Report Sturgeon sun 12/9

Epic trip 💪💪

Good job on the sturgeon fellas!!!!
Hey John
I see ya got a 19 Outback there, same boat I picked up last month....
Whats up with the black tape on the front hatch?
Scotty

Good job on the sturgeon fellas!!!!
Hey John
I see ya got a 19 Outback there, same boat I picked up last month....
Whats up with the black tape on the front hatch?
Scotty

Scotty, in my opinion Hobie designed a stupid front end. The old outback rides over waves. The revo cuts through them. The new outback digs into them and the recess shape really funnels the water onto the hatch. The front hatch leak is known but I haven’t gotten my new hatch seal yet. Windtoys was waiting for them still. So long story short I anticipated rough conditions and put some duct tape over the hatch opening to keep the inside dry. Worked like a charm and came right off without leaving any residue.

Ghost Shrimp eh, got plenty of lobster sized ghost  I'll bring em.

Good job on the sturgeon fellas!!!!
Hey John
I see ya got a 19 Outback there, same boat I picked up last month....
Whats up with the black tape on the front hatch?
Scotty

Scotty, in my opinion Hobie designed a stupid front end. The old outback rides over waves. The revo cuts through them. The new outback digs into them and the recess shape really funnels the water onto the hatch. The front hatch leak is known but I haven’t gotten my new hatch seal yet. Windtoys was waiting for them still. So long story short I anticipated rough conditions and put some duct tape over the hatch opening to keep the inside dry. Worked like a charm and came right off without leaving any residue.

I too Was concerned about the new outback being a bit “nose heavy”. It will take water over the bow
pretty easily , a bit too easily!   Especially with a boat wake. So I figured my body is too far forward...the seat needs to go back, but can’t,
But with some thought, it did!!!  I moved it back almost 8 inches! Locked it down in all 4 corners with paracord.
Me being a tall guy 6’4”  I feel more comfortable  in with it back further. I think I found my sweet spot.
It opens up a huge fishing platform right in front of me, a handy space ro store my tackle box,
the seat sits lower, which I’m OK with. And hopefully get some weight transfer  and pick the bow of the boat up a little bit.  This is an experiment and  will need to test it out to see if I want to keep it.
I found  that strapping the hatch this way is a bit tighter seal!
Scotty

Good job on the sturgeon fellas!!!!
Hey John
I see ya got a 19 Outback there, same boat I picked up last month....
Whats up with the black tape on the front hatch?
Scotty

Scotty, in my opinion Hobie designed a stupid front end. The old outback rides over waves. The revo cuts through them. The new outback digs into them and the recess shape really funnels the water onto the hatch. The front hatch leak is known but I haven’t gotten my new hatch seal yet. Windtoys was waiting for them still. So long story short I anticipated rough conditions and put some duct tape over the hatch opening to keep the inside dry. Worked like a charm and came right off without leaving any residue.

Good job on the sturgeon fellas!!!!
Hey John
I see ya got a 19 Outback there, same boat I picked up last month....
Whats up with the black tape on the front hatch?
Scotty

Scotty, in my opinion Hobie designed a stupid front end. The old outback rides over waves. The revo cuts through them. The new outback digs into them and the recess shape really funnels the water onto the hatch. The front hatch leak is known but I haven’t gotten my new hatch seal yet. Windtoys was waiting for them still. So long story short I anticipated rough conditions and put some duct tape over the hatch opening to keep the inside dry. Worked like a charm and came right off without leaving any residue.

I don't like that fix...

Great report and congrats on the two dinos ! In what depth did you find them in ?
I also had a question about the bites for those two dinos. Were you holding the pole ?...did you feel light taps or a slight pull ?...if not holding the rod, did the tip tap several times, or dip down ?

Im asking because I still feel its such a mental thing to know if a sturgeon is biting or not, or if its just a crab or the current.

Thanks !

Sorry for the later report.

To start, if there are AOTY points for karma, ThreemoneyJ earned a ton on Sunday.
Met ThreemoneyJ (John) out bullhead flat on Sunday. Saw his post late Saturday night and decided to join. I picked up live ghost shrimp on my way and got there around 7:30.

You can see by his post, it was a fun day. I hooked a huge dino after about a 20 min soaking of live ghost shrimp (the bait of the day). I don't know how big it was, but it was so big, I could only get it's head out the water to get the hook out. But during the long fight, I released my anchor attached to a buoy and the massive fish got caught in the buoy line. John was super helpful and got me untangled. Once we both saw the fish, we realized it was way over 60 inches. It was tough to get near my boat to release.

Once I released the fish, I rebaited and got a shaker striper. Re-baited again, waiting about 15 min and then another dino on. This time it was a slot fish. After another fun fight, John helped me land it. (need a bigger net) It was 46 inches and 29 lbs. I had no idea how powerful these fish were.

But after this was the real drama. Trying to whip the fish into the back of my kayak, I ended up flipping. Thanks again to John, for picking up all my stuff as it floated away, talking to me as I flipped my kayak back over. And steading the kayak as I got back in. As I was feeling like a cold wet rat, he made sure I was good and got my anchor. Then headed back in. What a day. 2 dinos and 1 flipped kayak for me.

On my way in, I heard him on the radio staying he hooked a keeper. Karma fish.

Thanks ThreemoneyJ for all your help. Epic day.

My .02...I always sense or see a bump or vibration like tickle thing, then pumps...if I were to measure the dip length it seems like 2-3" dips so it is not that subtle once they find it, a mistake I've heard is waiting too long to decide whether or not to set, when in doubt, set that hook

I was holding my rod because the wind and the waves made watching the pole in a holder impossible. The pictures don’t show it very well but it was very poor conditions.

As far as the bite goes um, it wasn’t a striper tap or a leopard tap either more of a subtle pull down but very easy to tell even in the rough conditions.

Depth wise it was around 15 feet deep on maybe a 3-4 ft tide?

Thanks guys!