honey hole, san pablo bay 2/25

good to see folks and fish out there, here are a few pics- jtf and myself, the mudline at minus low, bullhead flats(mudhead flats?!) and a kayak fisher, sorry brother, i forgot your name.
till next time, ben
wish i had a hot tub!

sorry, im a little lost with computers... jtf and myself

muddy waters...

that is me in the photo. i had a great time floating around today, but no bites.

Nice striper JTF! Looks like you guys had some nice weather at least. I got a new lawn mower today 

bill, I don't get it, are you fishing off the lawnmower or are you mounting it to your kayak? 

Nice to see everyone again. Congrats on the striper, John!

Thanks to Allen for saving me from a tough, scary paddle back. I was messing around with my anchor, trying to get in a better position to fish, and got my rope caught in a bad angle. I flipped my yak with my center hatch open and filled it with a couple of gallons of water. Luckily, Allen had a bilge pump he let me use to pump out my hull. All I lost was a pair of pliers, my hatch cover, and some Miracle Thread, so I wrote it off as a cold, embarrassing learning experience!  My next purchase is gonna be a bilge pump!

I missed one really good tug and landed one kingfish to kill the skunk. Water got ugly fast so most of us called it quits a little early. Hiking back through the thigh deep mud was interesting. The rinse faucets at the landing were life savers...

Dustin, I was wondering what you were doing over there, seemed like you were bored of the slow bite so you started practicing kayak recovery skills.  Seriously, I didn't see you go in but I looked over just in time to see you flip your yak back upright and then pull yourself back in, dude, you were fast, it took you all of like 7 or 8 seconds to be sitting  back upright in your seat.  I wish Red was there to take notes.   Nice job on getting back in the game, it got real rough out there after you guys left!!!

Me and Guitarzan started paddleing back and decided to fish right next to rat rock , big mistake, when we went to land we had 80 to 100 yards of 6" water to get across.  Ben made it alot easier in his OK.  My hobie has that deep bottom and was instantly bogged.  I didn't want to wait for the incoming so I started digging myself forward with my paddle, that and throwing myself forward in the seat to scoot the kayak throught the mud.  Big lesson learned!!!

I did have a decent day fishing, I switched to a mono leader with 2 5/0 gama hooks 5" apart with a nice chunk of herring on both hooks to catch and release a 4' leopard shark, catch and release to my fillet knife a 29" 9lb striper and also released to the water a 19" striper.  I would of released the 29er but when I saw it was a fat male I decided to eat him,  I even sashimi'd some of him last night when I got home.   All  fish bit on herring!!!!  Amazing, first time I've ever caught anything besides a batray on herring.  JTF..

hooooooooooo man look at that mudline.  I hope you all were able to make it back before that happened.  Any guesses on when it went from do-able landing to mud-o-rama?  I know that its okay at .9 feet...

S

Glad to see you guys out there on Saturday.  Was nice to be on the water nonetheless.  This trip was a skunk for me.  Had lots of small kingfish'ish bites and a few that felt like striper slams but no hookups.  When I decided to paddle in closer to shore to find a wind break I must have accidentally tripped my bail release with my elbow. When I went to throw anchor, I noticed all of this monofilament line all over the place.  What's the deal?  Then I noticed that my entire spool of spectra plus mono backing had been dragged across the bay.  Took me like 10 minutes to reel it all back on the spool again.  Duh!

Just before I anchored up, a boat nearby landed a keeper sturgeon and then took off.  That wind just wasn't cooperating though... made it pretty tough fishing. 

Glad Dustin got back in his boat... it was about the fastest re-entry that I've ever seen.  That could  be a scary situation as the current was really ripping about that time.  Good reminder to all of us to be prepared for the unexpected.

Steve... we landed at about 3:00 or so.  I'd guess that the tide was at about zero feet by that time and we had about 20 yards of mud to wade through to get to the little rock outcropping you mentioned.  The mud was firmer than that in other places I've tried... at China Camp it's about waist deep.  Here it was only about 8" or so.

Erik

Fishing was slow, but it was a good day to be bobbing around on SP Bay.  You can see Tom and me in the first picture.  I'm that red speck on the right at the horizon line.  Thanks to Dustin for leading us to the honey hole.  I'm only sorry that I had to pay him back with the use of my bilge pump.  No hookups for us.  Oh well.

-Allen

i landed just before 2 pm. the water was lapping at the very edge of the gravel, i only had about 10ft[across] of mud to span.

I got a late start around 10:30 (baby wouldn't go to bed  )  Didn't really know where the 'less mud' launch was so I launched from china camp figuring I'd meet up with the fleet via gps.  Put in several hours and adjusted spots once after a pb radioed they'd caught a sturgeon and were leaving.  Got a few nibbles there, but nothing serious.  Followed everyone to the 'less mud' spot and found that it still had considerable mud, and me having forgotten my boots was wearing tennis shoes.  I took off my shoes and socks and waded through barefoot.  I got a decent cut on my big toe, but it went alot better than it could have.  That spot does have a nice shower station to rinse off, which was great for all the mud and blood.  My gear came home clean. 

I didn't see any fish, there were a couple commotions that I observed (one was a kayak self-rescue).  Still it was a beautiful day and probably the best weather I've ever fished sturgeon in.  I almost caught some Zs with my (tennish shoed) feet on the front hatch and head against the backrest with the rod leaning against my knee.

Afterwards I picked up a 9'4" zodiac (my dad offered to pay for one so he doesn't take another swim off a kayak).  So I've got a nicer platform to scuba dive from now, and my wife might be willing to fish in it too.  It's only got oars for now so anything caught off of it would still be in the 'human powered' category.  We'll test the zodiac out in a lake, crabbing or maybe sturgeon fishing close to shore in a couple weeks when my dad visits (depending on conditions).

The Zodiac isn't too paddle friendly. At least not like a kayak. Watch out for current. I got rid of my Zodiac when I got my 1st kayak and have zero regrets. At under 10 feet it is really a good idea to put as many people as you plan on taking into the Zodiac BEFORE you ever head to the water. With all the gear you will find you have a LOT less room that you think. That was my experience when I had mine, not enough room. And do not forget your VHF. Carry a small patch kit too. I got 3 little pin holes from one fish's dorsal fin. Amazing how fast air can leak out.

Not like I had to pay for it.     If my dad doesn't like it I'll just sell it on craigslist and it'll be like it was a cheap/free rental.