I've been seeing all kinds of pictures and reports all over the
internet recently of people slamming sturgeon and I couldn't take it
anymore, I had to get out there for myself. Brought my friends Elijah
and Katie along with me and we put in at Belden's around 0730. We
dropped anchor in about 24ft of water with several marks on the screen.
Didn't long and we were getting small hits here and there. Offered roe,
eel, and some ghost. Everything was getting hit, but ghost and the eel
were getting the most attention right away. Had a few decent pulls, but
we couldn't stick anything. We fished the outgo for a few hours with
lots of bites, but no hook ups. The tide slowed down a little bit along
with the bite. We ran to Martinez for a quick bathroom break then came
back out. We dropped anchor right at the slack. We saw a few marks on
the graph still and we were just waiting for the tide to turn.
The second we got movement in the water again one of my roe rods dips down and I slam into the first fish of the day. Nothing big, but we got a sturgeon in the boat. Nice little shaker, I measured him out just to see and it taped out at 32 inches. Right when I looked away from the tape measure though my other roe rod doubled over and I dropped everything and slammed into another one. Elijah threw the shaker over board and got the net ready because I knew I had a decent one this time. Fish flirted with the anchor line a lot, but never got around it luckily. Fish came up and Elijah came in with a perfect net job and we got a keeper in the boat.
Taped out at 48 inches, tagged and bagged!
Got the rods back in the water and came down from my high. First one I've tagged this year. Super excited and happy we got a keeper. Elijah has come with me several times now and not once have we been successful so this was great, now we just need two more.
Not more then a half hour later after all of our ghost was getting robbed by shaker stripers another roe rod goes off and Elijah drills it, line snaps. Man heart breaker, that's ok they are biting our hopes are high and they were good. 5 minutes later it goes off again and Elijah slams it home and we're on. His fish immediately swims across and over all of our other lines before I get the chance to clear them, no major tangles though we work out the mess. After a few stronger runs then my fish had his comes to the surface and we net the fish and have our second keeper of the day! It's official another sturgeon cherry popped.
Rods back out we only need more more for the full boat limit. Katie was kind of intimidated to try to set the hook and fight one, but after seeing Elijah and I get one each she was excited to get a shot with one. We get her up on the rods and wait for our next bite. In the mean time Elijah and I did catch several shaker stripers on sardines while we're waiting for the sturgeon to bite again. After about 45 mins or so it happens. Katie's rod drops down and she jumps on the rod and swings home and makes the connection with the fish. The weight of the fish really caught her off guard though and it knocked this little 5'2" girl off of her balance and she fell to the ground. She kept hold of the rod though and the tension on it. I looked when she fell though and the rod popped, fish was gone. Reeled the gear in, leader snapped. Man twice in one day my leader line has gone bad, time to throw that crap away and upgrade.
Rods back out and we tried to get maybe one more shot at one before sundown. We fished until 1700 for the next tide switch, saw tons of marks on the graph, but nothing more then just a few little nibbles. Ended the day without getting our last devil fish, but so happy that we got two keepers and a shaker. Got back to the house and got em cleaned up and packaged up.
Elijah's keeper at 43 inches.
A sturgeon virgin no more.
Two happy fisherman here.
All of our sturgeon came on straight roe. Water temp was 54 and all of our fish were caught during the during the incoming. Got two tags left, would like to fill out one more before the end of the year. Hopefully I'll be back out soon.
Till next time
Mark
The second we got movement in the water again one of my roe rods dips down and I slam into the first fish of the day. Nothing big, but we got a sturgeon in the boat. Nice little shaker, I measured him out just to see and it taped out at 32 inches. Right when I looked away from the tape measure though my other roe rod doubled over and I dropped everything and slammed into another one. Elijah threw the shaker over board and got the net ready because I knew I had a decent one this time. Fish flirted with the anchor line a lot, but never got around it luckily. Fish came up and Elijah came in with a perfect net job and we got a keeper in the boat.
Taped out at 48 inches, tagged and bagged!
 | This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x576. |
Got the rods back in the water and came down from my high. First one I've tagged this year. Super excited and happy we got a keeper. Elijah has come with me several times now and not once have we been successful so this was great, now we just need two more.
Not more then a half hour later after all of our ghost was getting robbed by shaker stripers another roe rod goes off and Elijah drills it, line snaps. Man heart breaker, that's ok they are biting our hopes are high and they were good. 5 minutes later it goes off again and Elijah slams it home and we're on. His fish immediately swims across and over all of our other lines before I get the chance to clear them, no major tangles though we work out the mess. After a few stronger runs then my fish had his comes to the surface and we net the fish and have our second keeper of the day! It's official another sturgeon cherry popped.
Rods back out we only need more more for the full boat limit. Katie was kind of intimidated to try to set the hook and fight one, but after seeing Elijah and I get one each she was excited to get a shot with one. We get her up on the rods and wait for our next bite. In the mean time Elijah and I did catch several shaker stripers on sardines while we're waiting for the sturgeon to bite again. After about 45 mins or so it happens. Katie's rod drops down and she jumps on the rod and swings home and makes the connection with the fish. The weight of the fish really caught her off guard though and it knocked this little 5'2" girl off of her balance and she fell to the ground. She kept hold of the rod though and the tension on it. I looked when she fell though and the rod popped, fish was gone. Reeled the gear in, leader snapped. Man twice in one day my leader line has gone bad, time to throw that crap away and upgrade.
Rods back out and we tried to get maybe one more shot at one before sundown. We fished until 1700 for the next tide switch, saw tons of marks on the graph, but nothing more then just a few little nibbles. Ended the day without getting our last devil fish, but so happy that we got two keepers and a shaker. Got back to the house and got em cleaned up and packaged up.
Elijah's keeper at 43 inches.
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x576. |
A sturgeon virgin no more.
Two happy fisherman here.
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x576. |
All of our sturgeon came on straight roe. Water temp was 54 and all of our fish were caught during the during the incoming. Got two tags left, would like to fill out one more before the end of the year. Hopefully I'll be back out soon.
Till next time
Mark
| This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x576. |
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