After spending Friday feeding 5 pounds of grass shrimp and 5 dozen ghost shrimp to the the San Pablo Bay crabs AND handing back the pool money (i.e. skunked), Saturday (February 12) we headed east to Suisun Bay in search of some crab free waters and something to blog about.

The weather was nasty and sloppy with outgoing current and incoming wind when we anchored a mile or so east of the Mothball Fleet, but there was enough current to hold the boat mostly straight and there was little or no crab trouble.

There was also a bit of action right from the start, with baby bass and number of shaker sturgeon looking for a shrimp breakfast. In fact, by days end we had 8-10 shaker sturgeon, and an equal number of sturgeon type bites, not to mention about a million (estimate) undersize bass.

Troy Messina of Folsom was the first pool contender of the day with a 48 inch sturgeon who’s last meal consisted of a handful of grass shrimp. A few shaker sturgeon and two legal bass later Eric Carter of Folsom using a single ghost shrimp hooked something LARGE. I was certain this fish was way too big to keep. As is the case in 99% of sturgeon predictions (and near perfection in the stock market), I was wrong again. Room to spare at 59 inches.

Finally the outgoing tide fizzled out and the wind just quit. This incoming tide was going to epic fishing!!!

Or not. Truth of the matter is, we never had another bite when the current started coming in late afternoon.

Don’t those damn fish know how to read a tide book? Evidently not. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Armed with great expectations and a medley of tasty treats for our friends the sturgeon, we headed down the bay on Friday February 3rd with “OK” weather and the best tide of the last couple weeks.

First stop, as far to the north west corner of San Pablo Bay as we could go without running aground, near Sonoma Creek. The lack of rain has really impacted our decisions about potential hotspots, and generally the shallower the better if you’re trying to avoid feeding the crabs. Didn’t seem to help much Friday, the crabs were horrible. One shaker sturgeon and a couple flounder later we headed south for the outgoing tide.

There was action aplenty in Hotspot Number Two! Unfortunately the bulk of the fish we brought aboard were undersize leopard sharks and several more flounder. Further proof we need some serious rain.

The good news; The water started getting muddy and the tide was perfect for Hot Spot Number Three.

About 30 minutes into the new spot a suicide sturgeon hit, and the rental pole’s line was zooming south faster than Happy Hour patrons at the Hula Grill.

Make that “attempted suicide.” After a brief battle, Sturgeonzilla spit the hook out and went about his business.

Shortly after our escapee, Norm Giem of Santa Rosa was hooked up. Around the boat, under the boat, to the front of the boat, to the back of the boat. Was Norm just hamming it up? Possibly planning a new Jane Fonda like exercise video? He and the fish certainly looked sincere, and Norm was finally rewarded for his efforts with our first legal sturgeon of the day, a 49 incher.

Tom Vernon, tired of fattening up the crabs, caught a bullhead and put it out for bait. He shortly thereafter caught the biggest of the two bass that we caught for the day, about 10 pounds.

Shu Ting Shen of Castro Valley on her first ever trip was the next to hook up. The ensuing battle became a tag team effort, with her entire family taking turns fighting the fish. I was certain this fish was oversize. Wrong again! Fifty nine inches and in the box.

Norm breathed an uneasy sigh of relief when he discovered she was not in the big fish jackpot.

With only moments left before we headed in, Tom Gee of Berkeley was the next to yell “Fish On”. The fish (as is often the case in shallow water) came right to the surface. Like Tom’s last sturgeon, there was NO DOUBT this fish was over size.Wrong again.

After a brief battle, Tom’s 63 inch fish hit the deck, dashing Norm’s lavish plans for the jackpot money.

Both Toms and Norm shared their catch with the less fortunate anglers so most everyone had a fish dinner.

