While watching Matt Cain's perfect game with the San Francisco Giants the other night, I wished my Dad was still here to watch it too...he would have eaten it up! I miss him, especially when it comes to our team, the San Francisco Giants.
Last year, my Father's Day Blast said it all:
Father's Day Blast
I'm not a father, I'm still a son, though my Dad's been gone for a few years now.
It's
mid morning on Father's Day and I'm just now writing today's blog. On
the docket for today are some To-Do List items that totally are
Dad-Centric.
I'm still working on Dad's Roses. Fighting
Rose Black Spot Fungus, and installing automated irrigation. Dad didn't
really grow his green thumb until I was out of the house and making my
own way. I always get a chuckle at how soon after I moved out Dad began
to eliminate the lawns around the Ancestral Digs. Back when my precious
"free time" was spent mowing those lawns, and I wasn't smart enough to
suggest that the lawns be downsized. Who knew teenagers didn't know
everything?
After lunch I have to call back to the Port
of Sonoma Bait Shop for some intel on the new boat ramp we want to
launch the FV SturgeUrge from Monday. The San Pablo Bay sturgeon are on
the chew, and we'd like to get in on that action. Then I'll put all the
pieces together on the extra fuel tank for the FV SturgeUrge. After
lunch, I'll watch game three of the Bay Bridge Series with my SF Giants
vs the Oakland A's
All these thing I owe to Dad...my
love of fishing and baseball, my handyman talents, green thumbs...all of
it. Though our paths through these passions were totally divergent, at
the times when I'm lucky enough to indulge these passions, I know it's
with my Dad's blessings and nurturing that I'm out there pursuing
happiness via these things he gave me.
You know,
SturgeUrge and I are a little slow on the uptake this season San
Francisco Bay Fishing-wise. When we do get on the Bay to chase the tasty
California Halibut, the waters we ply in search of our tasty quarry are
the very same waters that my Dad spent many afternoons deck-handing on a
commercial salmon fishing boat.
Back in the late 30's
Dad would ditch high school after lunch and crew for a salmon long liner
on San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. His job was to cut up big sardines
for bait, hook the chunks, and feed the baited hooks over the side as
the skipper slowly motored north from the Tiburon Peninsula up into San
Pablo Bay off China Camp. When the whole mile or so of long line was
set, the two of them would eat lunch and then motor back to the
beginning of the line and retrieve it with any salmon who fell for their
ruse. I guess they made two sets before they called it a day.
Seventy
years later Dad's son is out fishing on the same waters, though I've
yet to hook a salmon in those waters! Commercial salmon fishing is
outlawed inside the Bay now, and has been my whole life. Halibut are
still fished commercially by a few die hard trollers on the Bay.
Sport
fishing is still alive and well on the Bay thankfully, and every time
I'm out there I marvel on how successful our cleanup of the Bay has
been. When I was a kid, fishing off the Berkeley Pier with my Dad and
SisterSweetly, the Bay was an open sewer...literally...we never kept a
fish for the table...today it's called "Catch and Release", back in the
day it was "Good Hygiene"
Today after 40+ years of
environmentally sound stewardship, San Francisco Bay is a lot more like a
Wildlife Reserve than a cesspool. I'm always amazed by the sweet smell
and the abundance of life. In the past few years, Harbor Porpoises have
been returning to the bay waters in numbers large enough to study.
In
his way my Dad helped clean up the Bay. Dad was a civil engineer. His
company designed many of the sewage treatment plants around San
Francisco Bay that cleaned up the sewage that used to flow untreated
into the Bay.
Thanks Dad! Happy Father's Day!
Showing posts with label sturgeon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sturgeon. Show all posts
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Things of Beauty
What a pitching clinic I watched this evening!
On his first trip back to the mound after getting destroyed in his last start, 21 year old San Francisco Giants pitcher, Madison Bumgarner put his previous debacle behind him and fanned 11 batters while giving up only one walk to tally the win.
In his last start, the first eight batters he faced got hits...yes eight hits in a row! He was pulled after getting the first out, but all eight hits became runs. Bumgarner struck out the opposing pitcher, gave up a ninth hit, and got the hook.
Tonight it looked like the young pitcher had ice water flowing through his veins.
