Sturgeon 12/10/05

Eric, dude, you are the......well, THE DUDE!  I'm gearing up for a good tide in January, or maybe a couple.  Gotta try again for one of those monsters.  I'll be wathcing your posts carefully for a go-out.

When do we see the new avatar?

Congrats on a safe, productive day and for your unrivaled spirit of sharing.

Allen

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. 
 
Erik

A landing cradle like the ones they use on big muskies might work.  Make it exactly the length of the upper slot limit with a marker in the middle for the lower limit.  Two guys should be able to handle it.


And congrats on another monster.

Erik, so did you keep the gizzard for me?..... just kidding....
It's really not that bad tasting.... sort of like sort of cross abalone and chicken gizzard.

Very cool.  Guess the sturgeon pot is won now.   

Erik,

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!  That fish is HUGE!!!!

I'm not surprised you are in the lead (and will likely win) the sturgy pot.  Can't believe you landed that monster all by yourself.  One question, how did you get the snare around its head?  Did you slide it up from the tail?

Stuart

It's ironic that the biggest fish caught and landed this year wins the smallest pot.  It's just not fair to Erik.

More pics of Sturgeon Slayer Erik.......the smile says it all  Congrats and thanks for showing us how it's done 

and another one....

besides the 25 inch striper that I caught and the Sturgeon that broke me off....this 47 inch leopard shark gave me good fight (caught and released)



definitely another great day spent with the crew  Congrats again to Erik! A great catch to end another great year of kayak fishing!

Yeehaw!!! Erik ... you are the kayak sturgeon GOD!!!

-Allen

Nice, dude!

Bob and I spent an interesting morning getting towed in by a couple of old salts in a ghetto little boat. 

The motor on our buddy Jeff's boat took a dump on us. Luckily it happened right outside of Black Point and not out by bouy 5 where we were earlier in the morning.

There goes the sturgeon season. Looks like I'll be out on the yak with you guys next time!

Congrats again. That's quite a sturgy.

One question, how did you get the snare around its head?  Did you slide it up from the tail?

Stu... the snare goes over your rod, down the line, and over the head.  If I were to build another snare, I'd make the handle about a foot longer for an easier reach... you can see that mine is only about 2 feet long.  Also, a longer snare could allow you to access the tail with the snare for better ease of measurement.  I'll have to work on a process for that.

Art... I like your idea of a landing cradle... just thinking through the logistics of it and it might still take some creativity to work... mostly because with the fish sitting vertical in the water it would be trickly to get the fish into the cradle.  Maybe if there were two long ropes on one end of the cradle so you could basically sink the cradle around the fish and then have the second person lift up on the ropes to raise the fish out of the water.   I'm not concerned about measuring a 46 inch fish... they are easy to get into the boat without a snare.

Dustin... sorry to hear about your boat troubles... (that's what you get for posting that picture of you and Bob flipping us the bird from Jeff's boat)   

Erik

Can't believe you landed that monster all by yourself. 

Uhhh I held his rod for him 

Uhhh I held his rod for him 

Ummm Bill, do you really want that to be your claim to fame?

-Allen

Awesome report!

Woooo-Hoooo-That is one big fish!  Your setup was ready for him.   65# Spectra, 80lb mono- wow!
I wish I was there.

Hey, you need to post this link on BigWatersEdge.  Show those guys in SouthernCal that you too can catch some really BIG FISH!

here you go: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/bb/index.php?topic=2060.0