Not exactly slaying them at the slough

  Got out on Monte Slough this afternoon, and rode the incoming tide up 3 miles or so pulling a rat-l-trap with no love.  Anchored and threw grass shrimp and a couple of bull heads around for just a handful of diaper stripers.  On a positive note, what a great day to watch nature do it's thing.  I found a little indentation on the bank with some water behind the reeds.  Hooked a few small fish throwing back into the mouth of it.  I was holding onto a valve on the bank and noticed some interesting scat on boards near by.  Next thing you know 4 river otters swin in and are curious about me so basically swim right up to my yak an check me out.  They then swam a short distance away and disappreared into the reeds, where they must have a nest.  On the way back to the ramp there was litterally a million starlings roosting on the reeds along the bank, the song they sang was music for your soul, and when they took flight it was hard not to be blown away by it!   It would have been worth the drive just for a few minutes of that.  Hope you are all healthy and happy!  J

  more pics

Thanks for the photo essay Zin. I gotta get on the Petaluma River down by Gilardis there are some side sloughs that are just great. 15 min from the house and you feel like you are on vacation.

Yeah that looks rough man, I was in an all day sales meeting...

  We used to do so well on the petaluma 20 years ago.  you could catch all the mudsuckers you wanted  in just a half an hour and then head out and nail nice 5-10 pound stripers.  All of a sudden one day all of the mudsuckers were gone and so were the stripers!  Hope bait has returned and so have the stripers, I had a bad feeling about the dairy, tallow plant and poultry plant, not to mention the sewage plant all within miles of each other! 

The water looks soooo fishy    Thanks for the report and pictures J.

thanks for the great read zin, looks like a nice peacefull afternoon, cameron

too bad about no fish, but i still plan on heading that way this saturday...crab pots in hand haha

  We used to do so well on the petaluma 20 years ago.  you could catch all the mudsuckers you wanted  in just a half an hour and then head out and nail nice 5-10 pound stripers.  All of a sudden one day all of the mudsuckers were gone and so were the stripers!  Hope bait has returned and so have the stripers, I had a bad feeling about the dairy, tallow plant and poultry plant, not to mention the sewage plant all within miles of each other! 

There has been some large bass caught in the river just this year. 20lb+ fish caught down by the marina on a storm swimbait. In actuality the river is in the best shape it has been in for decades. There is a positive drive to clean the river of debris and there are very tight controls on release of commercial wastewater. My largest striper was caught over 20 years ago. Down by the Novato airport. 31 lb 48 inches long on a live bullhead with the barbs cut off. Numerous fish in the 10 to 15 lb class over the years also. Its time to go back and try again.

Ive been thinking the same thing.  I went to HS in petaluma and have not fished there in MANY years but my wife and I have been kayaking upper areas for several years and its definately much improved!  Usually put in at the turning basin and go far down as we can but maybe its time to check it out again from the port of sonoma end..

Lets do a Pet River hook-up Zin.

 another couple of weeks and I will have a lot more time (seasonal business) and might be able to sneak out sometime next week, let's check tides!

Nice report and pictures , too bad you did not find some larger fish ! This is the best time for them in the smaller / back sloughs and rattle traps are my go to lure . Have you tried the J.I. cut ? Likely not the proper name but it is the shortcut from Suisun Sl. to Monte that comes out a mile west of Beldens .

From the pictures you took that area behind the reeds never has produced much for me , the stripers seem to prefer some current . A couple of other spots you might try is Cordelia Sl. from Pierce harbor towards Cordelia and a nice hole at the mouth of Chadborne Sl. that always shows fish just waiting for the tide to bring them a little something . It is also a killer spot to fish a mudsucker or someother live baitfish .

When you troll Monte or Suisun get into just enough water to have your lure tap the bottom every now and then , I try to keep in 8-10' of water , 8' my prime depth . Better luck next time .

Great report and pics!!!!!!!! Looks like a great day. Seeing all the wildlife is just as fun as the fishing!!!

Badog

Nice pics and story.  Oh how I wish I lived near the delta.  Andy