The rest of the team looked like the World Champions they are too.Besting the Cleveland Indians 3-2 to sweep the three game series, the Giants are back on track, and back atop the National League West.
If Bumgarner's amazing comeback wasn't enough, the Giants' relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt got the save by striking out five of the six batters he faced. Affeldt who's been on a roll for the last three weeks or so, had a curve ball that was flat-out un-hittable tonight. It was an amazing thing to see. A thing of beauty if you will.
The game was the national game on ESPN, seen in much of the country. (The Giants are the defending World Champions after all!) I put my new gadget the radioSHARK2 to good use synching the radio play-by-play through my computer with the High Definition TV broadcast via Comcast cable.
The Giants' broadcasters are too good not to listen to. Giants' play-by-play announcer, Jon Miller is a Hall Of Fame broadcaster bestowed with Cooperstown's Ford C Frick Award in 2010.
Miller cracked me up during a lull in the action when he did his Vin Scully impression. It was truly laugh-out-loud funny. Scully is the Hall Of Fame radio voice of the LA Dodgers. Miller's impression was spot-on and good natured, but still wickedly funny because it was so unexpected.
After the game I started scanning the web for some San Francisco Bay Halibut intel. SturgeUrge and I are heading onto the Bay Monday to salve our sturgeon wounds from last week's Monday fishing trip.
While looking at a "Halibut Try Report" from Tomales Bay, I read: "The water is still a little cold north of Hog Island. I guess it's late again, and things will heat up soon..."
That was like a light switch going on in my memory. I've heard something akin to that every year now since at least 2002...it's always a fishing report...salmon, Baja Bluewater Big Game, NorCal Albacore, even Sacramento River Shad...
I'm calling it a Bona Fide Trend...make that a Bona Fide Decadal Trend!
Did I mention that we may get rained on mid-week? Of course there'd be a Gulf of Alaska, mid-winter style cold front headed my way...I've been entertaining a trip up the Hill for a few days of R&R on my Pickup.
I'm really wondering what my pickup did to incur Mother Nature's Wrath like it has this year!
On his first trip back to the mound after getting destroyed in his last start, 21 year old San Francisco Giants pitcher, Madison Bumgarner put his previous debacle behind him and fanned 11 batters while giving up only one walk to tally the win.
In his last start, the first eight batters he faced got hits...yes eight hits in a row! He was pulled after getting the first out, but all eight hits became runs. Bumgarner struck out the opposing pitcher, gave up a ninth hit, and got the hook.
Tonight it looked like the young pitcher had ice water flowing through his veins.
The rest of the team looked like the World Champions they are too.Besting the Cleveland Indians 3-2 to sweep the three game series, the Giants are back on track, and back atop the National League West.
If Bumgarner's amazing comeback wasn't enough, the Giants' relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt got the save by striking out five of the six batters he faced. Affeldt who's been on a roll for the last three weeks or so, had a curve ball that was flat-out un-hittable tonight. It was an amazing thing to see. A thing of beauty if you will.
The game was the national game on ESPN, seen in much of the country. (The Giants are the defending World Champions after all!) I put my new gadget the radioSHARK2 to good use synching the radio play-by-play through my computer with the High Definition TV broadcast via Comcast cable.
The Giants' broadcasters are too good not to listen to. Giants' play-by-play announcer, Jon Miller is a Hall Of Fame broadcaster bestowed with Cooperstown's Ford C Frick Award in 2010.
Miller cracked me up during a lull in the action when he did his Vin Scully impression. It was truly laugh-out-loud funny. Scully is the Hall Of Fame radio voice of the LA Dodgers. Miller's impression was spot-on and good natured, but still wickedly funny because it was so unexpected.
After the game I started scanning the web for some San Francisco Bay Halibut intel. SturgeUrge and I are heading onto the Bay Monday to salve our sturgeon wounds from last week's Monday fishing trip.
While looking at a "Halibut Try Report" from Tomales Bay, I read: "The water is still a little cold north of Hog Island. I guess it's late again, and things will heat up soon..."
That was like a light switch going on in my memory. I've heard something akin to that every year now since at least 2002...it's always a fishing report...salmon, Baja Bluewater Big Game, NorCal Albacore, even Sacramento River Shad...
