George Liu of Bay Tackle in El Cerrito reported a continued excellent perch bite from the bay shores, and he took his family out off of Fort Baker in Marin County for plenty of action for walleye and splittail perch on grass shrimp or pile worms. Sturgeon anglers are working San Pablo Bay east to the Mothball Fleet with grass shrimp, pile worms, eel, or ghost shrimp. Bullheads are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.

Joel Sinkay of Leonard’s Bait reported a 31-inch striped bass was landed in the Napa River, and most boats were hunkered down in Napa Slough to get out of wind on Monday and Tuesday 1-7.  Brad Hood released a shaker from his spot in the Hamilton Flats on Sunday afternoon, and he will be back out tomorrow in search of a 60-inch plus sturgeon with his buddy, Norman Harmon. Sinkay said he has plenty of grass shrimp, eel, mudsuckers, and bullheards for fishermen, and they were very busy over the derby weekend.

In the Napa River, Tom Dudenhoeffer of Sweeney’s Sports in Napa said the sturgeon action has slowed down a bit, but the fish are still holding in the Napa River. With the crab problem, the outgoing tide has been pushing the bait stealers into San Pablo Bay, but they are creeping back into the river on the incoming tide. There was just enough rain from this storm to muddy up the water, and striper fishing has slowed to a crawl.

In the far south bay, Ly Tu of Ly’s Fishing Goods in San Jose reported slow action for sturgeon with the occasional fish landed south of the Dunbarton Bridge in the main channel. Ly is holding a sale on freshwater gear, including rods and reels for 60% off and all striper lures such as Sea Strikes for 40% off. If you are in the market for some freshwater stuff, it is hard to beat 60%, and you will support a quality small business.

Captain Jim Smith of the Happy Hooker took 18 anglers into San Pablo Bay on Saturday 2-4 for sturgeon, but the sturgeon weren’t cooperative. They had pulled crab pots north of the Golden Gate for 5 crab/apiece before making the long run to San Pablo Bay. They ended up with three striped bass to 10-pounds with Tracy Gardner of Sacramento picking up the large fish of the day. Smith is planning more of these trips when interest is sufficient.

Keith Fraser’s seminar was a big success (as always) on Saturday night with over 100 people in attendance; and although this may have been the last in a long series of seminars, Fraser was in typical rare form. The crowd was entertained throughout the evening, and Mike McNair whipped up a mean sturgeon after demonstrating how to fillet the fish. Once again, Fraser enlightened me on the 6 dumbest things that you can do while sturgeon fishing, and I have done all of these in the past.
 

Jim Cox of Touch of Gray Sport Fishing out of Loch Lomond Marina took out four gentlemen who were immigrants from Eastern Europe on Sunday to San Pablo Bay for sturgeon; and he reported, “Towards the end of an otherwise unremarkable day, something very significant happened,” adding, “As I helped one of the customers land his striped bass, I broke into a big grin and got a lump in my throat because this was the first NATIVE SPECIE striped bass landed on the ‘Touch of Gray.’ “As I briefly tried to explain the significance of this subtle distinction I could tell these fishermen were not nearly as impressed or elated as I was. In fact it brought back memories of a 12 year old catching his first striped bass off a peninsula shoreline some 47 years ago. Why is this fish special? Because a tap of a gavel in Sacramento last Thursday forever changed the status of this specie of fish in California waters. When then F&G Commission president Jim Kellogg declared that striped bass will no longer be considered non native, the stigma of “invasive specie” was lifted from this scrappy specie’s back. No longer will stripers be blamed for a host of problems they had nothing to do with. No longer will stripers be pawns in the battle over northern California water. Instead of unwanted predator they can take their place with many other native game fish in California, salmon, sturgeon, steelhead. The list goes on but it now includes striped bass. Thanks to the courage, and integrity of Commissioner Kellogg a long standing wrong has been righted. Commissioner…you are my hero!

So how did the rest of the trip go? One more Native Striper landed and one  native sturgeon lost. Oh and plenty of native crabs fed about 10 dozen shrimp.

One more note. The fact that the first newly “naturalized“ native striped bass was caught by a “naturalized” non-native citizen wasn’t lost on me either. Sometimes there is a ray of hope!

Affordable Alaska
 For you readers looking for adventure on a "boys" or family trip that includes world class salmon, halibut, trout action we still have a two prime weeks available in our Alaska vacation cabin for 2012. We currently have one week in mid June, one week in mid August and the first two weeks of September open.
Our full equipped coastal three bedroom / two bath cabin sits on three acres (sleeps 7+) overlooking Cook Inlet and is within 30 minutes of five rivers including the Kenai, Kasilof and Anchor.
Most of our guests do a combo package of self guided and guided river and saltwater trips.
Shop around and you will see that this is one  of the most affordable ways to visit and fish Alaska. Weekly cabin rates are just $1400 and you will find more pictures and info here.
Give us a call and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about fishing on the Kenai peninsula. 707 479-0992
Pictured above: The morning sockeye catch from our annual family trip in July