Miles of smiles

What a week Halibut and Sturgeon! 4/27-28/2011:

This week started Wednesday with our buddy Kerin, his wife Julia and good friend Daniel out for a little halibut fishing. We then switched back to Sturgeon for our old friend Boris, His son and Pat.  Both trips were very productive. I was happy with the results. 

    I have been fishing in South San Francisco Bay and concentrating on some humps and bumps on the alameda side, closer to the Oakland airport. The fish have been coming from depths ranging from 14-24 foot of water with 20foot the most productive.

  This part of the bay is definitely more interesting under the water than it is above the water.  With Airports on both sides of the South bay and old ship yards for scenery it’s not very pleasing to the eye.  Knowing there’s fish down there holding on small sandy ledges is enough to get us down there.

Halibut trolling is different then drifting. It takes a different technique. While trolling we set the gear out, and continue to check it at a minimum every 15 minutes.  While checking the gear we ensure the sinker hits the bottom 3 times before we put it back in the rod holder.

As we dropped the gear in the water Daniel s sinker hit the bottom, he bounced the rod 2 times, the second time he got slammed. FISH ON! As I looked over to the other side of the boat we had another fish on. While fighting the double We Hook up agian

     We just put the gear out and have 3 fish in the box. What a great way to start. 

  I went back and tried it again and hooked another good fish. Then moved a little further up and hooked another for #5. The current started flowing faster. So I moved over to Oyster for another fish. Then back to Alameda to finish the day, with a striped Bass of about 5 pounds.

   Kerin and friends had a great halibut experience. They got to see multiple hook-ups and took some very good fillets home.

  On Thursday :

  I had an old friend out, Boris. I hadn’t seen this guy for a year or two. Apparently, he has been having some medical problems. Boris called me a few weeks ago, he told me he was ready to go fishing again.  I was glad to get him out there. The icing on the cake was Boris brought his 53 year old son with him. Fathers and sons have been fishing since the beginning of time.  It’s a great way to ensure you get some quality time with the people who mean the most.

  Boris and I have a mutual friend, Pat Farley. I asked Pat to come along to give me a decent load and to make sure we had enough rods out.

 We looked for sturgeon close to home. The bait shop said the Sturgeon were still on fire in the Carquinez straits.  I motored over to The OZOL pier and anchored up in 65 foot of water.  Slapped on the roe and went to work.  The first part of the tide the passengers held there rods. Boris’s son hooked up first and lost the fish.  The fish didn’t give him a chance to do much. In the heat of the battle he forgot to set the hook. It was enough to show everybody what needs to happen to get these big old sturgeons.  Boris ‘s son had another opportunity shortly after that and this time there was no doubt he got a solid hook set. That fish was 53 inches. A perfect fit for the 46-66 inch slot limit. Boris Hooked a 43 inch sturgeon that fought hard enough to fool us into thinking it was a larger fish. We tossed it back.

  Pat had fun fishing with Joshes light gear. He fought a 52 inch sturgeon on what we now call the suicide rod. The fish don’t have a chance when they get hooked on that set up.

  I ended the trip at 2pm because the wind and tide were opposing, causing some bad chop.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY

Quote from the late Richard Tipton