Slo @ Montezuma

  Really nice day out there with FishHunter, BackSlide and got to meet SailFish who turned out to be the " Hero "

 of the Day with a Chunky, Healthy Stripper

 marking " Waves " of Fish with Sturgeon every now and then Jumping up to gives us a Wink 

 and say " Not today Fellas  "

 Heard reports of a few takedowns, but no sturgeon landed....
 
 reports of Lunker Strippers Though.... sounds like anglers working into the night....

  Using bait... " Splittails..? "  pileworms...Bullheads

 But the day was slo... first out go had some life, that's when sailfish got his,

 But, after that, just a nice day with a few taps here and there,

 The Fish are there, talk on the radio of  " Too Cold,  tide too slo, beer not cold enough, " as to why bite was off...

 I would say morning  and late afternoon are your best bets and it's only going to get better....

 Can't say i got skunked,  snagged my anchor and had to cut my line,  15lb danworth!!!!!

 a little later, "Huh?",.. Ahh Snag...., Gear up the Hobie Drive , tighten Drag to Break Line... ah, there it goes...

 HuH?... I think I Got something here .... I hooked my Anchor Line!!!!!!

 Square knot and back in Business ...

 Congrats SailFish, Nice to see ya BackSlider and Keep on Hunting FishHunter....

 Montezuma will be the place to be soon.... ...... Danglin

 But, a really Bad Place to be if your a Duck .. Bang!!!  Bang!!!  All Day Long and Lots of Camoflage

nice effort guys! keep up the good work! your efforts will be rewarded with dino-love.

Love to read your colorful reports/intel and see your awesome pix, Don. Sounds like "perserverance" is the name of the game for sturgeon!

Janice aka "Big J"

Guys... you have been putting in a good effort.  I've been MIA lately with business and personal travel and recovering from a back problem, but I plan to get after them soon as well.

Bottom line is that WE NEED RAIN. 

BTW... I hear word of a herring spwawn down by Hunter's point last week... check Coastside for more intel.  Might be a good place to try for Dinos.

Nice report...

EK

Yeah, I expected it to be slow... we really haven't seen the kind of rain we need to get the dinos moving and it's still early.  It's hard to be optimistic about the catching opportunities when you know the situation's not ideal (rain and tide), but hey, my goal for the day was to just get out on the water... since it's been something like six months since I've fished.  Anyway, it was good to meet Danglin and Sailfish, and it's always a blast to see Adam.  Lots of weird stuff going on with anchors getting stuck and unstuck and Danglin "catching" his anchor line.  And he's right about the duck thing.  It sounded like a friggin war zone out there.  All in all, a pretty sweet day except for the early morning cold... and the bank fisherman that couldn't keep the fish off his hook.  He WAS kind enough to give me some intel on the sweet little ledge he was fishing... of course he waited until I'd paddled back to the launch!  I got nada... and I watched him pull in five stripers in the span of an hour.  Next time...

Backslider

Split tails are the shiznit for catchin stripers.  You have to be og to know how and when you can catch a split tail.  Heres one hint.  If there are fish jumpin(little splashes), those are them and ya wont catch one.  Something is makin them jump.   If the waters are calm, try little pieces of worm or shrimp, light tackle. 

I didn't know if you were askin Don, but I thought I'd just throw that out there.  I dunno how many people here are skilled at catchin those things.  My main problem while tryin for them are catfish. 

Is a " splittail " a type of shad or shinner...bluegill?

Is a " splittail " a type of shad or shinner...bluegill?

Don, cyprinid family of fish are carp.  So, you can also catch these suckers with bread and corn.  At one time, splittail were listed as endangered.  They are only found from Redding down to Friant.  Stripers love them to death.


Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), also known simply as splittail, are large fish in the cyprinid family (Cyprinidae). They grow to more than 12 inches and are distinctive in having the upper lobe of the tail fin larger than the lower lobe. The body shape is elongate with a blunt head. Splittail are bottom foragers. They feed extensively on opossum shrimp  (Neomysis mercedis).

Small barbels (whisker-like projections) may be present on either side of the subterminal mouth. They possess 14 to 18 gill rakers, and their pharyngeal teeth are hooked and have narrow grinding surfaces. Dorsal ("back") rays number from 9-10, pectoral ("shoulder") rays 16-19, pelvic rays 8-9, and anal rays 7-9. The lateral line usually has 60-62 scales, but ranges from 57-64.

The fish are silver on the sides and olive gray on their backs. Adults develop a nuchal hump (i.e., protuberance on the fish's nape). During the breeding season, the tail, pectoral and pelvic fins take on a red-orange hue and males develop small white nuptial tubercles in the head region.

This species is relatively long-lived (about 5-7 years) and highly fertile (up to 100,000 eggs per female). Their populations fluctuate annually depending on spawning success and strength of the year class. Both male and female splittail mature by the end of their second year, although occasionally males may mature by the end of their first year and females by the end of their third year. Fish are about 7-8 inches when they attain sexual maturity, and the sex ratio among mature individuals is 1:1.

Splittail are primarily freshwater fish, but are tolerant of moderate salinity (saltiness) and can live in water with salinities of 10-18 parts per thousand. In the 1950s, they were commonly caught by striped bass anglers in Suisun Bay. During the past 20 years, however, they have been found mostly in slow-moving sections of rivers and in sloughs and have been most abundant in the Suisun Bay and Marsh region.

Adults migrate upstream from brackish areas to spawn in freshwater. Because they require flooded vegetation for spawning and rearing, they are frequently found in areas subject to flooding. The onset of spawning in the upper Delta seems to be associated with increasing water temperature and day length between early March and May. Spawning begins by late January and early February and continues through July, with most spawning taking place from February through April.

Splittail spawn on submerged vegetation in temporarily flooded upland and riparian habitat. Typically, terrestrial shrubs and herbs are preferred over emergent wetland vegetation such as cattails and tules. Spawning occurs in the lower reaches of rivers, bypasses used for flood management, dead-end sloughs and in the larger sloughs such as Montezuma Slough. Larvae remain in the shallow, weedy areas inshore near the spawning sites and move into the deeper offshore habitat as they mature.   

Don, they look like this...

Source: http://iep.water.ca.gov/AES/yolo_research.html, California Department of Water Resources.

A good day, just not for us fishermen! (Sonny excluded) those damn rocks down by the bend! I had put a lot of effort into that anchor! and it pained me to cut it loose. Maybe i'll get lucky and find it like you did  

...and thanks for the kick-down Don....it held me well on sunday!

Wow JTF!!!!

 I think your going to give Bsteves a run for his $$$$


 very impressive,

 thanks bsteves for the visual aid......... Danglin