San Francisco Sturgeon fishing 3/6/2010

[sansou]

Went up to San Francisco and hired a sturgeon guide with good buddy Valhalla 2000 (frank). This particular guide (Sean Tracy, FV "Mini Me") runs a 25' pilot house, and came well recommended from the local bait shops.

We made our intentions clear to the guide that we were there for sturgeon, and nothing but sturgeon, which pleased Sean, despite the fact we could have probably caught a crapload of good size striper which were all over the place.

In brief, we had a 2 legitimate bumps (evidenced by sucked out mud shrimp), and no sturgie. Bummer, but Frank and I still felt it was a great trip just by the fact we both learned a lot and got to try something new. We got lucky with excellent weather and little wind while we fished the San Pablo bay area.

For me, sturgeon fishing is a totally different universe....the rigging and the subtle clues that you look for while fishing are not obvious. Always cool to learn something new in the world of fishing.

I heartily recommend our guide Sean. We fished it hard from 6am to roughly 5pm, and Sean tried his best but the tides weren't all that favorable (the previous weekend he had 2 sturgies, one of which was a 100lb +). One way to contact him is to call Gus's Bait Shop (off Balboa and 28th), and speak with the lady who runs the shop.

I'll let the pics fill in the rest of the story...

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Magic thread is key to holding the ghost and mud shrimp. I ended up buying 6 spools of the stuff cause it worked so well.
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Frank about ready to set the hook!
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Wah? A flounda?
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Irishman Sean waiting for one more bump before the big swing....
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This is where they kept the Chinese for a while....
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Ended the day doing a couple bounce ball hali drifts real quick like....Sean felt so bad we didn't get a sturgeon. ha ha!!
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Striper fisherman in front of the Marina District...
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Thanks a million Frank for picking me up from the house and setting this thing up. Looking forward to fishing with you again!






The following pics are for you Trolly.... (shot at the Academy of Sciences)
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This is the big "catfish in the sky" that gives Trolly nightmares....
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[Troutman65]

Wow , Vallhalla_2000 . Have not heard that name in a while . Hope your doing good Frank . Nice fishing trip Sansou. Great photos . Thanks for sharing

[trollmiester]

wow what time does the night watchman go for his break? i would like to fish in that aquarium.what time you want to pick me up? lolololololololololol

[old pudd fisher]

Very nice post Sansou I love San Francisco. And the ones of Aalcatraz were my favorite that place is so intriguing to me. Thanks for the photos they were injoyed.

[diamondbear]

What a Great adventure for sure anyway , Sturgeon is very select fishing . great report Sansou , cool pics

[cappo]

Nice trip Rich. Them Norcalers love sturgeons. The magic thread is good stuff. I learned about it from the pier guys up there.

[troutdog]

SF one weekend to the Colorado River the next....what is on tap for next weekend Rich? Nice set of photos, you'll get that sturgeon next trip!


TD

[sansou]

Thanks guys!

The People's Republic of San Francisco is one strange strange trip.


SF one weekend to the Colorado River the next....what is on tap for next weekend Rich? Nice set of photos, you'll get that sturgeon next trip!
TD

Thanks....ha ha!! Funny you mention the travelling. This weekend I'm keeping it local, maybe a little DVL, but monday it's the 'Nados for hopefully some YT!!

[dockboy]

nice trip! tough on the sturgies but thats fishing for'em, there one day and gone the next. I was there for that weekend in the Marina. Great weather, much better than we have seen up this way in a while.

[Fisherman57]

Good stuff Rich....

Save me some of that "Magic Thread" that you bought......... looks like just the trick
for fishing the surf with some GS......

Thanks for sharing......

[sansou]

Dockboy: your so right about the weather up there. Fickle....like the sturgeon!!




Good stuff Rich....

Save me some of that "Magic Thread" that you bought......... looks like just the trick
for fishing the surf with some GS......

Thanks for sharing......

Done deal!! That stuff is, well, like MAGIC!! I bet it works wonders on chicken liver for catfishin' too!

...and thanks once again for picking up that shorty Kencor Panga rod for me. Dying to put a bendo on that....