I'm calling it a Bona Fide Trend...make that a Bona Fide Decadal Trend!
Did I mention that we may get rained on mid-week? Of course there'd be a Gulf of Alaska, mid-winter style cold front headed my way...I've been entertaining a trip up the Hill for a few days of R&R on my Pickup.
I'm really wondering what my pickup did to incur Mother Nature's Wrath like it has this year!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
That's Why They Call It Fishing
Monday is Fishing Day on my calendar.
This week SturgeUrge and I wanted to try a new Boat Ramp that was closer to the highly-touted Large Sturgeon Pile-Up in San Pablo Bay. I listened to KFBK's Outdoor Radio Show Saturday, and the bite was still on. Monday was the last day of Spring and the last day of a nine day run of Minus Tides. The Spring Tides are usually considered to be the last hurrah for Sturgeon Season, though for the truly impassioned sturgeon hunters, Sturgeon Season lasts twelve months a year.
Launching near the bottom of a minus tide can be anywhere from easy/peasy to impossible depending on the design of the ramp, and whether the ramp needs dredging or not. The state of California is broke now, and the Dept. of Boating and Waterways seems to be slacking on maintenance and dredging, so we've learned the hard way to do our homework before trying a new launch ramp at low tide.
I posted a question about the Petaluma River Boat Ramp on my online fishing club's forum, and got plenty of advice in no time. Coastside Fishing Club flat-out rocks! Coastsider CaptainRon suggested I phone Joel, the owner of Leonard's Bait at Port Sonoma Marina across the river from the ramp.
Joel was very personable on the phone, advised that we'd be fine with the FV SturgeUrge launching in the morning. Joel said: "Go to the Pumphouse and go a mile...mile and a half east, that's where they've been gettin' 'em" Joel even volunteered that he didn't have any sturgeon bait worth selling and gave me the name and number of an Oakland Bait Shop where we could get the preferred baits. Rather than tow the boat to Oakland during morning rush hour, we opted to just go with frozen bait from SturgeUrge's freezer.
Monday morning we pulled out of the SturgeUrge Compound at straight-up 0800. It was already warm, on it's way to hot. We ran into some rush hour traffic on Hwy 37 outside of Vallejo where the freeway ends and the road turns into single lane divided highway, but we were in the water and pulling into the Petaluma River Channel by 9:30A. The day was getting hotter.
Following Joel's recommendation, we motored down the channel to the Pumphouse, turned east and dropped anchor a mile or so east of the pumphouse in 8ft of water. Our first bait was in the water at 10:30, about 90 minutes before the bottom of the tide. It was already nearly 80°F and there was barely a puff of wind to be found.
They say if fishing were easy and results assured it would be called catching not fishing, we were proving the old adage...in spades.
We slathered on the SPF30, but we felt like Thanksgiving turkeys in the oven. The wind was so light that we sat up on the gunnels instead of the seats, trying to catch a little breeze. We likened the water to the Sea of Cortez...in a word: greasy. Barely a wind ripple and the temp was quickly getting into Tropical territory.
At the turn, a tiny bit of wind began to waft through...just enough to keep us from swinging on anchor while the tidal current slowed, stopped, and began to turn around to come back in. We stuck with it for another half an hour before we decided to move. There were just a couple other skiffs in the general vicinity, and we didn't see any nets flying.
We moved more for the air conditioning value than anything else. We motored back past the Pumphpouse, and south a mile or so to the Shellbank. Baits in the water and we waited for the fish, and the wind. It was so flat that sound carried a long ways. We could hear the splash sounds of fish jumping, but we couldn't see the splashes. We eavesdropped on other boats 200 yards away. A family out on their Boston Whaler was drifting by grousing about how expensive bait was at Loch Lomand's Bait Shop.
SturgeUrge's rod tip started dancing, and he jumped up, grabbed his rod and set the hook. There wasn't much there...it turned out to be a big bullhead. It would be a great bait for big striped bass, but it was unharmed so it went back into the water.
The tide was starting to pick up some speed, but the wind was still MIA. Urge's rod went off again. This time it was a keeper striper. SturgeUrge made quick work of the fight and asked if I wanted the fish. "Nope" I replied, and we snapped a photo and released the lip-hooked fish.
