Sturgeon on The Fleet

Dave (Cromie) has been asking me for sometime now when I wanted to come out with him for a sturgeon outing. With my new job I picked up my schedule has been ridiculously busy and I finally found a day where our schedules lined up. Met up with Dave and we got on the water this morning (10/27/13) just before 0900 and headed towards the mothball fleet. Got the pick set in about 25ft of water and dropped lines down hoping for the best. Brought some raw salmon roe with me hoping the sturgeon crack would prove true to its name today. Maybe 30 mins or so into the day I get the first serious bite on roe and swing that bad boy home and hook into the first fish of the day. Fish didn't fight very hard at first, but it was a sturg. without a doubt. Got him within 10ft of the boat and it made a couple of runs just before I saw color. Dave reached over and grabbed him for me and we got the first fish of the day in the boat.

Fish looked close and ended up taping out at 38 inches at the fork, that keeper still eludes me. 2 years ago I missed it by an inch and now my next biggest one is only 2 inches under. I'll get it eventually.

Regardless a beautiful fish and it sure as heck made my day.

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Set him free to get bigger and dropped back in hoping for another.

Pretty shortly later Dave lands a nice schoolie on a chovie.

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Now we got a fish in the box, that's what I'm talking about.

We miss a few decent hits on ghost and I get another good pump on roe, that I screw up the hook set on from having a drag set too lose from fighting my last fish. Rookie mistake I'm ashamed to admit I've made quite a few times. Dave gets an interesting bite on the chovie again. Lets him take it and turned out to be a small sturg. sucking on it. Fought this thing on 12lb test on a bass rod. Pretty sweet awesome fight even if the fish lacked in size.

This guy taped out at 31.

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They may only be shaker sturgeon, but two sturgeon and a keeper striper to the boat were having one hell of a day man!

Kept at it till the slack. Around 1230 the boat would just not stay straight enough to keep a line in the water. Pulled anchor and moved up to try some new water and kill some time during the slack. Dropped anchor and waited for the boat to swing. We waited, and waited, and waited, then waited some more, then kept on waiting. We finally came to the realization that with only a 2ft difference with the out going tide the wind was over powering the current and mother nature just presented us with some much less then ideal fishing conditions. We stuck it out until 1430 trying to fish it, but the boat never spun around and with the current and the wind working opposite directions now the water was getting nasty. Called it a day and headed back in before conditions got any worse.

Pretty freaking successful day though if you ask me. Thanks again for taking me Dave I had a great time. I'll get that keeper someday, I'm due pretty soon here. Got home just before 1700 and I was about to grab my salmon gear and head to the river, but the winds at home were even worse then they were out on the water. Didn't care to fish in it so stayed home worked on some things around the house. I got my self 4 pots for crabbing season I've been putting together and working on. I'll be out of Doran Beach at Bodega on Sunday. I'm ready for boil man, I love me some crab.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark