Sturgeon 12/10/05

Erik, those last two pics of you at the dock are sweet.  It looks like you're due for an avatar upgrade.
Too bad Elric, JTF, and I didn't make it back in time to see it.

   That is unreal!  I hope I can join you guys next time.

Oh Man, what a day!  Such a good time out there even when the chop got bad I was catching fish.  My totals for the day were 3 undersize leopards, 2 undersize stripers and 1 starry flounder, all released.  A big WTG to erik on his monster, and also to elric, joel and chuck on their keeper stripers.  I wish joel would have kept his 5' leopard shark as I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't the culprit who lost me my anchor.   Yep, I was 2.4 miles out and my knot on my anchor clip slipped.  I was just getting ready to head in when Tote yelled out to me that he had an extra anchor   I was so stoked for that, Tote, thank you very much for that.  I've learned a valuable lesson with that one, always bring an extra anchor. 

Great report guys. Sucks being on the sidelines but it's great seeing those pics.

One question that I have for you Eric ... I've read your tutorial and can see from the pics how the sturgeon don't float like normal fish, so how do you measure him while he's still in the water and before the noose goes around him to see if he's legal? Do you kick his tail end up some how or what?

Congrats Erik-

That fish is HUGE. For sure, I need to hook up with you guys the next time you guys go out there. That's just awesome.

Freddie

Way to go Erik Nice Fish You are definitely the DinoSlayer 

Awesome Report.  Hope you guys went into Buck's to celebrate and slam a few?

JDyak

wow erik, truly amazing. your focus on the sturgeon is inspiring.

good thing you had that malibu two, where would you put that
thing on a long skinny yak I wonder? not going to fit in any hatch.

65lb braid... Did you use more than 8lbs of drag on that guy? 

did your fishfinder come into play at all?  .

J

good thing you had that malibu two, where would you put that
thing on a long skinny yak I wonder? not going to fit in any hatch.

That's why it's very important to have an uncluttered deck.  Notice that Erik's FF is mounted on the side.  His kayak is rigged to transport dinos.  I often worry about how I'm going to get one of those monster up on my Prowler 15.   I can't wait to have that problem.

Forgot to mention Chuck gave us all a taste of his 'Indian Candy'. AWESOME is an understatement.Can't wait to try to make it myself.
I was wiped when I got home and the GF wanted to go to Tahoe...I just got back and I am even more wiped than yesterday.
One thing that I have noticed on my drives home from fishing with the NCKA group is how great I feel. Sometimes I can't think of anything that could substitute it. ( Disclaimer: something that I don't already have....GAF point remain in tact. )

chuckE, you almost took out scwafish on the bycatch with that striper.

did you catch it on sturgeon gear/bait, or were you fishing for striper?

Thanks for the compliments guys... it sure was an adventure.  I don't think I'll have to keep any more sturgeon the rest of the season.  Hopefully the rest of you can share the same experience and I'll be there for the assist.  Chuck... I'm planning to use your sturgeon candy recipe to smoke some of this fish... hopefully it'll turn out as good as your salmon did.  Congrats on the striper... that's a nice one. 

Sharkbait... as for measuring a large sturgeon... that's a tough one.  I've been at this a while and like to think I'm a pretty good judge of size when I catch a sturgeon.  Certainly with a fish that is in the middle of the slot limit and even in to the mid 60-inch range I can tell very quickly whether it's legal or not.  I have hash marks on my kayak from the mid point forward, and from my "zero" mark to the end of my kayak is about 71 inches.  During the fight I did get to see the whole body of the fish several times as it swam past my kayak and basically made a judgement call that it was legal and that I would attempt to land him.  This one turned out to be a little close for comfort but in the slot nonetheless.

I still think we need to come up with a better process for measuring a large fish before landing it.  It's easy with a small fish... but with these big guys it's really quite difficult.  I think that perhaps it could be done a two person team with a tail snare so long as one kayak has good marks on the side as a "ruler".  Although even with the fish on shore it takes a quite a bit of care to measure a fish like that accurately. 

Jmairey... the TR100 offers up to 14# of drag... but I still kept it on the loose side just in case... the Alan Tani drag upgrade makes this reel very smooth. 

In all honesty, this fish didn't fight with the same spirit that I've had others put forth.  No arial acrobatics. Initially it came to the surface and thrashed and rolled, then it took off and gave me a pretty steady tow around the bay with only the occasional short burst of speed.  It mostly stuck on the bottom and just swam around with me in tow. Once it tired out, I poked it in the nose with my paddle and club a few times and it took off on a couple more short runs before I was absolutely sure it was pooped. 

Erik

erik, you mean it only towed 275lbs plus of human around in a 34" wide plastic kayak for 20 minutes?
what are sturgeon coming to? 

I understand 80lb leader (how long btw?), if it gets wrapped up in the fish etc, you need that big leader
to deal with abrasion and perhaps shock but what about the 65lb braid? probably really good for the confidence, but
do you think you could have gone with 30lb braid main and 80lb leader? mainly curious on that last one.

Tote, glad you liked the Salmon Indian Candy.  I can't wait to try some sturgeon candy... hint....hint...

chuckE, you almost took out scwafish on the bycatch with that striper.
did you catch it on sturgeon gear/bait, or were you fishing for striper?

Yup... for awhile I tought I might have a chance at taking down the Mendo Master too.

Believe-it-or-not... I caught all my stripers on the same 80 or 100# mono sturgeon rig using white shrimp for bait.

Jmairey... I used to use 25# mono with a 40# mono leader... I kept breaking off the 40# mono leader from them wrapping it around them.  I switched to spectra because I thought it would give better sensitivity and even 65# spectra is thinner diameter than 25# mono.  I'd have no problem using 30 or 40 # spectra as I believe it has enough abrasion resistence to handle these fish. 

My leader is no more than 18-20" long or so... keep it short so the bait stays on the bottom. 

By the way... a lovely thought to start off the day... when I lifted this fish up at home it's bowls let loose all over the place.  Just disgusting... anyway... it was full of little tiny clam shells (like 1/4 - 1/2 inch in size)... hundreds of them.  I guess we know what that gizzard is for now... many of the shells were smashed up.  I guess they like those clam beds...