That was it for the day. We stayed out through several applications of Sun Block. We even saw a sailboat anchored up near the Pumphouse fishing. We agreed it was a good way to spend the time waiting for a sailor's wind. We pulled the plug just before 5PM. The wind finally came all the way up to 4-5 knots. It was 94°F back at the ramp.
Tuesday, it's forecast to reach 100°F in Sacramento, and the high 90's here in the Inland Valley. While looking around the internet this morning I noticed that while SturgeUrge and I were out on San Pablo Bay baking like Thanksgiving turkeys, it was snowing on the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Doesn't that say it all for this cold, wet, LaNiña Spring?
This week SturgeUrge and I wanted to try a new Boat Ramp that was closer to the highly-touted Large Sturgeon Pile-Up in San Pablo Bay. I listened to KFBK's Outdoor Radio Show Saturday, and the bite was still on. Monday was the last day of Spring and the last day of a nine day run of Minus Tides. The Spring Tides are usually considered to be the last hurrah for Sturgeon Season, though for the truly impassioned sturgeon hunters, Sturgeon Season lasts twelve months a year.
Launching near the bottom of a minus tide can be anywhere from easy/peasy to impossible depending on the design of the ramp, and whether the ramp needs dredging or not. The state of California is broke now, and the Dept. of Boating and Waterways seems to be slacking on maintenance and dredging, so we've learned the hard way to do our homework before trying a new launch ramp at low tide.
I posted a question about the Petaluma River Boat Ramp on my online fishing club's forum, and got plenty of advice in no time. Coastside Fishing Club flat-out rocks! Coastsider CaptainRon suggested I phone Joel, the owner of Leonard's Bait at Port Sonoma Marina across the river from the ramp.
Joel was very personable on the phone, advised that we'd be fine with the FV SturgeUrge launching in the morning. Joel said: "Go to the Pumphouse and go a mile...mile and a half east, that's where they've been gettin' 'em" Joel even volunteered that he didn't have any sturgeon bait worth selling and gave me the name and number of an Oakland Bait Shop where we could get the preferred baits. Rather than tow the boat to Oakland during morning rush hour, we opted to just go with frozen bait from SturgeUrge's freezer.
Monday morning we pulled out of the SturgeUrge Compound at straight-up 0800. It was already warm, on it's way to hot. We ran into some rush hour traffic on Hwy 37 outside of Vallejo where the freeway ends and the road turns into single lane divided highway, but we were in the water and pulling into the Petaluma River Channel by 9:30A. The day was getting hotter.
 |
| The ramp is right underneath the Hwy 37 bridge |
They say if fishing were easy and results assured it would be called catching not fishing, we were proving the old adage...in spades.
We slathered on the SPF30, but we felt like Thanksgiving turkeys in the oven. The wind was so light that we sat up on the gunnels instead of the seats, trying to catch a little breeze. We likened the water to the Sea of Cortez...in a word: greasy. Barely a wind ripple and the temp was quickly getting into Tropical territory.
At the turn, a tiny bit of wind began to waft through...just enough to keep us from swinging on anchor while the tidal current slowed, stopped, and began to turn around to come back in. We stuck with it for another half an hour before we decided to move. There were just a couple other skiffs in the general vicinity, and we didn't see any nets flying.
We moved more for the air conditioning value than anything else. We motored back past the Pumphpouse, and south a mile or so to the Shellbank. Baits in the water and we waited for the fish, and the wind. It was so flat that sound carried a long ways. We could hear the splash sounds of fish jumping, but we couldn't see the splashes. We eavesdropped on other boats 200 yards away. A family out on their Boston Whaler was drifting by grousing about how expensive bait was at Loch Lomand's Bait Shop.
SturgeUrge's rod tip started dancing, and he jumped up, grabbed his rod and set the hook. There wasn't much there...it turned out to be a big bullhead. It would be a great bait for big striped bass, but it was unharmed so it went back into the water.
The tide was starting to pick up some speed, but the wind was still MIA. Urge's rod went off again. This time it was a keeper striper. SturgeUrge made quick work of the fight and asked if I wanted the fish. "Nope" I replied, and we snapped a photo and released the lip-hooked fish.
 |
| That's certifiably greasy water behind SturgeUrge! |
Tuesday, it's forecast to reach 100°F in Sacramento, and the high 90's here in the Inland Valley. While looking around the internet this morning I noticed that while SturgeUrge and I were out on San Pablo Bay baking like Thanksgiving turkeys, it was snowing on the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Doesn't that say it all for this cold, wet, LaNiña Spring?
