San Pablo Bay - Sunday (1/29)

Today is mostly sunny, no wind, no waves, but no bites (see pics below). Well, we had a few bites, but it is kind of slow day. Mike K, Dave, Bob, ChuckE, me(Eric) and a few more folks ( sorry, I do not remember their names) showed up. Chuck and Bob both got stripers. I heard the stripers are small and released. I got a fat sturgeon (see picture below).

When I arrived at China Camp around 9AM, a few folks were already in fishing. It was nice to paddle out to the honey hole during the calm water -- Sunny and warm. In the morning there were not a lot of actions. Things started picking up around 1Pm during outgoing tide. I got a pretty heavy hit. Fish was on and off.

Around 2:30, I got a sturgeon hooked. It kind of played the sturgeon a little longer than necessary, but it was fun. During pulling in the sturgeon, the pyramid weight and my line were tangled (during the fight). I had to untangle it first while the sturgeon zigzagged from the left to the right. Luckily I set the hook pretty solid. It started giving up the fight after 5 minutes. My snare that I bought this morning was handy to land the fish (see pics below). I measured its length = ~42" (undersized).  I put it back (released).

I fished a little bit after that and decided to call off for the day, then paddled back to the parking lot. It was outgoing tide - an easy way out.

A subdued surgeon laid on yak (resting) 

This one is much heavier and fatter than last one I caught, although it has ~2" longer.

Way to go Eric!  It was a nice day out there today, except for the idiots in boats.  One guy on ch. 69 asked his friend if it was ok to run over kayaks, I'm sure he was joking, but none the less, if I wanted to hear an asshole, I would pass wind.  Some other guys flew by me doing at least 30 mph only 100' from my yak, once again, not a big deal, but,, just a reminder, there are clowns everywhere.  Anyways, a couple of us chatted with a guy at the landing(kayak fisher) who had never heard of NCKA, he told me Keith Frazier had told him all kinds of guys were fishing for sturgeon off their kayaks.  So Ben, if your reading this, it was nice meeting the both of you out there today.  I ended up my day catching and releasing a dink starry flounder.  Better than a skunk I suppose.  JTF..

Good job... Eric!   Two sturgeon in a row is awesome.

I got a voicemail from BobN.  He said he caught his first kayak sturgeon (shaker)  a little after Eric caught his.  I look forward to reading his report too.

It's so interesting that nearly all of the sturgeon caught at the honey hole have been during a strong outgoing tide.  It's almost a waste of time to fish any other time.
Stu and I had to get home knowing we were leaving before the best part of the day.  Darn! 

Good job guys! Chuck your time will come.  You have the sturgeon bug and soon you will be rewarded. 

Jason

Congratulations Eric! I'm fishing right next you next time around 

Great going Eric!!!

Nice fish. I bet that was a great felling! It's almost time to take the Alien Yak out of storage.

 
 

One interesting observation to share -
I had a few good bites, but missed a couple of fish, including the fish that was on and off.  One mistake I probably made, I think, I set the hook too fast (at moment I feel a bite). Instead, I should be patient and wait until the second bite comes. I changed the technique later on. The result turned out better. 

Chuck, right, outgoing tide turned out better. Also, I would move a little bit, if Ihave not got bites for a long time ( 2hour or so). That supposedly gives myself a little more coverage of the area.

You guys have patience that I can only salute........   If Randy and I figure out how to work in a day on the big bay I am bringing striper gear!

Pat

It's so interesting that nearly all of the sturgeon caught at the honey hole have been during a strong outgoing tide.  It's almost a waste of time to fish any other time.

I caught mine at the top of the incoming. 

Way to go, Eric! Bob, our friend Jeff, and I were fishing a hundred yards west of you guys. We were the boat that was there when you guys paddled up in the morning. We saw the idiots in the other boat fly right between you guys later in the day. I got some good pictures that I'll post on Wednesday when I get back from LA.

Jeff landed one ~37" sturgeon, and I landed a nice flounder. Both on the incoming, both on ghostshrimp, both released. Unfortunately we had to leave right at the best time (top of the tide/start of the outgoing).

Nice job Eric and Bob.

I had a great time fishing.  It was the first trip of the year and my first time ever sturgeon fishing.  The only thing I caught was a tan.  Looking forward to trying this again. 

Stuart

Way to go guys!  Glad you had some action.  Sucks to hear about the treatment from the powerboaters. 

I think after the superbowl derby next weekend, the dorks in the powerboats should be fewer in number for a while. 

Stu... glad you got your kayak wet again. 

Tentatively planning to head out there again on the 11th...

Erik

Looks good.

I bet those powerboaters thought you didn't have radios.  Should have broadcasted something on the order of "is it cool to shoot powerboaters" or "we have radios too dipwad" or something like that.

MolBasser

Some other guys flew by me doing at least 30 mph only 100' from my yak,

on my Friday 13th outing at San Pablo Bay by myself I had a guy go by me doing 25 mph. about 25 ft. away for me, his wake allmost got me. (Big Boat) just as he passed he looked back and had this oh sh#t my wake look on his face,  which makes me realize that he just wasn't thinking about what he was doing.  IDIOT!!