With a primo outgoing tide and equally primo weather he headed west on January 18 for what we hoped would be a preview of a banner winter sturgeon fishing season. First stop was the very shallow water near the mouth of Sonoma Creek. You have to keep one eye on the depth finder that far West on a big outgoing tide or you’ll find yourself aground! I don’t know about you, but the prospect of being stuck on a boat till dark thirty with the Deck Dog is enough to keep anyone on their toes. A couple crabs, a few flounder and two shaker sturgeon later we headed south to slightly deeper water. The water was muddy and fishy, and we immediately caught a few more shaker sturgeon and missed several obvious sturgeon bites. They were really biting!

James Williams was the first to hook something substantial. If we were going to throw this one back it wouldn’t be because it was too small! His rod was doubled over. Alas, we’ll never know, this fish (like so many others on Wednesday) escaped after a brief battle. James returned to the bow in despair, seeking solace in his i-pod, never to been seen again for the duration of the trip.

John Murray was the first to land a legal sturgeon. John has caught a legal sturgeon every time he’s been out! Editors note; This was his first trip.

Walt Fung was the next to yell “fish on”. This fish was wild! Repeatedly jumping and dragging Walt from one end of the boat to the other. Truth be known, I was secretly (OK, openly) hoping Walt would lose this sturgeon because of the $15 bet I foolishly made with him at the start of the trip. But alas, Walt’s fishing prowess prevailed and we finally muscled it aboard. Then, seeminly an act of devine intervention.  We discovered Walt’s fish was 2 inches too big! This was a win/win/win for all concerned.

Win 1. Walt had the battle of his life with a giant fish.

Win 2. The sturgeon learned a valuable lesson about eating tasty treats with strange entanglements.

Win 3. Our bet was for a legal sturgeon. Too bad so sad Mr. Fung.

John Murray Sr. (like his son, on his first ever sturgeon trip) was the next to hook up. This fish refused to give up! Not sure who was going to win this battle for awhile, but John prevailed, and this one at 65 inches we could keep.

Bottom line; Two legal sturgeon, one oversize (ha,ha) sturgeon, 7 or 8 shakers and many, many lost opportunities. We also caught one 7 pound bass and 8 flounder.

John Sr. donated his 65 inch sturgeon to the boat, so all aboard had fresh fish for dinner.

Last blog December 18.  Hmmm…

Laziness hasn’t been the culprit.  Well, perhaps a little, but mostly, we simply haven’t been fishing!

But yesterday with 8 anglers aboard and armed with ghost shrimp, grass shrimp, pile worms, bullheads and mudsuckers we headed east to take advantage of the slow moving water (small tides) and fish the deep waters of Suisun Bay.

First stop was just west of the first row of ships in 35 feet of water for the last of the out going tide. We started out with a couple under size sturgeon, a few bites and one 10 pound bass. When the tide fizzled out, we headed further east, close to Suisun Cut (the waters between Roe and Ryer islands). Though it looked fishy and we had a couple bites and small bass, the closest we came to a sturgeon was the over size fish caught and released by a skiff anchored off our bow.

As the tide backed down, we returned to hot spot number one.

In hindsight (usually pretty good), PERHAPS WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED THERE! Another 10+ pound bass hit the deck, a couple shaker sturgeon came and went, a couple sturgeon bites slipped by (lucky fish). This was looking fishy!

Shortly thereafter, Tom Gee of Berkeley found something large on the line. After a half hour or so it became obvious this one was going to be too big. In fact, it took so long to land that Mike Wherlie had time to lose a sturgeon, and Nancy Garner caught and released a shaker. Tom’s fish turned out to be 82 inches.

Hopefully, Tom taught it a valuable lesson about careless eating habits.

Just about quitting time Jim Garvey of Vacaville hooked up. Jim had  brought his ultra light halibut rod by mistake, and it only took a moment or two to realize this was no halibut! As it turned out, it was a 53 inch sturgeon.

Jim shared his catch with all aboard, so everyone had a sturgeon dinner.

Fish and Game warning!

