Alviso 2/5

Tom and I headed to Alviso and hooked up with Bill, Dave, and Art who were already unloading.  The was an extremely helpful man there, but I'll let Bill fill you all in on those details.  Art was kind enought to make the bait stop for us.    Ghosts, muds, grass, and herring.  Thanks.

We paddled down Alviso Slough which was quite pleasant as there was a slight flow.  I think we launched right at the top of the tide.  We passed one boat coming in who claimed to already have caught his 2.  So our hopes were high.  Perhaps 3 miles later (did anyone GPS us, my batteries were dead) we arrive at the towers.  We anchored up in the middle of what we thought was the channel below the middle towers in about 15 feet of water.  No fish finder for us, but Bill was directing traffic for us.  Thanks Bill.  I sent down some ghost and on an Erik rig.  Tom sent down a herring.  About an hour later I felt a slight pump, so I reared back on it, and I was on.  The fish immediately took off on a 100 yard run.

We had some fun in the first few moment as it went under the boat to the other side and I was sitting at the anchored end of the triple.  I somehow managed to weave in and out of Tom's rod and Tom himself, and around the other end of the boat 18 feet on the other side.  By this time I was loosing a lot of line fast, so I unclipped the anchor and off we went.  Funny thing, my anchor buoy dove under the water not to be seen again.  Damn!  There goes the anchor.  Who cares!  We have a fish on, and it feels heavy, so off we went after it.  Dave was downstream of us and we were floating to the right of him.  But the fish has other thoughts and zags left.  I was worried about tangling in his anchor, but we made it through somehow.

We called out on the radio for Bill to bring his Texas lasso.  In the meantime I cannot turn the fish's head so we just chase it around.  At  one point the fish makes some quick zig zags and the line goes slack.  We though we lost it.  I reel fast and it's still there, but it feels the tension again and goes on another long run.  Bill finally catches up with is and at this time we're probably have floated a mile and we're perhaps 20 minutes into the battle.   I'm not actually pulling the fish in, rather I'm pulling the the kayak to the fish.  We finally get close to the fish.  This is it, the end game.   We have him straight up and down in 10 feet of water.  I pull him up closer and closer.  Then ... the hooks come flying out of the water!  Damn damn damn!  He was 6 feet under the boat, and we never got a look at him.  Damn damn damn!  This fish felt HEAVY.  I've never yanked on a sturgeon, but this fish pulled every bit as hard as any other fish I've hooked in california, including many, many albacore.  I don't think I was ever able to turn him.  That's my story.  That's all I want to tell right now, except for by the time we got back to the anchor the tide had slowed and our buoy was on top again.  So it's not all bad I suppose.  I'll let the the other tell stories about how nice the area is.

Rest assured ... I'll be back to Alviso.

-Allen

Sorry, that was me above.  I wasn't logged in.

-Allen

What strength line were you using?  Sounds like that momma was thrashing you more than the one I caught.

I was using 20# string on a Progear 251 and a Seeker Black Steel 270-8'.  It's my "go to" rig for albacore and halibut.  I know this setup well.  I from the school of thought of "put the hammer to the fish", so I placed as much pressure on this fish as I though the rig could handle with plenty of thumbing going on.   But I did notice you just can't get the same leverage sitting on the water as you can standing above it.  That being said, I think there are some other disadvantages of fishing on a kayak.  I think the light weight did not help as the kayak was getting pulled to this fish.   BTW, do sturgeon have soft mouths?  Should I have not hammered him?

Yes, this fish thrashed me!  I could hardly paddle back to the anchor.  Good thing Tom was up front more than pulling his weight.

-Allen

He could've been the famed "Tug Boat Charlie" that has been known to tow skiffs, PB's and now kayaks (on a loaded tandem to boot).
As for mouths, they're like catcher mitts, so you gotta pierce that tuff padding w/ some sharp hooks and a "swing for the fence" hook-set.
Great read nonetheless. You guys musta been pumped!
Looking forward to the Oyster Point crew report.

Their mouths are extremely tough.  It's surprising one would come unbuttoned that way.

I had to wimp out today because my son was slightly sick and kept us up half the night.  Had my van packed and ready to go too.  

I've got a "squatter" in my bldg that we've been trying to evict. Close to the eviction, the building key went "missing", so had to spend the whole day getting new keys to the tenants - if i don't get all the keys swapped, i may miss the superbowl party -  

Thanks for the reports - say where's Oyster Crew?

