Belden Landing Montezuma slough Stripers non yak from shore(pics added)

The 3 little boys down the street  showed up at my front door tonight at 7 pm with 5 Stripers from Montezuma Slough, caught from shore at Beldens Landing, all 5 fish were between 24" and 30". All caught on anchovie popsicles. All from shore. They threw a "bunch of little ones back, we only want BIG ONES"( the eight year old said.     )

These kids used to be DEMON spawn, we orginally met because they stole all my sprinklers from the front yard and my other neighbor saw them take 'em and left me a note. I later made friends with them, gave them some fishing outfits (spinning rods and reels, some tackle boxes, gear... I figured if I could get them addicted to fishing they would quit being the neighborhood criminals, they still are criminals but addicted to fishing. ) They are 14, 12, and 8 years old.


They now have hustled most of my neighbors for all their spare fishing gear, have done lawn jobs, sold Mistletoe at   Christmas, washed cars, take out neighbors trash cans, pick up dog poop, catch crawdads in the creek behind my house and sell them to an Asian guy down the street who uses them for bait, all to make  money to buy more fishing gear. The 3 of them have about a dozen rods and reels between them, all different sizes. They know the difference between Power Pro, Stren, P-line, crankbaits... Trilenf knot from a Palomar... they even bought a flyfishing outfit at the dollar store for $15 bucks and raided my fly tying stuff. . The bass at the civic center park in Fairfield get no mercy. The carp in the creek behind the house, don't stand a chance. But until today, they had never caught really BIG FISH.

Their poor mom speaks no english, sat in car today while the boys fished and their dad was at work, when she tried to gut the smallest Striper, got the guts half way out and nearly vomited! The kids brought the fish down to me, I taught them how to fillet in the front yard, and sent them home with some beer batter mix and instruction on how to make fish sticks. They also landed and released a 36" sturgeon, which someone thankfully told them was too small and had to be put back. It almost got the wood shampoo! Previously, the biggest fish they had caught was some 3 lb carp and some barely legal stripers.

They are playing hookey tomorrow... goin fishin instead of school.

Regular Tom Saywer's.

I've created monsters.

Anyway, THE BITE IS ON!!!!

PS> they have pics on their "found" Blackberry, I'll try to post them.

(edit- these are the best of the pics)

Heart Warming and Touching story..... 

reminds me of my youth of being an Outlaw Fisherman sneaking into the quarry pits at night in Fremont... when things were slow, it was on with the Guard....

Thanks for the report, wish I could get out there tomorrow,,,

I've created monsters.

Good for you! I think if we can keep these "troubled" kids busy with such activities (like fishing) then they will more likely follow a better path in life. I'd buy you a beer if you were my neighbor 

Thanks for a heart warming story Troutnut!

Great post Troutnut! Killer story & thanks for the intel. jim

  they even bought a flyfishing outfit at the dollar store for $15 bucks

 

Ask how they like getting ripped off.......J/K
Brings back fond memories of fishing the American and Sac rivers the same way when I was their age.
Hats off for trying to turn those kids around.

WTG Troutnut

Great story, does bring back memories,

I must've spent thousands of hours myself down on the wharf in Martinez, before I discovered sex, drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll. 

I've got a workmate that says he's waiting for me to tell him it's on,  I unloaded a bunch of gear on him that I wasn't using anymore and he wants to teach his kids to fish,

sounds like now is the time to go,

Now if I can only pack enough regs. into his head to keep him outta trouble. 

  thanks for sharing the story.  funny what giving kids something fun to do can do for them!  really glad to hear that some stripers are feeding in monte, sounds like time to get out there again.  I fished from my boat a few milies up from the entrance 2 weeks ago and could not get a thing!

great story troutnunt, hope this gives them a chance at turning out ok, cameron

Nice report - and good work with those kids!

When I was a teenager we fished a lot too. When we got our hands on some beer though, the last thing we was gonna do was cook fish with it I can promise you that.   

Great story!!! 

kind of what the facilitys guy at mcavoys harbor did for us when we were young , one day me and my buddies are riding our bikes around there and he starts yelling at us , at first we thought we were in trouble but we was waving for us to go where he was at , had us sign up for his fishing club then gave us some poles along with bait and we sat there and caught little stripers all day long, pretty much all we did that summer
what a guy!

good man you are TN!!
and thanks for the heads up, up there!

Strong work, TN!!!