor News; Eagle Scout, award-winning videographer and avid outdoorsman Doug Laughlin; and Yosemite rock climber Dale Bard, who was being honored posthumously.
Santa Cruz angler Michael Baxter, a member of the Board of Directors for the Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project, poses with one of the many steelhead he’s caught and released in the San Lorenzo River. (Contributed)
As much as Baxter’s taken from local waters, he’s also given back.
“California Outdoor Hall of Fame maybe didn’t recognize me for being famous, maybe didn’t recognize me for being the best fisherman or hunter. But, maybe, they recognized me for the effort I have put in to give back, and that’s over two or three months a year for 20 years,” said Baxter, who grew up in Boulder Creek and attended San Lorenzo Valley High. “I think I’ve put in over 4,000 hours of community service.”
In addition to serving as a charter skipper, Baxter is a member of the Board of Directors for the Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project (MBSTP) and is a co-founder of the annual Sand Crab Classic Perch Fishing Derby, an insanely popular one-day tournament that raises money for the MBSTP. He also served as co-host of the “Let’s Go Fishing Radio Show,” which aired for a decade on KSCO, and wrote a fishing column published in several local papers for more than a decade.
The MBSTP releases more than 120,000 salmon annually to help boost populations, and boasts a cumulative total of more than four million fish.
Seemingly, Baxter had a fishing pole in his hands since they day he could walk. His father, Joe Sr., worked a fire fighter and was a commercial fisherman. Baxter and his brother, Joe Jr., often accompanied their father on the boat. It wasn’t a pleasure cruise, it was work.
Santa Cruz anglers Mike Baxter, left, and Allen Bushnell hoist limits of Capitola halibut. (Contributed)
Each outing, it seemed, Baxter would get sick, fall asleep, but beg to join again the next day. He was hooked.
Baxter remembers not getting the results he yearned in his youth. While fishing from Santa Cruz Wharf as a teen, he was offered some advice that struck a chord.
” ‘You know what kid, if you wanna catch more fish you outta help ‘The Project,’ ” said Baxter, recalling a conversation with Jack Carroll, a key figure with the MBSTP. “And it inspired me. And I did. … That’s always my sales pitch for trying to give back, as well.”
When Baxter was 19, he took a job working the decks on San Diego long-range boats, which made trips to Mexico for up to 23 days. There, he was mentored by some of the greats in big tuna fishing.
“That’s really when my life changed,” he said.
Baxter earned his 100-ton master captain’s license when he was 21 and began working for a charter.
Santa Cruz angler Mike Baxter with a big silver salmon buck in spawning colors, pulled from the Situk River on a fishing trip to Yakutat, Alaska, in 2015. (Contributed)
Allen Bushnell, 73, who writes a weekly “Fish Rap” column in the Sentinel, met Baxter in the late 1990s as a client aboard a charter that Baxter was captaining. They’ve gone on several fishing expeditions together since and are best friends.
“I can’t say enough about him as a fisherman, as a leader, and as a parent,” said Bushnell, who joined Baxter as co-host of his radio show. “He’s extremely humble. My definition of humility is ‘the right size,’ not too big, not too small. He’s got a lot to brag about, but he doesn’t. He has taught me so much directly. I’m an expert on a few species of fish, but he’s an expert on dozens of species.”
Bushnell and Sansano share the same favorite story about Baxter’s fishing prowess. They were getting skunked aboard the Wild Wave on one of Baxter’s tuna charter trips, when Baxter took notice from the wheelhouse. When he confirmed their drought, he playfully unleashed a few expletives, before joining them on the railing. He grabbed a nearby rod, cast out, turned his back to the water, set the hook, and passed the rod back to them. Then, he walked back into the wheelhouse without saying a word.
Santa Cruz anglers Mike Baxter, left, and Allen Bushnell cherish a rare, but satisfying day after catching limits of salmon and stripers on a trip to Half Moon Bay in 2019. (Contributed)
“Just like that, he hooks an albacore. And we’d been out there for hours,” said Sansano, who’s still in disbelief, more than two decades later.
Sansano wishes Baxter was still working as a full-time charter boat captain. He was that good, Sansano said.
Bushnell agreed. When other charters returned to shore after 12- to 15-hour trips, their captains often raved about their haul, some 50 to 60 albacore. Baxter routinely returned with triple digits, Bushnell said.
“He’d find, track, and stay on the fish,” he said.
Through it all, Baxter has remained even-keeled. Even after his epic swordfish catch.
“I sent him a text saying congratulations, and he barely said a word,” Sansano said. “I would’ve been jazzed. He said, ‘I saved you a piece.’ That’s it.”
Baxter was jazzed, though. He and Young hooked the swordfish 900 feet down and it took two arduous hours of hand-cranking to get it to the surface, where it was still fighting, It was greeted with a giant gaff and bullet to the head.
“It was a horrific battle,” Baxter said. “I mean, their scientific name is Xiphias gladius. They are the gladiator of the sea. The swordfish is the most badass creature out there. The swordfish is an unbelievable battle, sounding at 600 feet, and peeling line off the reel with no pausing or effort. After landing it, all of the of the pain of pursuit was forgotten in a moment.”
That moment got the best of Baxter. He double high-fived and belly bucked Young, and then cupped Young’s ears and kissed him on the cheek.
Santa Cruz anglers Mike Baxter, left, and Allen Bushnell caught dozens of dime-bright silver salmon on Lower Tawah Creek in Yakutat, Alaska, in 2015. (Contributed)
It was another great catch for Baxter, who is still letting his HOF selection sink in.
If anything, Baxter said, he hopes his induction inspires the next generation of sportsmen to give back. “The message I really like is sportsmen can be conservationist,” he said. “We are to be stewards of the environment.”
To borrow Bushnell’s phrase, Baxter said he’s working on being “the right size,” feeling worthy of the honor. “It has really been an effort,” he said. “It has been humbling and pretty hard to accept, to be honest.”
Baxter still captains a charter boat part time, working aboard Stagnaro Sport Fishing’s Velocity.
“I look at it as, I got to make a living fishing, and that was a treat. I chose to get out of the industry,” Baxter said. “I made a living for 20 years as a fisherman and I’ve been giving back for 20 years. And, if God blesses me, I’m gonna enjoy the outdoors and fishing the next 20 years.”