Golden Eye 2000 anglers display their catch for the day, July 2002 Photo credit: Bill Mays
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Quang Vo
Quang Vo
Interviewed by Camille Antinori and Rob Bermudez, March 10, 2025
Quang Vo fled his home Vietnam with his family when he was 13 years old. Their family found their way to Berkeley, coming earlier than many other Vietnamese refugees to the region due to his father's connections with the US government. He and his brothers quickly found out about fishing the Berkeley pier. After that followed a lifetime of playing and fishing and eventually working in the Berkeley waters and beyond for food and fun. He and several brothers became commercial fishermen and later captains on sportfishing boats operating out of the Berkeley marina. His clients today come from all over, even outside California, to fish halibut, and he describes them "like family." He shares his views that Berkeley still has good fishing, that the pier could be reopened, practically as is, without a ferry dock, how it attracted hundreds before closure, and how he recalls Harry, the Hot Dog Man.
Full Interview
Full Interview
Topics (in order):
Topics (in order):
Fleeing Vietnam at night in an 11 meter boat when he was 13 years old
Wooden boat as souvenir
Staying in Indonesia
Church sponsorship to get them to Berkeley
West Campus school then Berkeley High School
Adapting to Berkeley High School
Lived near Jack in the Box at San Pablo and Allston
How first came to fishing the pier: neighbor and international communication
It's a done deal
Catching bus, no fishing pole, coke can and a line for catching halibut, kingfish, rays and bullhead
Back in Vietnam, older brother Don Vo (now deceased) took him fishing to babysit him
Snakeheads here and there
The Golden Eye 2000
Tren Wilcox in marina teaches them about commercial fishing
getting own 15' boat
Fishing in boat near end of pier and the "ruins" then selling fish in Chinatown
Going to the Farralons in a 17' Boston Whaler: unsinkable
Then 38' Chinook boat and going down to Moss Landing and Monterey to fish
Getting the Golden Eye catamaran
Switched to sportfishing when regulations came out and made commercial fishing unfeasible
Lot of Vietnamese commercial fishing at time also quit
Brother Phat Vo introduced him to commercial fishing
Brother Cheung worked in navy then as postal worker then quick switch to being captain of his own sportfishing boat
Learned to fish saltwater on the pier
On the pier - fish for food; On the boats - fish for $$
Oriental Food To Go restaurant run by parents on University Avenue
Dad passed at 94 during Covid due to hunger strike thinking no one wanted to visit him
Perceptions of his dad's teeth blackening
Clientele for Golden Eye 2000: Hawaii, Sacramento, all over - like a family
Jobs for new people, getting captain's license
Fish abundance
None of his 5 kids fish: get seasick and think it is too much work
Contrast parenting cultures then and now, US and back home
Future: repoen the pier
His family left Vietnam early in war because of connection to the US government; other Vietnamese came later
Villagers warning his dad to leave before North Vietnamese government came to get them
What miss: fishing with friends, swimming around here
Get word out that Berkeley is still good for fishing
Open the pier: you don't get seasick on the pier
Nothing wrong with the pier; don't see a ferry there; recalls hundreds on pier
Where is Harry the Hot Dog man?
Full interview transcript
Full interview transcript
Citation (APA style):
Vo, Quang, Antinori, C. and Bermudez, R. Exploring Intergenerational and Community Connections to the Outdoors. (2024). Interview with Quang Vo, conducted by Camille Antinori. March 10, 2025. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Berkeley Fishing Memories Oral History Project.
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