Well school is over and I've finally found time to get back to fishing again. I've been focusing on sturgeon mostly. I enjoy the thought of catching something bigger then me and it's a fish I've been dieing to figure out and get better at chasing. Last Saturday after Christmas I launched out of Sherman with a couple of friends hoping to hook into a few. We started out at the power lines but the wind was blowing so strong I couldn't get the anchor to stick so we made the run down to broad slough to try and find shelter from the wind. Few an area holding a few fish so we set the pick in 45ft of water and soaked the bait. I had roe and eel out and I have my friend Alan and Elijah some shad so they could stay entertained with the striper bites.
Elijah with his first ever striper
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Throughout the day they were getting some fairly consistent bites and they each pulled in a keeper and a shaker.
And Alan with his.
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Nothing huge but it's enough for some taco's at home. I got a few bites on roe, throughout the day, but I wasn't able to connect on em.
We moved out to Chain at the end of the day after the winds calmed down to hope for better luck there. I dropped anchor in a 50ft hole with fish all over it. We fished it for the last hour of light in the day and saw two breachers, but no bites. Called it at sunset. No sturgeon, but we still got to pop two cherries with their first stripers ever which was cool.
In with the new year my friend Jimmy told me he has the weekend off and asked if I wanted to go fishing. Hell yea, I told him to meet me and my place at 0600 and we took off for the Mothball fleet. 01/02/16 the wind didn't seem nearly as bad as the week before so I wanted to check out the fleet and try our luck there. Dropped lines in about 33ft of water around 0830. Jimmy had one small 6ft rod he was using that I told him looked like it would be a fun fight when a sturgeon hits it. He told me it was stout and could handle it though so he would be fine. Sure enough that's the rod that gets the first hit of the day. Jimmy slams into it and is into our first fish of the day.
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That fish had Jimmy running all around the boat doing the dance, but it came up and man we were excited to see he had a great looking upper slot sized fish. Got the net around it and brought her in the boat. Tapped it out and the damn fish was 61 inches long. Just barely too long. Jimmy was heart broken, but we've only been out here for an hour the day was still young. Got a quick picture and back she went.
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No bites for a while for us after that then the tide went slack on us. We pulled anchor and I motored all around the area learning the contours, drop offs, and looking to see where the fish were hanging out at. After marking the area for close to an hour the tide had turned and we dropped our lines back in in about 18ft of water. Not too long after setting the lines of of my rods goes off and I stick my first one of the day.
A small shaker to get the blood pumping.
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Maybe 15 minutes after that my other rod goes off and I stick a nicer one. Fought the fish all the way to the boat, I saw my top shot come out of the water so I backed up and told Jimmy to get in front of me with the net and be ready to get my fish. Sure enough once I backed up the fish got its second wind and ran off of me again. We straight under the boat and I couldn't get my rod down in time, SNAP!, fish sawed me off on the prop. Damnit, rookie mistake probably costed me a keeper. Nothing I can do now though. Rods back in and another 10 minutes go by again and my rod takes a dip. Slam into it and I'm on again. Taking my time on this one we got it in the boat, but it was just an inch too short.
39 Inches
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Same day we've boated a 61 and a 39 inch fish. What are the chances?
We stayed on a pretty consistent bite for a little over an hour doing good hooking into the fish. After I got mine in Jimmy got into the action with this 37 incher.
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I told Jimmy we had to be due for a slot fish here soon then sure enough he sticks another one. We get her in the boat and it tapes out at 51! Yea baby.
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Bag it and tag it baby. Jimmy has caught his first sturgeon today has his first keeper and of course has caught the biggest fish of his life today. All we need is a keeper for me and we'll be done. I had a few more bites, but wasn't able to connect on anymore. We stuck it out until about 1630 then called it a day. We have brought 5 sturgeon to the boat and lost another one. By far my great days I've ever had chasing the dinosaurs before. We had an absolute blast and if this day is any indication on how 2016 is going to be for us it's going to be a bright year.
Till next time guys
Mark
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