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Father's Day Blast
I'm not a father, I'm still a son, though my Dad's been gone for a few years now.
It's mid morning on Father's Day and I'm just now writing today's blog. On the docket for today are some To-Do List items that totally are Dad-Centric.
I'm still working on Dad's Roses. Fighting Rose Black Spot Fungus, and installing automated irrigation. Dad didn't really grow his green thumb until I was out of the house and making my own way. I always get a chuckle at how soon after I moved out Dad began to eliminate the lawns around the Ancestral Digs. Back when my precious "free time" was spent mowing those lawns, and I wasn't smart enough to suggest that the lawns be downsized. Who knew teenagers didn't know everything?
After lunch I have to call back to the Port of Sonoma Bait Shop for some intel on the new boat ramp we want to launch the FV SturgeUrge from Monday. The San Pablo Bay sturgeon are on the chew, and we'd like to get in on that action. Then I'll put all the pieces together on the extra fuel tank for the FV SturgeUrge. After lunch, I'll watch game three of the Bay Bridge Series with my SF Giants vs the Oakland A's
All these thing I owe to Dad...my love of fishing and baseball, my handyman talents, green thumbs...all of it. Though our paths through these passions were totally divergent, at the times when I'm lucky enough to indulge these passions, I know it's with my Dad's blessings and nurturing that I'm out there pursuing happiness via these things he gave me.
You know, SturgeUrge and I are a little slow on the uptake this season San Francisco Bay Fishing-wise. When we do get on the Bay to chase the tasty California Halibut, the waters we ply in search of our tasty quarry are the very same waters that my Dad spent many afternoons deck-handing on a commercial salmon fishing boat.
Back in the late 30's Dad would ditch high school after lunch and crew for a salmon long liner on San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. His job was to cut up big sardines for bait, hook the chunks, and feed the baited hooks over the side as the skipper slowly motored north from the Tiburon Peninsula up into San Pablo Bay off China Camp. When the whole mile or so of long line was set, the two of them would eat lunch and then motor back to the beginning of the line and retrieve it with any salmon who fell for their ruse. I guess they made two sets before they called it a day.
Seventy years later Dad's son is out fishing on the same waters, though I've yet to hook a salmon in those waters! Commercial salmon fishing is outlawed inside the Bay now, and has been my whole life. Halibut are still fished commercially by a few die hard trollers on the Bay.
Sport fishing is still alive and well on the Bay thankfully, and every time I'm out there I marvel on how successful our cleanup of the Bay has been. When I was a kid, fishing off the Berkeley Pier with my Dad and SisterSweetly, the Bay was an open sewer...literally...we never kept a fish for the table...today it's called "Catch and Release", back in the day it was "Good Hygiene"
Today after 40+ years of environmentally sound stewardship, San Francisco Bay is a lot more like a Wildlife Reserve than a cesspool. I'm always amazed by the sweet smell and the abundance of life. In the past few years, Harbor Porpoises have been returning to the bay waters in numbers large enough to study.
In his way my Dad helped clean up the Bay. Dad was a civil engineer. His company designed many of the sewage treatment plants around San Francisco Bay that cleaned up the sewage that used to flow untreated into the Bay.
Thanks Dad! Happy Father's Day!
It's mid morning on Father's Day and I'm just now writing today's blog. On the docket for today are some To-Do List items that totally are Dad-Centric.
I'm still working on Dad's Roses. Fighting Rose Black Spot Fungus, and installing automated irrigation. Dad didn't really grow his green thumb until I was out of the house and making my own way. I always get a chuckle at how soon after I moved out Dad began to eliminate the lawns around the Ancestral Digs. Back when my precious "free time" was spent mowing those lawns, and I wasn't smart enough to suggest that the lawns be downsized. Who knew teenagers didn't know everything?