Maybe they're holding back for someone with a good catch to make the first post w/ photos.

One can hope!  

Art and I showed up around 8:45 and started scouting launch locations. We started at the parking lot of the state park. We quickly noticed a launch there would be rough. Lots of reeds and lots of narrow paths. We walked along the levy for a little ways and ran into the sailing school. We asked a guy if he would mind if we launched there. He said we could launch if we would call a few of his friends at the state bureau of land management to ask about opening up this land to the public. I promised I would post the details on the web site and we would give them a call. I will post the names and numbers tomorrow (they are in my car right now).

Dave, Allen, Tom, Art and I launched nice and easy from the sailing school and began paddling out. The tide was starting to flow out so it was a pretty easy paddle. It was pretty far though, It took about 45 minutes for us to exit the slough basically right under the infamous power towers. At this point the tide is really ripping as you can see from my anchor bouy:



I hang out for a while watching all debris float by and I see some things that look fishy on my FF.  Nothing much is happening though, I get a few bumps and lose my bait but I don't know if it is crap floating by or fish.

I decide to move a little further out towards the bay. The water is a little clearer down near the mouth of the slough. I anchor back up and began fishing again, about 30 minutes later I get a call on the radio that Allen is hooked up and I am the only one with a snare.  I pull anchor and start heading back up. I pull up next to Tom and Allen and see this:



Allen is bent and the fish is not giving him him much to work with . I drop off my snare and float back out to watch the show.



Shortly after I took that picture I marked about a 5' fish right where Allen's fish should have been. Allen starts pumping the fish to the surface, his line goes vertical then bam the fish is off    

I paddle back up to the power lines and sit for about another hour. One more fishy bump but that was about it.

We started heading back in and the slough had dropped from 6-10 feet to 3-4 with a few spots 2'. The paddle back seemed to take forever. I really need to learn to paddle correctly. I was the last back to the launch area and greated with a very muddy landing. this is what we had to drag up through. We used the little dock there but still had a few feet of knee deep mud to deal with.

On a good note I think I found Joel a place to live. Right on the water at low tide, right in the water at high tide.

Looks like you guys had a good time.  No sturgeon action at Oyster today.

Damn steady action for sturgeon!  Nice report.

Great report and pics.  Allen, sorry for the lost sturgeon.  Just don't let it haunt you too much.  I know how you feel all too well.

I was secretly rooting for you guys at Alviso, because you guys were pioneers "going where no kayak fisherman has gone before".  You guys have proven that there's some good sturgeon action to be had at Alviso.

It sounded like some tough paddling, but I'm sure the adventure was well worth it.  I missed out

But I did notice you just can't get the same leverage sitting on the water as you can standing above it.  That being said, I think there are some other disadvantages of fishing on a kayak.  I think the light weight did not help as the kayak was getting pulled to this fish.  

I think "challenging" would be a more appropriate word rather than "disadvantage". As for light weight, hope you were talking about the line rather than the yak - you guys were on a double!
You didn't lose that fish, but gained an EXPERIENCE! I would have that fight over any PB sturgeon. If you were on a single, just imagine how fast you'd be flying!

 

Yes, this fish thrashed me!  I could hardly paddle back to the anchor.  Good thing Tom was up front more than pulling his weight.

-Allen

Yeah, you did get "thrashed" but came back a better fisherman for it! It was a good fight and great story!

This place looks exactly like the delta with the added bonus of decent wind protection.   I had my bait munched by a few mitten crabs but other than that no action for me.  The fish were definitely there though; as Allen said, on our way out we came came accross a boat on his way in from the south with two, Allen hooks up with one, couple of jumpers, very good signs.  The big outgoing tide did make the paddle home a tough one and the haul out was messy to say the least.  Dave gets the Animal of the Day award for his sprint back to the launch and then draggin the yaks 20 feet up the mud bank.  This is gonna be my go to place for days with smaller tides or when I can time launch at the top of the outgoing and fish till half way up the incoming.

Elric,

I AM talking about the light weight of the kayak, at least in comparison to a PB.  I've had halibut take us for a nice sleigh ride on that kayak.   I can't remember that ever happening on a PB.   400# of people sitting in an 80# kayak plus gear is 500+ #.   I think once you overcome the initial resistance,  kayaks tends to get pulled pretty easily.  And that initial resitance I think is somewhat low since less than 10 pounds of drag on the reel is able to get us going.

-Allen