[FISHINGBEE]

Sorry about the no sturgies. Anyways i have a buddy who fishes sturgeon all the time. I am suprised i did not hear about the crab problem hitting the bay. Grass shrimp have been the hot bait . Loch Lomand near Corrigidor has been one of the hot spots. He also been getting a few south bay in between the two bridges. San Mateo Dumbarton bridge. The Napa River and Sanoma Creek have been hot. Slightly warmer there. Salinity is about a 6 to 8 witch is high. China Camp is hit or miss. Did you have a good tide? The pics show Gate, Alcatraz, i have never heard of sturgies in that spot. They have been pretty thick when its a herring spawn at Angel Island. Petaloma river in the city of Petuloma is hot from the city to highway 37 bridge. Suprised you did not see a leopard shark or a bat ray. He has been getting a lot of shaker sturgeon at the Martinez bridge so many he can fish them on bait casters 12 lb line. I am not sure where you went out from. I mean the location. The cattle boats go out and are averaging 2 sturgeon for 12 anglers. They do not report the shakers. All i know is the Landings are pissed off there gonna close the salmon season again.


Later Fishingbee

[sansou]

Fishingbee,

As a courtesy to the guide, I did not put pics of his GPS or mention very specific spots. I am told certain channels work as highways and sturgeon are caught in the same spots over and over, hence the need to keep things on the "down low". Suffice it to say we were in San Pablo bay, and did have to move a couple times because the crabs were chewing the baits. Our tides for that day were not all that great, and if I recall, we weren't on the right moon phase either. We finished fishing in San Pablo in 5ft water (which kinda blew my mind). Even the guide agreed that if you want a good shot at at sturgeon to hit the delta rivers, but he did also emphasize that your chances of getting a trophy greenie or whitie were just as good this time of the year in San Pablo. I think right now they consider this the tail end of the bay sturgeon peak though.

I'll definately give this whole sturgeon thing another go around cause I hear they jump up pretty good to shake a hook, and can actually take a pretty long time to bring in!

You are also correct mentioning the herring spawn at Angel. The scope showed mega biomass, and I also noticed slashes (fast movers) when we cruised through the area, but we were I think one week away from the opener for that area, and besides, it's a striper spot really (per the guide), and we didn't want to mess with stripers. Interestingly, almost everyone uniformly agree that the best striper fishing (at least for quantity and in the bay) is right off Alcatraz. A whopping 15 minutes from the 2 landings! LOL !! As for the surf guys fishing striper: they are nutzo in my book. Super cold water and washing machine conditions, add a Great White here and there....yikes.

I was thoroughly amazed at the quality of striper people catch up there....they make the SoCal guys look silly. Apparently there's a spot in San Pablo where DFG (for reasons unknown) stock subcatchable trout for 2 weeks in a row. Apparently the guys line up their boats in the bay where the particular river gets stocked, and naturally, they throw hardbaits for the striper that come to dinner. I cannot recall which river the guide said, but he did say it was kinda comical how good the fishing can get, and how DFG is simply flushing money away.

You mention leopards or bat rays....I'll take a pass on that stuff. No disrespect for the bat ray / leopard guys that get a thrill catching them, but I got over them after my first year in San Diego. Not exactly rocket science, nor elusive.

Salmon: there is talk that IF it does happen, that it will be slotted and 1 per angler. That's what the bait shop lady said. Who knows. Either way, it is killing the landings cause a lot of regulars are going to rethink paying $90 for just one salmon, again, per the guide and bait shop lady who were commiserating.

[Native Gal]

Sansou,
Nice trip despite not getting on the Sturgeon. But the important thing is gathering the knowledge like you said, WTG on the recon. Wow! alot of the pixs reminded me of the many trips to that area. My ex and I traveled up there several times out of the year. He had reserves once a month in Dublin so many times we took a trip up to the Bay during free time, I always wanted to fish off of some of the small areas near the ol' Base there. I saw plenty of people pull in a variety of nice fish. Thanks for the great post and the pixs and I can't wait to see your future sturgeon post. I saw the date of your trip and like TD I was saying "sweet, back to back fishing trips" :Thumbs Up:......gotta love it!

NG
:Envious:

[Wingnut]

Wow, Sturgeon fishing sounds so interesting. Looks like a lot of work too. Cool color and pattern on that Flounder. Thanks for the excellent report and some awesome pics Rich. :Cool:

[FISHINGBEE]

Fishingbee,

As a courtesy to the guide, I did not put pics of his GPS or mention very specific spots. I am told certain channels work as highways and sturgeon are caught in the same spots over and over, hence the need to keep things on the "down low". Suffice it to say we were in San Pablo bay, and did have to move a couple times because the crabs were chewing the baits. Our tides for that day were not all that great, and if I recall, we weren't on the right moon phase either. We finished fishing in San Pablo in 5ft water (which kinda blew my mind). Even the guide agreed that if you want a good shot at at sturgeon to hit the delta rivers, but he did also emphasize that your chances of getting a trophy greenie or whitie were just as good this time of the year in San Pablo. I think right now they consider this the tail end of the bay sturgeon peak though.

