Leaving here in 10 minutes for Mendocino for some ab diving and spearfishing. We will be staying at the Mendocino Campground. It is right at Comptche-Ukiah road and Hwy 1. Probably leaving Saturday evening or Sunday morning depending on conditions. Will more than likely be kayaking/diving Van Damme area, but if someone shows up with knowledge of a better area I am all for it.
Driving a black Toyota 4Runner with a black trailer hauling a Yellow Prowler 15 and a Blue Prowler 13.
Just follow the smell of cold beer and fresh abs to the campsite.

My girlfriend Becky and I met up with Alfredo around 7 am at Ranch Seco. Overcast skies and a little cooler than I expected, but a paddling jacket and light weight quick dry nylon pants and Teva's were very comfortable.
The water was VERY warm as one fisherman told Al he had a reading of 68 degrees. I was amazed at the crystal clarity of the water.
Al hooked up first, and second, and third...etc. I was thinking I was going to be 0-9 this year. ( yesterday's shore fishing at Ice House and Sly Park yielded nada).
Al gave me the right color Senko and Wham! Losing streak broken. Light brown was the ticket.
I hooked up 2 more times when the sun came out on a darker Senko, with each time the fish gettng bigger ( could they get any smaller?).
Afterwards we went to the picnic area and BBQ'd some hot dogs and had potato salad, chips and salsa and beer and soda.
I did the opposite of the Fish Snifffer pose and it sure shows, but at least the skunk streak is broken!

I woke up around 315 this morning and turned on the TV. Could you believe there was a show on kayak fishing on OLN? They had a set up I have never seen before. One guy had a Prowler 15. Right behind his seat, where the flush mount rod holders are, he ran a cutting board across and put a kayak seat on top of it facing backwards. On the rear of the tankwell he tied a wooden dowel which hung over about 1 foot on each side of the kayak. He sat and fished from this reverse seat and put his feet on the dowel. He had the kind of rod holder used to fight big fish mounted on the wall of the tankwell right behind where the normal seat would be, just under the cutting board. Seemed to me that it would put his center of gravity a bit high, but he was nailing some pretty big fish, including sharks.
Anyone ever seen or heard of this technique?

Well I finally installed a small hatch ( deck plate ) on the rear of my Prowler 15 so I could have a little access to the back to add a cam cleat towards the rear. Also to store a small bag for keys, wallet, etc.
The largest the P15 would accommodate was a 4" hatch. Just enough to get an arm in to reach the underside of the deck.





This will also aid me in washing the inside of the kayak. I can flip it upside down, stick a hose in one and and let it wash out the other.

A heads up to those thinking of diving this weekend. I got this CENCAL email today:

"Got a phone call from Clark at bodega dive last night,
he was diving Ft ross with Dave Sereni and one other guy yesterday, got buzzed by a good size white, he said about 4ft tall at mid body.
Him and dave wound up standing on a rock, watching their buddy yell at them that a shark was in front of him,,,,, until he realized thats why dave and clark were standing on the rock.
They had to get back into the water to make the 300yd swim to shore.
no problems other than the rare visit.
I told clark he was extremly lucky to see that, and not get hit."

Saw this on Craigslist for $50. It's a scuba pro 48in with 42in spear

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/spo/132586432.html]http://sacramento.craigslist.org/spo/132586432.html

Entered the Super Bowl Sturgeon derby Saturday. The target size was 64 inches. I launched from McAvoy Harbor in Bay Point.
Trying to find that kind of water I wanted to fish was a bit difficult, but after 3.5 miles of paddling against the wind I found what I thought would be a good spot.
I fished along side of Ryer Island where there was a nice seam between fast and slow water. There was an immediate  drop off from 10 feet to 26 feet at the seam. The current was pretty fast on one side and considerably slower on the other. With the incoming tide and the flow of the current going against it made for some REALLY rough water. I anchored and fished, and fished, and fished. Got a couple of taps from bait stealer's was all.
I moved around a little, but with no luck. Listening to the radio it seemed that the day was SLOOOOOOOW all around.
I had a grueling 3.5 mile paddle back AGAINST the current and it SUCKED!
By 3 pm 3 fish were checked in. 63 7/8. 63 3/4, and 61 5/8.
My arms feel like they are about to fall off. My GF drove home while I slept the entire way.
Got home, hopped in the hot tub and went to bed. Slept for 11.5 hours SOLID!
For a while the "guy in the kayak" was all the talk on the radio. Most had never seen or thought of sturgeon fishing from a kayak.
First place will get a little over $9000. second over $4000, and so on down to seventh place. And this is for TWO days. So there is 9k given out on Saturday and $9k given on Sunday.
With this kind of $$ and only $30 to enter I was surprised more kayakers didn't enter.
The rules state you need to have a CF #, but when I was signing in and told him I had a kayak, he said just to write kayak where the cf # goes on the entry form. I think the CF # is just so shore anglers can't squeeze in.
Any of us have just as good a chance as any of them. How awesome would it be for one of use to be in the $$ next year??
Next year I will head up current so I can easily bring that big dollar dino back to have him measured.
One side note, we as kayak fisher people communicating on channel 69 RULE!! I could not believe some of the crap I was hearing on 68. This was the channel that gave hourly updates. There were a few people who deserved nothing less than a good thumping for their disgusting comments when they got back to shore.
Made me proud to be part of this kayak group. We have class and we ROCK!!!