Originally Posted by
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.