Sac River Recon 3/14/13

Been wanting to hit up the Sac river for a while now for stripers/sturgeon. I promised my

step dad Scott a trip on the boat and he doesn't believe in going far to fish when there is so much water close by, understandable. Launched from Garcia and trolled down through freeport. FYI the launch here was is really poor conditions.

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This is high tide btw. Can't believe this much mud and silt got up here. Made launching a little challenging for me, can't imagine how it would be for guys out here with bigger vessles.

Guy at the bait shop told me that they had been getting into some sturgeon down in hood, but the stripers have been pretty few and far in between. Had to try though. Past the bridge across from Cliff's marina Scotts rod with a shallow diving bomber in 16ft of water gets hammered, but no stick. Made two more passes through the same area for one more hit no stick. At least were getting hits. Didn't think it was really worth making circles through so moved on down river. Work more river for nothing Decided to make a quick pit stop for maybe some bass, but they weren't out to come and play with us today. Ran further down towards hood, didn't go all the way down that far, but I did find a bend with several boats on anchor all trying for sturgeon I'm assuming. Also saw two other trollers working the area. I ran around the whole area trying to mark fish and there wasn't a damn thing out there. I don't know what made this area so popular. Set up though and tried giving it a shot for about an hour for one nibble on roe and that was it.

Wasn't exactly feeling that and we had to be back at the ramp around 1300 ish so we trolled a couple area's on the way back for nothing. Moved to the same stretch at freeport where we had the hits earlier to hopefully stick one and not end the day in a skunk. Almost to the bridge where I said I was going to call it if we didn't get hit Scotts rod doubles over and drag is peeling off of it like crazy. Looked like a snag at first, but when Scott got a hold of the rod it was very obvious he had a nice fish on.

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Took a bit but we got her in and what a beauty she was.

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Almost 31 inches and I never got a weight on her, but if I had to guess at least 12lbs. Definitely over 10. Felt kinda bad about keeping her, but she had that plug so far down her throat it was ridiculous. With a fat trebel in her gills it was done. Anyone else ever seen that happen? No matter though, I know my mom has been dying to have some striper. She hasn't had it in years, every since my parents got divorced some 8-10 years ago.

Kept trolling past the bridge just in case, but nothing else happened. With all the hard work we put in and it being my first time targeting stripers on the sac I thought we did great. Especially after we talked to several other boaters that had all been skunked.

Fun day, glad to see Scott finally catch a fish. He's been due for some time now.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark


P.S. is it shad season yet?