After lunch I have to call back to the Port of Sonoma Bait Shop for some intel on the new boat ramp we want to launch the FV SturgeUrge from Monday. The San Pablo Bay sturgeon are on the chew, and we'd like to get in on that action. Then I'll put all the pieces together on the extra fuel tank for the FV SturgeUrge. After lunch, I'll watch game three of the Bay Bridge Series with my SF Giants vs the Oakland A's
All these thing I owe to Dad...my love of fishing and baseball, my handyman talents, green thumbs...all of it. Though our paths through these passions were totally divergent, at the times when I'm lucky enough to indulge these passions, I know it's with my Dad's blessings and nurturing that I'm out there pursuing happiness via these things he gave me.
You know, SturgeUrge and I are a little slow on the uptake this season San Francisco Bay Fishing-wise. When we do get on the Bay to chase the tasty California Halibut, the waters we ply in search of our tasty quarry are the very same waters that my Dad spent many afternoons deck-handing on a commercial salmon fishing boat.
Back in the late 30's Dad would ditch high school after lunch and crew for a salmon long liner on San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. His job was to cut up big sardines for bait, hook the chunks, and feed the baited hooks over the side as the skipper slowly motored north from the Tiburon Peninsula up into San Pablo Bay off China Camp. When the whole mile or so of long line was set, the two of them would eat lunch and then motor back to the beginning of the line and retrieve it with any salmon who fell for their ruse. I guess they made two sets before they called it a day.
Seventy years later Dad's son is out fishing on the same waters, though I've yet to hook a salmon in those waters! Commercial salmon fishing is outlawed inside the Bay now, and has been my whole life. Halibut are still fished commercially by a few die hard trollers on the Bay.
Sport fishing is still alive and well on the Bay thankfully, and every time I'm out there I marvel on how successful our cleanup of the Bay has been. When I was a kid, fishing off the Berkeley Pier with my Dad and SisterSweetly, the Bay was an open sewer...literally...we never kept a fish for the table...today it's called "Catch and Release", back in the day it was "Good Hygiene"
Today after 40+ years of environmentally sound stewardship, San Francisco Bay is a lot more like a Wildlife Reserve than a cesspool. I'm always amazed by the sweet smell and the abundance of life. In the past few years, Harbor Porpoises have been returning to the bay waters in numbers large enough to study.
In his way my Dad helped clean up the Bay. Dad was a civil engineer. His company designed many of the sewage treatment plants around San Francisco Bay that cleaned up the sewage that used to flow untreated into the Bay.
Thanks Dad! Happy Father's Day!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Chores 'n More
Not much has me excited today. It's Monday that has my attention. Today is mostly chores aside from a foray to the Farmer's Market.
Top of the To-Do List is to R&R an extra fuel tank for SturgeUrge's boat. I've assembled all the parts, today I strip all the sun-baked fuel hose stuff off the tank and install all the new stuff.
Monday we're going sturgeon fishing on San Pablo Bay. The sturgeon have been "stacked up like cordwood" say reports. There was even a front page story in the Local Fishwrap last week, titled "Enormous Sturgeon Crowding Into San Pablo Bay"
Searching for that story I looked at Wednesday's Fishing Report:
SAN PABLO BAY: Sturgeon fishing hasn't slowed. One angler caught and released nine sturgeon Wednesday at the Shellbank. Go anywhere north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and stay away from the other boats. A few stripers are around. Halibut aren't around during the minus tides.
Along with the fuel tank project, I have to gather some intel about a new (to us) boat ramp. June is the month of big and minus tides. We need to know if our desired new ramp is usable during very low tides. Last year about this time we spent all morning doing a boat ramp tour instead of fishing, and given these ridiculously high gas prices we don't want to drive from one side of the Bay to the other and back only to view a string of mud-bound boat ramps.
Even with a boat in tow, a big SUV gets ten times better gas mileage that boats do...we don't want to keep those "Enormous Sturgeon" waiting! Sturgeon are the only "Big Game" fish within range of the FV SturgeUrge, and we want to catch and release a few of those big ones!
Top of the To-Do List is to R&R an extra fuel tank for SturgeUrge's boat. I've assembled all the parts, today I strip all the sun-baked fuel hose stuff off the tank and install all the new stuff.
Monday we're going sturgeon fishing on San Pablo Bay. The sturgeon have been "stacked up like cordwood" say reports. There was even a front page story in the Local Fishwrap last week, titled "Enormous Sturgeon Crowding Into San Pablo Bay"
Searching for that story I looked at Wednesday's Fishing Report:
SAN PABLO BAY: Sturgeon fishing hasn't slowed. One angler caught and released nine sturgeon Wednesday at the Shellbank. Go anywhere north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and stay away from the other boats. A few stripers are around. Halibut aren't around during the minus tides.
 |
| This guy gets into his fishing! Photo courtesy of Contra Costa Times |
Along with the fuel tank project, I have to gather some intel about a new (to us) boat ramp. June is the month of big and minus tides. We need to know if our desired new ramp is usable during very low tides. Last year about this time we spent all morning doing a boat ramp tour instead of fishing, and given these ridiculously high gas prices we don't want to drive from one side of the Bay to the other and back only to view a string of mud-bound boat ramps.
Even with a boat in tow, a big SUV gets ten times better gas mileage that boats do...we don't want to keep those "Enormous Sturgeon" waiting! Sturgeon are the only "Big Game" fish within range of the FV SturgeUrge, and we want to catch and release a few of those big ones!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Fish Out Of Water
Let me tell you about our Monday. We'll call it the Magical Misery Tour...
As is our custom, SturgeUrge and I went fishing Monday. We've had more than a little trouble getting our time on the water this Spring...as I've chronicled in this space.
We started planning mid-week. Gathering the intelligence wasn't easy though...there's been big swells, or big winds, or both all week, limiting the effort and consequently limiting the fishing reports! Throw in the biggest tides of the year, and there wasn't much halibut encouragement to be found at my usual haunts.
The SF Bay/San Pablo Bay/Suisun Bay Marine Forecast didn't help either...all week the same ol' same ol'...SW winds 15 to 25 knots every afternoon. Monday held a big Minus Tide smack dab in the middle of our launch window.
I woke up really early Monday morning...before 0500. I did a lap around the internet looking for some straggling reports...no such luck. There was a hiccup in the Marine Forecast, however...SW winds 15 to 25 knots in the afternoon, except 15 to 35 knots around Angel Island...dimly noted...
Out of bed before 0700, I made a pot of French Roast and packed the cooler. Siced grilled pork chops and smoked provolone sandwich fixins, sliced cantaloupe, gardinera and kimchee, plus condiments and India Pale Ale.
I was at the SturgeUrge Compound by 0830, and we hit the road by 0845. Traffic was brutal on Hwy 24, so we took San Pablo Dam Road to Richmond. When I got out to feed the gate a 10 spot, the wind was already 25 knots! We noticed there wasn't a single boat trailer in the lot at the ramp, and decided to take a spin down to the waterfront to get a Big Picture look at conditions. There was a whole flock of whitecaps...even behind the breakwall! Plan B time.
We really wanted to go for halibut...but it wasn't going to happen today. We decided not to fight City Hall...big minus tide, plus big tide swing, equals Sturgeon Fishing!
We still had that near-gale to reckon with, so we decided our best option was Montezuma Slough north of Suisun Bay in Solono County. We crossed the river via the Carquinez Bridge, and took Hwy 780 East so we could eyeball the Carquinez Straights for whitecaps, and stop in Vallejo for some Sturgeon Bait.
The bait shop was gone! Turned into a restaurant! We drove another quarter mile to the Vallejo Boat Ramp and Bait Shop. We'd wondered out loud a couple of times over the past few days..."I wonder if they've dredged the Vallejo Ramp recently?" We pulled up to the ramp and burst into laughter...there was 40-50 feet of mud between the bottom of the ramp and the Mare Island Straights! It was still an hour and a half before the bottom of the -1.8ft Low! Throw in an abandoned tire stuck in the mud, and you've got the picture!
Our little fishing trip had morphed into a long Sunday Drive (with boat trailer)!
But wait! We weren't done with our Great Circle just yet...we still had another half hour to get to the Belden's Landing Boat Ramp on Montezuma Slough!
Rearmed with a quarter pound of frozen Grass Shrimp Bait, and a half dozen digital photos of the buried launch ramp, we headed east to what was left of our day. We arrived at Belden's Landing, and the winds kept following us all the way! Now we were about thirty miles east of the Bay...hella Hot Wind!
We elected to run upstream a mile or so, set anchor in 25 feet of Chocolate Milk colored water, and threw out our offerings...it was now 11:00AM! The extra miles east had reset the tide clock too...there was another hour or two of outgoing tide before we'd lose an hour or so at the slack.
At slack tide it's impossible to bait fish on the anchor. No tidal current at slack make you vulnerable to the whims of the wind...on anchor, the boat wags around the anchor like a dog's tail at dinnertime.
We picked up the baits and I made lunch. We took the opportunity to look around at our surroundings. The scene was wonderful...the wind dappled water, some glassy water reflecting acres of tules and cattails, the towering golden hills with Wind Turbines on all sides, lit up like Christmas by the blazing afternoon Sun...God's Country, but hot as blazes! There was one big sturgeon jumping clear out of the water to taunt us. We were getting bites...nibbles really...baby striped bass, stealing our bait. SturgeUrge caught and released one baby striper. If it was a trout, it would be called Pan-Sized. The little dude was maybe 10 inches long. We wondered why it was even eating the bait- it had a big belly like a black bass before spawning...weird.
That was it...our fishing trip to Purgatory...or next door...I got home and drank four or five pint glasses of ice water...I almost got re-hydrated before bedtime snuck up on me.
Undaunted, we've already planned to go next Monday. We're gonna hit Tomales Bay for Halibut and Dungeness Crab. KirkVallus is coming to town later this week, and mentioned that he wanted to go fishing while he was in town...this should really be fun!
For all the driving we did Monday, we would have been better off going up to Tomales Bay in the first place! Next Monday the tides are tailor-made for halibut hunting, and crab fishing!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Things Are Lookin' Up
I hit the wall today...I'm officially tuckered-out. I stayed up way too late fiddlin' with a bunch of gadgets last night, then tried to stay awake when my alarm went off at 0500. I did my best to watch the Formula One Qualifying from Monte Carlo, but my body wouldn't hear of it.
My eyes finally stayed open at 0830...that's when I noticed a new muscle pain. How the heck did I pull a groin muscle? I didn't exactly exert myself Friday! After lunch we took a drive into the neighboring town, and that's when I figured it out. Yesterday I wore Official Summertime Shorts, complete with front and rear pockets. Today I wore 'em again and I knew instantly when I plopped into the seat of the car...sitting on my not so thick wallet for the hour or more doing errands yesterday, had pushed something out of whack.
All Winter long, I never sit on my wallet. It lives in my backpack's inner pocket except when I'm doing errands. My pickup's bench seat is a hellava lot more forgiving than the tight, modern "bucket seat" in the 2003 sport compact I drive here in the Inland Valley!
It's already feeling better...just knowing is good medicine...
I put off some shopping because of the groin muscle thing...I didn't feel like wrestling a dozen sacks of compost and chicken manure in and out of the pickup today anyway. So I did the next best thing...I made a series of "Before" photos of the fence and irrigation projects, that will be hidden behind a verdant garden paradise of heirloom tomatoes, chilies, melons, herbs and squash over the next months.
Sunday is Farmer's Market Day here at the Ancestral Digs, and the sacks of the garden stuff are right across the street from the Farmer's Market.
Monday's "Winter Storm" is starting to look manageable from a fishing standpoint. I looked at the AFD's from SFO/Monterey, Sacramento, and Reno. There will be rain Monday afternoon, with 1-2 inches of snow in the Sierra down to 6500ft Monday night. Sac is calling for afternoon showers and mountain snow in the evening...they're backing away from the Thursday nonsense, too. Here in the Bay Area, one tenth to one quarter of an inch is forecast. The SFO Marine forecast says: Rain Likely with winds topping out at 10 knots...another way to say all that is "Do-able"
My mission for Sunday is to suss out the Fishing Reports and weather updates and Sunday evening, we'll make the call on what, where, and when. There's a big Minus Tide in the AM...just about the time we'd be launching on Suisun Bay...launching on San Francisco Bay proper fits our schedule...but the minus tides are going to preclude good halibut fishing...
Monday looks like Sturgeon City...big Tide Swings. Morning Minus Tide means early up and early launch...no rest for the wicked. SturgeUrge and TruckeeDave aren't above sufferin' for our art! A little anyway...
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