Bay Water Trail-SJ Merc

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/12871895.htm

Not sure if you need to sign up to view the link but here's the gist of the article.

"The measure, signed last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, creates the San Francisco Bay Water Trail, envisioned as a network of launching spots for kayaks, canoes and other small boats. It calls for a plan to be drawn up by the state's Bay Conservation and Development Commission, highlighting places the public can easily access the bay, with Web sites, maps, coordinated signs and, in some cases, bathrooms, parking lots, campgrounds or links to hotels."


Among the 86 proposed locations are about a half dozen in the south bay.  A much needed resource for those of us residing down here.  Looks like there's gonna be spots around the dumbarton, milpitas, Menlo, P.A and Alviso.  I sure hope these these launch points offer low tide pull out without wading thigh deep in muck.

Now there's a great idea!!!

Anyone know how we can participate in this?

-Allen

What no deep muck at Alviso  

Sounds great, I heard they also approved upgrades to the Alviso marina area but I don't know if that is part of this or not.

When not working from home here in lovely SCruz, I am frequently found near Alviso.  Any hints on where to launch and what to target out of there?  I'd love to make my next trip to work into a fishing trip, too!

To this date I still haven't been able to get all the mud out of my wetsuit.  That stuff is insane.  Alviso is slated for completion in 2007, I think the current renovations were approved before this by the dept of waterways.  Since construction has already begun I doubt they'll make any changes to the design, It would be sweet to have a new launch spot out near the amtrak bridge or somewhere on coyote creek....that'd be like a one mile paddle as opposed to the 5 we did from the marina.  

Allen, the only mention of involvement was donations.  Apparently the new law didn't state specifically where the money would come from.  I would think that the Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK) would have more info on planning and how to be part of it.

A quick tour of google earth and a re-arrange of my work calendar and now I'm free to go poke around Alviso this afternoon.

Any hints on what to target/what I should know before going out?

BigRed - this fishing report might give you an idea......


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=211&highlight=alviso

Sounds great... um...  except for the deep mud part.


Looks like I need to get a sturgeon snare before I go out seriously looking for fish.  I know of a good Asian market near there that sells shrimp, though, so bait won't be an issue.

On that trip, we skipped the mud and landed at the yacht club dock a couple hundred feet up the river..  I can still see the looks on Bill, John, and Art's faces when we walked up clean as a whistle while they looked like they had been mud wrestling.

BigRed, there is a bait shop in Alviso ... Laines Bait Shop.

-Allen

The map I looked at in the Merc had quite a few launch spots by the Dunbarton bridge.  Hopefully in a year and a half, the access to S. Bay sturgeon should be available

FYI, Laines is the place in the south bay to get live grass shrimp.  Fishery Supply in East San Jose MIGHT carry them, too, but I haven't been there in a while.

Stuart

There's a resident population of sturgeon that live within that general area but I've also heard of the occasional striped bass being caught around there. I've heard from a couple sources that the sturgeon caught in this region aren't very good table fare but there's alot of very big fish swimming around.  

Things you should know:

Check the tides before heading out.  If possible launch an hour or two before the low tide and fish the incoming tide.  This makes for easier paddling and the narrower channels ensure that passing fish will cruise by your bait (big thanks to the guy that pointed that one out, seems simple but we overlooked it). When we went out for sturgeon earlier this year we launched at the peak of the high and returned toward the end of the outgo.  What we found was that the 5 mile cruise out to the towers was actually a 5 mile hell paddle back in.  Even worse was that our point of entry was now a good 20' away from the low tide water line, which equates to climbing uphill in thigh deep mud.  

To my knowledge, there is no real launch site.  The marina was fenced off earlier this year but I'm not sure of its current status.  We were lucky enough to get permission to drop in at the Blue Whale sailing school.  There's levees around that you should be able to drop in on.  Before buying bait or unloading you should probably drive out and check things out first.  

The primary fishing areas are the "Towers" or the Amtrak crossing. Its a pretty long paddle to get there but easy to navigate. Once you drop in you just follow the slough out and it merges with the coyote.  The Towers are right there at the merge and they're very visible from at a least couple miles away.  The amtrack crossing is south of the towers, so on the way out you'd hang a right at the merge and head upstream like 3/4 of a mile.  I'm sure if there's fishable spots between the launch and the towers but those are the most popular.  




And yes, Allen made a clean getaway at the yacht club.  Good for him....sucked for us but what can you do.

Art,
Would you go again this year or was it just too much effort?  

I remember seeing a picture of the current just ripping over one of the anchor buoy's and the looked BAD!!!

I've got a minkota that I could try to mount on the crate.

Stuart

I will definitely be going again.  I'm convinced there's huge sturgeon in decent numbers there.  A shot at my, "fish of a lifetime," would be well worth the effort.  Plus, as a yak fisherman I think I'm getting used to, "roughing it." Its also pretty damn close to my house so I gotta factor that in as well  

If I remember correctly that day had a significant tidal swing and the current was ripping, especially in the middle of the channel.  The only thing it really affected was the paddle home but that can be avoided by timing the fishing around the low tide.  That trolling motor would make things a ton easier though.  I think we learned alot from the last effort that will make future trips a whole lot easier and probably more productive.

I've got a minkota that I could try to mount on the crate.

Stu - BE A MAN and paddle   ......besides, you need the exercise  

sorry Stu, you walked into that my friend  

OK Art, sounds good.
Next time you go, can you post it in the hookups?  I'd love to try it.

Stuart