Sturgeon Fishing Doesn't Suck 11/23/14

Went out to go out for a Dino hunt with my dad. Launched out of Sherman around 0900 and anchored at the power lines to catch the beginning of the incoming. Fished roe, shad, and sardines. My roe got picked up pretty quick, but not by the intended species.

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Cool to get hit, but I'm hoping for something bigger especially on my roe.

Moved around the power lines a bit, looking for a bigger bite.

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Waiting on a bite

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My sardines and shad is pretty old so it wasn't getting any love, but my roe sure was getting pecked to death. I was able to stick one of the guys picking my roe apart.

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Well I've got a striper and a

kitty

now, eventually a sturgeon will come around right? Maybe 5 minutes later my dad's rod doubles over. He swings and that rod is bent, Alright we got our first sturgeon on! I clear the lines and I pull my

camera

out to take an action shot of my dad fighting the fish and the second I get my phone out the line snaps. Damn, well that's what happens when your fishing for sturgeon with 12lb test that you haven't replaced in probably 3 years. My dad likes the challenge of landing a sturgeon on the lighter line and has been too lazy to replace it. Oh well, sucks, but life goes on. Kept at it here for a while, but we didn't get anything else except a few more bait steeling bites. Picked up and made a run down to broad to try our luck there.

Spotted a couple of fish on the graph, dropped anchor in 45 ft of water towards the end of the slack tide and dropped the roe down in hopes of a big one.

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About a minute after getting our baits in the water my dad gets a small pick up. I see him pick up his rod and drill into a fish and sure enough he is hooked up again. Right on new spot haven't even been here 5 minutes and we're hooked up. I started clearing the other rods and once got the last on reeled in his line went slack. Barbless hook fell out, damn lost two on one day. Nothing we can do about that one though it happens. Baits back in the water, about 10 minutes later the boat finally swings and the outgo begins and the second it did I saw my rod dip. I reach over and connect into a fish.

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That thing stuck to the bottom good and was bull dogging me like no tomorrow, I was positive that I had an oversized fish on.

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While I was fighting the fish the coast guard came by and watched me fight my fish. Got it boat side and my dad and I were sure that it was a couple of inches over. My dad held it by the lips while I grabbed the tape measures and the tail trying to get a measurement on it. Mean while the coast guard boat is telling my dad "Hold it by the gills to get a better hold on it!" Come on man we know that's not how you handle a fish you might be letting go. Got the tape on it and it reads 55 at the fork, that's legal baby! The fish comes into the boat and that's how we end our successful day.

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Chatted with the coast guard for a bit while I tagged my fish. They said they were escorting a boat through here and they were going to need use to move while that happened. No worries were leaving, ran back in and got the boat back on the trailer before the sun went down to get back home at a decent hour with plenty of time to clean fish and get the boat cleaned up and put away.

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A great day on the water and looking back we hooked into three sturgeon today. Even if we only landed one that's a great action packed day as far as sturgeon goes. Couldn't ask for a better day. All fish, and bites for that matter, came on roe.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Veterans Day at Bodega Bay

Had the holiday off from school which gave me the opportunity to finally get out to Bodega Bay for some crabbing with my dad. I brought my friend Steven along as well to help haul crab gear as well, cause I didn't feel like pulling up pots all day. Took DaShark out to Doran, first time going out on the salt on this thing very excited to see how well it handled. Launched right around 1100, got very lucky to get a

parking spot just as a few people were leaving. Ran just outside of the jetty and set the pots in close in about 60ft of water. Right after we got all of the pots set we starting rigging up our rods for a little bit of rock fishing. Right as we finished though my buddy Steven said he had enough and was about to lose his lunch. We're not far so we ran back in real quick and dropped him off to let him sleep it off. First time on the big blue for him, definitely a very brand new experience. Came back out, and searched for fish. DaShark is still a smaller boat for the ocean so I'm not planning on going too far in the search for rockfish.

We stayed inside the bay running around looking for fish on the graph.

Bodega Rock

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Sun shine trying to come through

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Never saw any fish on the graph, but I knew we were over some rocks so we decided to drop the gear and see what comes up. Never got into any hot action, but we did get bit. My dad drew first blood with what I'm pretty sure is a greenling, on a 2 ounce blade runner spoon he had tied on for salmon.

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I know they are common around here, but I have never seen one is person so this was a pretty cool catch.

Shortly after I caught a short greenling and my dad had a fish come up really easy about half way up to the boat then his rod doubled over on him and he had a fish run him down into the rocks and break him off. I'm assuming a hitch hiker came up and grabbed his fish and took that thing down. Sucked not seeing what that was. We talked to a guy at the ramp who showed us a 32lb ling he caught, makes you wonder. Kept drifting getting a bite here and missing a couple bites there, then my dad bust a legal ling on his shrimp fly. I gaffed it for him and he took a picture. He didn't want any more pictures of himself.

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Sweet deal getting on a few nice fish so close to the harbor. About 3 hours had passed, time to check the pots. Pulled all four pots for 12 legal dungies of mixed grade from just legal to 7+ inches. Dropped em back down for another soak and tried chasing some more rockfish. Stayed closer this time cause the sun was going down and we weren't planning on staying much longer. My dad caught a nice gopher, and we missed a few more hits. After an hour I gave Steven a call to see if he was feeling better so he could come back out and pull pots with us so he can get his limit of crab, but he didn't answer so we went to pick up the pots to head in for the day.

After the shorter soak our crab total ended up being 27. We kept our 20 plus a few nice reds and headed for home. We had more crab in the pots with the shorter soak time, my dad said he read the crabbing is better during slack tide which is when this soak was so maybe that is true. Will have to pay attention to that from now on. Got the boat back on the trailer with our bounty and headed for home.

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Sat in commute traffic for a while which made the track home about 4 hours long. Very long, but wonderful day. Glad I got to spend a wonderful day on the water with my dad and coming home with a limit of crab just makes it that much better. Felt bad that Steven got sick and couldn't stick it out with us, could have gotten him close to his limit too, but we made sure he went home with something good for dinner too. Most other boaters we talked to at the ramp barely got their limits or came short, so for the guys that stuck close to home it definitely didn't seem like it was on fire by any means, but there are plenty of crabs out there to be had and I can't wait to get back out to do it again.

Till Next Time
Mark

P.S. Boat ran and handled the water great, but I will continue to stay inside of the bay with it. I'm not taking this thing way up north to the river or Fort Ross.

More AR Salmon

Been a while since I've written a salmon report from my local waters so here it is. Fishing has been very slowly getting a little better and better and then being great on the few days it has rained.

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I've been getting fish pretty much every outing and limits every other. Bite has been best from legal time till about 0800, which is nice since most days I leave by 0730 to make it to school on time.

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Been fishing with my buddy Doug a lot and he has been having a

good amount of success as well.

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Fished this morning in the

rain

from 0830 till 1200. Slept in, but knew it wasn't a big deal because of the rain and was met by lights out action on the river. Throughout the day I caught and released several fish looking for the better table fare ones. Took my limit home and cleaned these two out for the smoker.

My red buck of the day

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And a slightly less darker hen for the smoker and more roe!

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The hens for sure this time of year have less quality meat but it still smokes up great. For local fishing that doesn't cost me hardly anything to do its a lot of fun. It makes for some long days waking up early to be on the water by legal fishing time then being at school all day, but its well worth it and when your an addict like I am you can't stop.

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I'll probably continue fishing for them as long as I can since its close to home for me. Even if it's just for the tug. Sorry I haven't been writing salmon reports, but I don't want to bore people with reports pretty much every day from the river. Plus I just don't get around to it some times.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark