Benicia Salmon - I got two today!

I put in the Prowler at the 10th (?) St. boat ramp at 11:30 this morning and within 15 min. had a fish on.  It was a 19# Chinook.  Got it near the green buoy about 500 yds from the boat ramp.  I fished west past Dillon Pt. and continued west about half way to the Carquinez Bridge and back to 1st St. Pier for nothing.  The wind and waves came up at about 2 pm (15 mph and some whitecap waves to 3').  I trolled down (more like blew down with the waves) to 1st St. and  was fishing in the cove after 3:10. At 3:30 I hooked up again with a 12# Chinook.  The 19# fish was caught in 12' of water and I was trolling at 10' depth with 130' of line out (the last 50' with fluorocarbon and a keel sinker 5' from terminus).    The second fish was caught in 7' and I was down about 3' (same set-up except I took off the weight and was out about 100').  I was pulling a chartreuse, double-bladed Silvertron with chartreuse and white beads for both fish.  I only heard of one other boat having a fish.  Three other kayakers were out, and by 2:30 I think they had not caught anything.  One report said eight salmon (for 50+ guys fishing?) were caught on 1st St. pier from shore.
Tom

Way to go Tom   Thanks for the report  

What was the quality of the fish?  Good to hear you found some...

Erik

How do you fish for salmon in the Delta? Do Apex lures and FBRs work? I'd love to try it up there...
 Thanks,
 Andrew

Awesome.  Whats a silvertron?  I saw people on Coastside using them too.  Congrats again!

What was the quality of the fish?

Yup... I'm curious about this too.  The fish we saw caught there last year looked quite beat up and colored.  They didn't look very appetizing.

Ya, who wants to catch a 19# beat up salmon...  Smoke it!

Silvertrons are spinners like an extended Mepps with three beads below the first blade attachment and five beads below the attachment of the second blade (beads are alternating chartreuse and silver).  The lead blade is a silver cowbell shape the second is all chartreuse cut like a Thos. Buoyant blade.  The Outdoor Pro Shop off 16 Ave/I-880 in Oakland sells them.
I haven't heard of anyone using FBR's , RSK's, or crowbars.  I know that above Sacto. they use sardine wraps on Kwikfish.  When the going gets tough or I get bored maybe I'll mess with sardines, but I haven't needed to do that yet. You might have trouble with the Sea Lions if your pulling fresh sardines I would think.
The quality of both fish were excellent.  The 12# was bright chrome.  The 19# was just beginning to showing color change.   Another fisherman at the ramp told me he caught one at Duxbury last week that was wasn't as bright as 19#.  We ate a couple fillets last night and it was excellent.  These fish were not beat up.  There was no sign of wear except the beginning of the color change on the 19#.
Tom

Tom,
You definitely beat the odds getting a limit.  You need to hit the liquor store on the way home for some lottery tickets.

Stuart

I keep hearing some terms I don't know anything about.

What is a FBR?  and I know what a kwikfish is but how do you "sardine wrap" it?

Thanks

Bill

Franco Bullet Rotator...I think

I know what a kwikfish is but how do you "sardine wrap" it?

You take a sardine fillet and wrapped it with rubber thread to the underside of a K15 size chartreuse/chrome Kwikfish.  One afternoon, we caught two 27lbs salmon up the Sac using this setup.

Some people swear by the sardine wrap believing that scent makes all the different.  They'll even soak their dines in extra sardine scent to "juice it up" a bit.

Having fished both ways, I'm one of those "believers".

-Allen

Here are a couple of sites for FBR and how to sardine wrap a plug:

FBR:    http://www.sheltonproducts.com/FBR.html

sardine wraps:  http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/resourcecenter/sardinewrap.htm

I was too excited to stop at the liquor store.  I went home and acted like the cat that drags in the mouse.
Tom