The Dept. of Fish and Game has taken a no nonsense approach to fishing without a license or sturgeon report card. Click  below to view the video secretly taken on yesterday’s trip.

Note; Please be patient, the video clip takes a few moments to display.

Click Here To View Shocking F&G Video!

Not much fishing going on as Christmas approaches, but we did make it out on Friday (December 16) with a light load, and equally light tides. This time of year our first choice is always San Pablo Bay, but with less than two feet of water moving in either direction, the crabs steal our baits faster than we can cast them out.

That makes the mostly crab free Suisun Bay our best bet.

So, armed with grass shrimp, ghost shrimp, bullheads and mudsuckers we headed east.

I hate to sound like a one trick pony, but we once again stopped just east of the Benicia Bridge near the tip of Suisun Bay’s largest (of many) sand bars. I say one trick pony because we’ve stopped there our last 5 trips up bay.

That being said, we have had limits of bass on 4 of those 5 trips.

All aboard started the day with bullheads for bait except Tom Gee of Berkeley who elected to use shrimp. Generally, the bass you catch on shrimp are smaller than those that gobble up the bullheads (and that was the case on Friday). However, if there’s a sturgeon around, the shrimp baits are the best bet. Tom easily caught his bass limits on shrimp. It was a steady bite throughout the outgoing tide, and we had all we wanted by 12:30.

To make a long story short (I guess it’s a little late for that), we once again caught limits of bass (12), to 10 pounds, one shaker sturgeon and a couple of very lucky sturgeon who bit and stole our baits!

Need a Christmas present in a hurry? Give me a call (1-800-464-1431), and I’ll drop a Gift Certificate ($90) in today’s mail! Happy Holidays! Gordon Hough

The flu shot didn’t work!

I have been shirking my blogging duties due to illness, but here’s a rundown of the last 4 trips to the best of my Nyquil soaked memory;

Tuesday November 15. After 6 or 7 consecutive trips of bass limits, nice weather and primo tides, this looked to be a walk in the Park. Or so we thought… To our dismay, the tides backed off just enough that the crabs were eating our baits faster we could hook them up!

Bottom line; 12 bass for 15 anglers.

Wednesday November 16. Same plan (with a side order of trolling), similar results.

Bottom line; 9 bass and one leopard shark for 13 anglers.

Thursday November 17. Fool me twice – shame on me! We headed east to the relatively crab free waters of Suisun Bay. It was a slow steady pick, but by 2:30 we managed to catch our limits.

Bottom line; 18 bass for 9 anglers.

Saturday November 19. We again headed east, not so much for the tides (they’re getting bigger) but the weather. A storm was coming and Suisun Bay has lots of hiding places! Fishing wasn’t as good as it was on Thursday . Too much boat traffic, bigger tides, pilot error, take your pick. I blamed the deck hand.

Bottom line; 13 bass for 14 people.  Good fishing, Gordon Hough

It had been a week since our last bass trip into San Pablo Bay. A week of rain, wind and big tides. “Surely the bass have scattered by now” we mused, as we headed out Saturday (November 12) armed with a tank full of bullheads and mud suckers.

Sure enough – there had been a change – the fish were bigger! Though we caught nothing suitable for hanging over the fireplace (do people still do that?), most of the fish we caught were between 8 and 10 pounds with a few bigger…and a few smaller fish in the mix.

Even though we had several shark baits out as well, only 2 leopard sharks were caught.

Bottom line; 30 bass to 14 pounds and 2 leopard sharks for 15 anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Commercial crab season opens this week!

Been a few trips since the last fish report – so in an effort to catch up – here’s the week in review.

Sunday, October 30. Expectations were running high after Friday’s bass limits as we headed West to the edge of the channel in San Pablo Bay. The bass were there waiting, and by noon we had limits for all aboard. With all the bass we could keep, we re-rigged and re-baited in hopes of catching a few leopard sharks.

