China camp 12/30

My Christmas vacation fishing spree unded with the sturg winning 4 to zip, but its a lot of fun anyway.
Ill let the other chime in, here's my pic of the day.. JTFs catch.

My .02...
I launched from the China Camp beach yesterday with ChuckE, JTF, Freddie and Reelfish.  We paddled straight out from Rat Rock a little over two miles, keeping the pumphouse just to our right. 
Soon after anchoring up, I heard a strange noise.  Turns out the noise was the small braid sections of my anchor rope passing through the eyelet at the back of my kayak, as the knot I tied it off with had slipped .  No problem, right?  I easily grabbed what was left of the rope, repositioned and tied it off once more. 
After about 10 minutes of actual fishing time, I notice an unusual amount of slack in my line, which had been casted down current of me.  I'm moving.  I looked down to see if I tied another bogus knot, but it was still there.  I turn around and see the float on my rope is still with me, and realize what has happened.  This time, the faulty knot* was holding my anchor to the rope .  My optimism for the day was pretty much squashed right there. 
I paddled back over to the guys to let them know I was about to just paddle back in and call it a day, but JTF offered to let me tie off to his kayak so long as his anchor held.  So with his help (thanks, bro) I was able put in a little more fishing.  It was pretty slow, but Chuck managed to catch a pesky shaker striper who had been pecking at his bait. 
After some more time had passed with no action, JTF decided a change of location was in order.  I opted not to follow, and called it a day.
  Looks like the move to a new spot paid off big time, John.
After paddling back in, loaded up the car and hung out with Reelfish (sorry, I forgot your name), who had stayed back to fish around Rat Rock.  Talked about delta stripers, and scanned the water to try and find Guitarzan, who had paddled out earlier to deeper water off of McNears, then split.
Today, I de-ghetto my anchor set-up.

 
*I can't recall ever having any trouble with knots I've tied in the past.  I'm hoping this trend does NOT cross over to knots tied in my fishing line/leaders!

Bungle... sorry to hear of your knot woes.  I guess we all have to learn our lessons at some point.  Still waiting for the rest of the report... and I take it  Chuck did not hook up or I'm sure I would have heard the celebration by now. 

As for knots... my advice to anyone is to learn to tye a bowline knot.  It's an extremely versatile knot, easy to tie... very secure, and easy to loosen if need be.

http://www.tollesburysc.co.uk/Knots/Bowline.htm

Now c'mon JTF... let's hear it!

Alright Eric, here it is, same story up until the end of Nates when I had decided to move.  We had gps problems on the way out so we weren't exactly in the area of the honey hole.  I had kept looking around unsatisfied with my bearings and markers I had memorized from last year.  After one short paddle, I fished for thirty minutes and swore I was at least a hundred yards away from the area I was looking for.  I pulled anchor again and paddled up current and started to see the pumphouse and power pole directly lined up with me in the middle.  Then I looked for mc nears pier and the trees on the shoreline of the foothills.  I was there!  Or maybe? 

I dropped anchor and started to chill with my trusty fishin rod in my lap when I felt a distinct tug followed by me settin my hook into lip.  I was all by myself as Chucke and Freddie were about a mile away to the east.  The fish came to the surface and did a little aerial and hog tied itself in my leader.  I yelled out fish on! loud enough for those guys to hear me a mile away.  I was using a calcutta 700 with 20lb berkeley big game and a 3' 60lb coated steel leader with 2 5/0 kahle hooks and ghost shrimp.  After seeing the fish on the surface tied up I grabbed my cell and called chuck to tell him to get over to my spot.  The sturgie was able to unravel himself and start swimming for my anchor line.  I released.  I tired him out rather quickly and pulled him next to my yak.  He wasn't that big so I just grabbed inside his gills and pulled him in the yak with me.

I was able to hold him on my marks and saw that he was just over 46"  I snapped a little pic and decided to release him hoping for a bigger one.


About this time, chuck and freddie start paddling over.  They anchor up and were in a 3 yak firing line.  Next thing I know I get a tap, tap and I set hook on a flounder.  I really enjoy flounder on crackers with cream cheese so I kept it.  I had a funny feeling in my gut which told me to get the ghosties back in the water.  I was still anchored in the exact same spot.  Also, I was pretty stoked to have caught my first legal from a kayak, my first sturgeon with a bait rather than grass shrimp.  All of my keepers and shakers from shore or boat have been with grass shrimp only.  I remembered Eric Kunz last year nailing them with ghosties out there as I was using grass.  This year, the guys have been getting them with grass and now I had hooked up with ghost....

Tap, tap, set!  Another fish on and this guy is going ape s**t!  I look at chucke and he's like, "no way bro, another!"  I had to release anchor right away and i'm hoping for a monster, instead another barely legal breaks the surface.  After a couple minutes I gilled him and pulled him in to the yak with me.   I put him on the marks and same size as the last on.  This guy has some battle scars on him.  After chucke told me he would smoke him that was pretty much the end of an chance of pardon.

 

Ben, your nantucket whaler worked like a charm.  Great day with a gnarly mud landing.  I think we have a new method for mud landings.  I got out of my yak and got at the back end and put my weight on the tail with my hands and angled my body at 45 degrees and started skating across the mud.  Worked great, went like 150 feet in 20 seconds.  I think momentum is the key as my feet didn't get stuck and I just kept pushin.    You still get all muddy but there is a shower at the launch to wash the yak and waders off with.   JTF..

Dino madness!  Nice report!

NICE report JTF... that's some great action.  Seems like all we're catching so far are these 50 inchers... wonder where all the biguns are?  I'm sure they're in there...  we'll have to find them in another couple weeks.

Congratulations on a great day of fishing... two legals in one day is nothing to sneeze at. 

Chuck... I'm still rooting for ya buddy!

Hey- that was you all we saw -- Wizard and I pulled in about 11:30 just inside of you all (in the 26'er), we got one short and that was it

I just wanted to say it was a pleasure meeting bungle and guitarzan. I enjoyed talking with you. It was also nice to meet the other gent's  all thou I did not get to talk to you guy much other than hello. JTF you and I have a mutual friend I found out later, Jason Chin. So here's my fishing story. I knew my kayak was a little slower then the others ( X-factor ) so I started out sooner then the rest of the pack. I got to rat rock, headed more to the east keep on paddling the others caught up blew by me and left me in there wake. The prowler kayak are a lot faster then mine or I have a bad technique so I had marked some fish were I was. Called out on the radio to let them know I was going to hang back and fish where I was. Droped the anchor stated fishing. I had one bite and that was all. It was a tap not a pump so I dont think it was a sturgeon. I also had a problem not getting my anchor to stick. The quick release worked fine but I was dragging the anchor so after a while I headed back to the beach. All in all it was fun.

Chuck... I'm still rooting for ya buddy!

Thanks Erik.  I'm rooting for me too. 

Getting skunked again isn't so bad, especially when one your buddies does well.  I know my day will come... hopefully sooner rather than later.

This looks like the season for the ol' timers to kill their dino skunk.  Tote kicked it off with his first kayak dino, then Mooch gets his, then Scwafish get one with a $100 tag, and now JTF with a double.  WTG brothers!!!

JTF...  thanks for hooking us up with bait.

I've got your sturgeon in the fridge now curing in brown sugar and salt.  It'll be ready for the smoker tomorrow.  This batch of smoke sturgeon is going to be delicious!

I will be smoking sturgeon tomorrow as well...  got a big batch brining.  Yum!

John-

Congrats bro on your catch. You were on fire... for about 20 minutes. You had a hunch and it paid off big time. I still owe you for the ghosties. My bad for forgetting to pay you yesterday. We'll have to hook up again some time soon and... bait is on me.

The weather was great pretty much all day. I was a little chilly in the morning but it didn't last too long. Landing sucked... but, I was able to tie off on the little pier out there and hump my gear up to lighten my load. I opted not to wade through the mud... didn't want to get that icky mud up my shorts. It was all good though. JTF got through it like a champ. He's got the technique down. Ben and Chuck did well... Ben almost ate it and Chuck was huffing and puffing by the time he hit hard beach. I just laughed watching them slug through. It was a good day. Sorry Chuck... I though I had some mojo left for you... turns out, I didn't even have any for myself. JTF was the man yesterday.

Freddie

MMMM' smoked sturgeon, that's motivation to get out there

Nice work JTF!!! Two in a day is just AWESOME

Chuck - keep at it brother = I'm sure you'll pull it off SOON! 

Awesome job guys!!!! Wanted to join you all, just wasn't in the cards this weekend.
Got the new license and am ready to roll now.

You guys ever try off the Richmond/San Rafael bridge? Or are the currents too much out there? Years ago I used to nail the dinos out there and it's an easy launch. I think you can get out even at low tide without dragging over the mud.