I'll definately give this whole sturgeon thing another go around cause I hear they jump up pretty good to shake a hook, and can actually take a pretty long time to bring in!

You are also correct mentioning the herring spawn at Angel. The scope showed mega biomass, and I also noticed slashes (fast movers) when we cruised through the area, but we were I think one week away from the opener for that area, and besides, it's a striper spot really (per the guide), and we didn't want to mess with stripers. Interestingly, almost everyone uniformly agree that the best striper fishing (at least for quantity and in the bay) is right off Alcatraz. A whopping 15 minutes from the 2 landings! LOL !! As for the surf guys fishing striper: they are nutzo in my book. Super cold water and washing machine conditions, add a Great White here and there....yikes.

I was thoroughly amazed at the quality of striper people catch up there....they make the SoCal guys look silly. Apparently there's a spot in San Pablo where DFG (for reasons unknown) stock subcatchable trout for 2 weeks in a row. Apparently the guys line up their boats in the bay where the particular river gets stocked, and naturally, they throw hardbaits for the striper that come to dinner. I cannot recall which river the guide said, but he did say it was kinda comical how good the fishing can get, and how DFG is simply flushing money away.

You mention leopards or bat rays....I'll take a pass on that stuff. No disrespect for the bat ray / leopard guys that get a thrill catching them, but I got over them after my first year in San Diego. Not exactly rocket science, nor elusive.

Salmon: there is talk that IF it does happen, that it will be slotted and 1 per angler. That's what the bait shop lady said. Who knows. Either way, it is killing the landings cause a lot of regulars are going to rethink paying $90 for just one salmon, again, per the guide and bait shop lady who were commiserating.There ae two rocks at Alcatraz max. striper drifting is about 1 to 2 minutes. If you do not get slammed reel in and retry the drift. As for Alcatraz being one of best spots i agree. But this is only between June to Sept. The Stripers start to make there way out of all the Rivers and Deltas. The best spots are all in areas a peak times. Like the Brothers rock and the Sisters rock in Suisun Bay. South bay has Candlestick cove Oyster Point Coyote Pt San Mateo Pier The Brisbane tubes Alemeda break wall. North bay Alcatraz , Raccoon Straights Emeryville, Treasure Island, Flats at Berekely so on. The all time hottest striper spot had to be South Tower Golden Gate bridge. Theres a series of rock macking huge high spots. Strong tides stripers trap the bait and gordge. All extremely big fish 20 t0 40 lb range. My PB 36 lbs on a bugeye at the Tower at 9 years old. Sorry to say it is illegal to fish the Towers any more. Then out to the beaches in the summer for Anchovy searching and big stripers. Mussel roak Pacifica inc. the Pier. I used to catch Stripers and Salmon off the pier. Through out a weight as far as possible. Use a cork bobber so on snap swivel ten foot or so liter. An anchovy threaded to hide the hook. That is how it is done. Surf fishing the beaches Stensen Beach where you mention white sharks. Farlon island Sharks more Sharks seen a few.

As for Leopards and Bats they are more bigger and stronger in the Bays. Seven Gill Six Gill sharks over 300 lbs are much more deserving of a fight much greater than Sturgeon. These Turkey tasting Sharks are almost impossible to bring in deep water and strong tides. Hunters Point comes to mind and a seven gill i fought for hours only to snap it off. Midshipmen and squid work well. The sharks leopards and rays eat at Sturgeon spots at times. Mostly the deeper spots.


Sturgeon i have caught hundreds of these varments. South bay was our hottest spots. Specially in December and some rain. One day at the Dumbarton bridge my brother and father caught 26 Sturgeon on grass shrimp baits. Dumbarton, San Mateo to Candlestick cove wher we got our 180 lb sturgeon. Talk about Marlin like jumps we had to pull anchor drift with the bad boy. Noth bay Angel island at herring spawn. San Pablo pump house China camp ets. Suison bay many bouy markings and Mothball fleet. Rivers inc. Napa Petuloma Delta Sacto.

Baits for stripers consist of many different baits. Pile worms shrimps Anchovy Shiner pearch bull head mudsuckers Herring . Lures consist of Kast masters krocs hair raisers broke back rebels bango bees swim baits new Robo Swim baits are awesome.

Sorry it took me so long to respond hope i did not bore you thanks!

FISHINGBEE

[lalo56]

I enjoyed the pictures and report. Thank you for sharing.