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...


























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.






Frank about ready to set the hook!




Wah? A flounda?


Irishman Sean waiting for one more bump before the big swing....








This is where they kept the Chinese for a while....






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!!




Striper fisherman in front of the Marina District...






















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)











This is the big "catfish in the sky" that gives Trolly nightmares....