Make sure you check out page 44 of the Ocean Sport  Fishing Regs before attempting to take any fish in Elkhorn Slough.  At a glance, it looks like no species is legal to take, so I don't know how you could legally fish there.

   The power of mud: It would have been pure luck if you'd retrieved it, let alone if it still worked.  I used to keep a boat in a berth and once  dropped  a heavy winch handle in the 10 ft of water and marked the spot on the dock, fished around for it for a long time; a relative even went down in scuba gear and couldn't find it in the mud.  I know it didn't drift away or drop to the side because it was so heavy and there was never any current or surge.

 Radios: Has anyone done any experiments to see whether there's a practical difference for kayakers in the differences in transmitting power and reception for different radios?   Do the signals go by line-of-sight?  Say I'm 15 miles up the coast (but just a mile out) from the nearest receiver,with mountains in between- is a cheapo as effective as a more powerful one at that range? From the chatter, it seems the commercial guys are a lot further away than the sports.   I've got an ICOM IC-MIV, which is a little larger than some of the cheap ones, and it has a 7" antenna sticking out of the top.  It works fine, but when (not if!) I lose it, I wonder if a smaller cheaper one would be just as good for my purposes.

ChuckE: I guess it's a matter of my being afraid what I'd learn if I violated the Inseam Length rule.  Not that I've had the experience of catching anything over 34", but I just thought those big ones should be dead before they shared space with my lower body in the yak.  But then, for me, it's never been a direct trip from the will to the way.  I seem to have had a lot of layovers in Not-the-Way.

P-Spark: That ribbon thing sounds like it would work, and if it didn't, it wouldn't do much harm either, but I've already said I've never seen a sturgeon.

 Did I read somewhere that the noose is put around the tail?  If so, I could see how that might keep a revived fish from moving too much so you could get a rough measurement.   

    I'm going to wake up(in Santa Cruz) about 5:30-6:00 am and check conditions at Stillwater tomorrow.  If it looks possible, as it does now from the weather reports (except for a little more swell than I want, I think), I'll go down to Carmel and look across to see whether it's possible. I'd like to try the Carmel side of Arrowhead Pt. and don't plan on going very far outside, but I might if it's nice.   I'll probably get there, if I go, about 8:30.  So that's a definite "maybe".

My Humminbird transducer was arrowhead shaped with a couple of holes near where the wire comes out to mount it somewhere with a bolt.  It is flat on the bottom, tho, so I Gooped it down, and it worked many times til it started to come up, giving me wierd readings. I don't know if what you got was like that, but if it has some kind of flat bottom and isn't too b ig, it will probably do fine thru-hull.
  When it started to peel up,  I just left it in place and built a well around it  with a 3" PVC fitting - like a straight cylinder, tho I rasped(filed) it a little to conform to the bottom shape, gooped it down really well, filled it with salt water, then used a neoprene cap with a radiator clamp (sold at OSH to plug sewer pipes), ran the loose end of the wire thru a hole I cut in the top and gooped up the hole, and it's worked fine since.

I just saw this- wish I had seen it before.  I had an old surfing suit where the shoulders had shredded.  I just cut off the shoulders and arms and had a farmer john, but the cement might have helped limit the further shredding.
   Later, because I'm too stubborn to come in when the urge hits,  I just cut a slit in the crotch about 3-4" long (up and down), then I sewed a flap of thin (1mm?) wetsuit material about 4x4" so it flapped over the slit from rt to left, and attached the loose side and top and bottom of the flap with velcro I sewed on.  Then I made another a little bigger all around flap from left to rt over the first flap, this out of 3 mm material, with velcro as per the first flap. Just like a couple of barn doors that overlap. With the double flaps, there is little reason to fear the horse getting out, and things stay warm.  Also had to sew a velcroed slit into my speedo. Took me a couple of hours, but it works great. Put your suit on, sit down, and figure out just where to cut and mark it with chalk.  It's lower than where you'd think, cause that rubber doesn't flex like boxers/pants do.
   I considered an "external catheter" which are a buck or two at a medical supply type pharmacy, and just poking a hole for the surgical tubing.  I just didn't want to walk around with that tube hanging out(maybe a piece of black tape to cover it?), and maybe cause a rash in a sensitive place. I might do it if I get a new wetsuit and want to wait to really hack into it with the flappo thing.

OSH and a local lighting store both have "Light Bulb Grease" in little tubes for a few bucks.  Works fine.

NoTuna: Great- I'll be looking for you.  If you haven't been there before, check the directions someone wrote a week or so ago, and get a Google map, but: It's $8.75 now; as you drive up the hill from Monterey on Hwy 1, part of the exit sign says "17 Mile Drive", and you turn right after getting off freeway; after you're in the gate, go DOWNHILL, after a while the Beach Club signs appear; it's a couple miles down winding 17 Mile Drive to the first turn; when you get to the Club, drive thru the big lot along side the building,drop off, and the public access parking is back about a block along a narrow road  between some trees/hedges near a tee-off spot for some no-doubt famous hole that shoots to the water.  The toilet/showers are at the south end of Beach Club building.  The launch is almost a ramp with low steps cut in it, maybe 30 ft long.
   It's just shy of an hour to that launch from the Santa Cruz Harbor, and it got light about 6:30, but we caught fish all morning.  Oh, and remember you can't fish deeper than 120 ft for the rockies, and it gets deep fast if you drift there.
  I have a gray small Toyota truck and green Prowler, I'll fish close for a while if I get there first.
Tom