Sturgeon derby at McNears 2/06/10

It's windy and rainy on/off all day.  The combination of wind and choppy water caused 2 NCKAers flipped their yaks and fell into the water.  One of them lost a rod and both were returned to shore after the incidences.  Not a productive day for all of us, heard 1 NCKAer caught a 30" Sturgeon, Craig announces on the radio that he got Crabs.   I caught a BIG mystery fish maybe you guys can help identify it.    I would like to thanks Ranger Jim for organize this event and other Rangers for helpful information and serving the delicious chilly dogs & burgers.  It's my pleasure to meet & fish with fellow NCKAers.  Also thank you Chris for bring the kayak to meet me at the park.  Here are some pictures of the day.

Way to give it a go.  Thanks for the report.   

Not so much about the fish today. Every kind of weather though and some anchoring mishaps. Lessons were learned by a couple of guys today. Ranger Jim did a great job putting this together and we are looking forward to the next one. Great food after the fishing. Thanks Jim. Whole bunches. It was a glorious day and the clouds were just fantastic.

More pictures...

Saw a guy on the paddle board which reminded me of our beloved Mooch  

Great report Sail,
I was actually rooting for you to catch a legal Sturgeon 
Whish I could have joined you guys out there but work comes before play.
Oh Yah!!! - 2 more weeks - use it wisely     

Big thank you to Ranger Jim, the other rangers who attended & helped out, & the Marin Parks Dept!
I apoligize for the following sequence of pics. The quality is horrible because I didn't realize that my new camera came factory preset to have the digital zoom enabled. If nothing else these show you how fast & far you're going to drift & possibly get further & further separated from your yak should you dump. FYI this was kayak dumper #2 for the day as #1 dumped, rescued, and came back to the launch while I geared up. Yeah I was late to launch. While I was talking to #1 in went #2 for his 'swim'. Thanks to Bird & ElDorado for donating their bait to me. I did manage one fish & a bunch of crabs after everyone else bailed. Might go back tmw.   jim

PS: In the first pic the dumper is behind another kayaker who may not even have known that there was a man overboard until the dumper passed him up. Luckily the two kayaks didn't collide. That would have been a real mess.

Two more pics. Was great fishing with everybody today! jim

Thanks Ranger Jim, much appreciated.

Good hanging and fishing with folks, as usual, and meeting some new folks.  Only a few occasional showers.  Early conditions were a bit bumpy.  Wind was out of the S-SW and set up a nasty little chop against the outgo. Anchored in about 15 ft of water NE of McNears but the wind was strong enough that is was blowing me back on my anchor line despite the outgo, plus some bait stealers.  Moved in closer to McNears in about 12 ft of water and was OK.  Just after anchoring at the new spot and casting, a sturgeon came up and porpoised less than a foot to my side - cool.  But nothing else the rest of the day.  Wind died, swung to the SE mid-morning and then around to N-NW by mid-day. Fished grass, ghost, mud and eel.

Thanks for the report and pictures Sonny. Glad everything went well and no one
got hurt. I was thinking about you guys while I was trying to make a deal for my
truck. Too bad the fish weren't hungry today. BTW Jim, it looks like you are going
to post another new fish for the AOTY.

Jedmo

  BTW Jim, it looks like you are going
to post another new fish for the AOTY.

Jedmo

Unfortunately my fish 'lives on the wrong side of the tracks' and would be dq due to out of season. So no points.   Somebody else already has the category 'sewed up'. 

wow looked like a normal day on SP bay, :smt044glad those who went in got out and were ok, wish i could of been there, but as i sat at work and watched it rain i also thought BTDT and hope everyone was having fun, bummer no legal were caught, thanks for the pics and report, cameron

  BTW Jim, it looks like you are going
to post another new fish for the AOTY.

Jedmo

Unfortunately my fish 'lives on the wrong side of the tracks' and would be dq due to out of season. So no points.   Somebody else already has the category 'sewed up'. 

Huh? There's no flounder season.

yeah there is. starries are covered under the federal groundfish regulations and thus are out of season in sf bay and the ocean until the rockfish season open up.  they are legal east of carquinez though.  good for jim for knowing the regulations, but too bad his flounder doesn't count    of course if jim put it in AOTY I think craig would have to find yet another "award" for him 

I really wanted to make this one, but was writing an offer on a small farm that I am trying to buy.  The intent is to have the ground for mass campouts for NCKA events for Sierra lakes, and to raise some livestock.  Might have to have a pig roast at one of the tourneys! 

The pier at Mc Nears is still being repaired from the collision with a barge I think over a year ago. I forgot to ask Ranger Jim about that. Crap. It seems like it should have been repaired by now. The launch there was pretty cool. I had never launched there before. High slow moving tides for stripers at the islands would be a great time. There is a stink going on about the flounder thing being included in the groundfish rules. The biggest being that if flounder are under the groundfish rules then halibut should be also. My take is that neither should fall under the rule.