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SturgeUrge and I hit the river again Friday with king salmon in mind. We had new tricks to try, and Urge's brother came along too. I told the whole sordid story on my Club's Website:

Rio Vista Salmon 9/28 Skunk
We returned for another day to Rio Vista after taking one fish Wednesday.

We changed things up a little...we launched from Rio Vista instead of Vieira's...we added a chartplotter and an electric trolling motor.

Mother Nature changed things up too...the wind was blowing early and we could see "sheep in the meadow" when we crossed the HWY 12 bridge.

There was one third the number of boats compared to Wednesday.

The wind made trolling tough, and it aggregated the weeds so keeping our junk clean was a chore.

Still we were troopers and trolled for six hours around the top of the tide for no hits, no runs, and just a couple of unforced errors.

Fish were being caught...just not by us.

The Rest of the Story:
We added my GPS Chartplotter and a new electric trolling motor to our arsenal. The chartplotter gave us Speed Over Ground in real time. We used this capability to calibrate the trolling motor so as to replicate the exact trolling speed that worked so well Wednesday.

Well...that was a little tough...the stiff winds made the bucket unnecessary. SturgeUrge was really working hard on the main Sacramento to troll a decent line with the winds quartering across the F/V SturgeUrge's bow.

There's a lot of moving parts when the wind blows. The math get s a little complex...wind speed and direction...tidal current...engine speed...windage.

We didn't get a bite, the ultimate clue that you're doin' it right.

Even with 1/3 the number of boats, these boaters wanted to run too tight to us...the ones that weren't busy tailgating us...

After three hours of beating, we opted to seek shelter and began fishing the Old Sacramento from the confluence to up past Vieira's. We had lunch, the fish still with the lockjaw...

We finally pulled the plug at 4:30. Back at the ramp the dock's gangplank was underwater and the wind was still whipping. SturgeUrge said the wading felt good.

We learned a bunch of things that will come in handy on other waters, and help us dial-in our Delta Salmon Attack.

The chartplotter has a beautiful sunlight viewable LCD screen that should be standard on all digital cameras.

I'm pretty sure the camera makers don't use this screen because it costs too much and uses too much power. It would eat through camera batteries in no time.