Contrary to rumors spread by our competitors, we do not use baby kittens for shark bait.

The sharks were biting, but we lost as many to broken lines, broken leaders and straightened out hooks as we caught. Sharks really fight.

Bottom Line; 24 bass to 13 pounds and 6 leopard sharks for 12 anglers.

Friday November 4. Is it possible those dumb bass were still in town after a week? We headed down bay to the same spot with the same bait and withing a few hours, the same results. There was a pretty good outgoing tide in the afternoon, so we switched to shrimp and headed for the flats. In a matter of minutes we had our first sturgeon of the season, a spunky 51 incher. We had a couple more sturgeon opportunities too, but you can’t catch them all. There were also so many bass eating our shrimp baits we nearly limited out on bass again! Between the bass, sharks, sturgeon and bat rays, the day ended with lots of action for all aboard.

Bottom line; 22 bass (kept) to 14 pounds, 2 leopard sharks, 1 sturgeon (51 inches), 4000 sand sharks (estimate) 1 seven gill shark and 5 bat rays (Chuck’s personal favorite).

Saturday November 4. With the first real storm of the season on its way, we headed out in hopes of catching some fish before the wind and rain’s arrival. There seems to be bass everywhere! Limits were aboard before noon, so we took our shrimp and headed north in hopes of finding another sturgeon or two. By then the nasty weather was well on its way, and after a half dozen or so more bass and a few sharks it was just too rough to see a bite.

Bottom line; 18 bass (kept), 4 leopard sharks and 1500 sand sharks (estimate).

Good fishing, Gordon Hough

We headed out Friday (October 28) morning armed with bullheads and grass shrimp bound for San Pablo Bay for a day of bass (and we hoped) sturgeon fishing in San Pablo Bay. Though the tides for sturgeon fishing were poor, everything was just right for the bass.

First stop, all lines were rigged with bullheads in the deep (40 feet) water near buoy 7. Before the last line was cast out, the first was already hooked up! The bass were really biting.

By 10:30 we had our bass limits along with a few leopards sharks.

We re-rigged for sturgeon and headed for the flats. Everything looked fishy, but the only sturgeon action was from the one I saw jump. Still, there was constant action from bass (they like shrimp too), bat rays, skates and far too many sand sharks.

Last stop was near the channel at buoy 11. More of the same, bass, rays and sharks,

Bottom line; 9 limits of bass (kept), 3 leopard sharks, 7 bat rays, 15 thousand sand sharks (estimate) and 1 rarely seen Thornback Guitarfish (see below) caught by Tom Gee of Berkeley on a bullhead.

Battleship Iowa leaving the Mothball Fleet bound for a maritime museum in Los Angeles.

I read in this morning’s Chronicle that tomorrow (Friday) is the end of the world.

Guess I never will prefect my typing skills…

Our first anchor trip of the season (Wednesday October 19) began with 20 knots of westerly howling through Carquinez Straits. That much wind combined with a puny one foot outgoing tide pretty much ruled out San Pablo Bay as a viable option, so we headed east to Suisun Bay armed with bullheads and grass shrimp. Rumors floating about suggest there are bass and sturgeon aplenty east of the last row of the Mothball fleet, but by the time we got to the Benicia bridge it was obvious the weather was not user friendly there either.

But the weather was calm and there were fish on the meter near the bridge, so we anchored up a couple hundred yards east of the Benicia bridge and cast out the bullheads. The action was immediate and constant through the last trickle of the incoming, and all through the aforementioned wimpy outgoing as well.

Towards the end of the day Tom Gee of Berkeley decided to give the grass shrimp a try. Three casts – three bass.

Which begs the question; Did we really need to spend a million dollars on bullheads, or could we have been sturgeon and bass fishing at the same time with the shrimp?

Hindsight in the fishing business is usually pretty good…

Bottom line; Twenty bass to twelve pounds for ten anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough