Halibut Fever!
?I got it!
Well the transition back to work has gone ok. I’m back on mynormal work schedule.? WEEKENDS are outfor the time being. WENDSDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY ARE THE ONLY DAYS I FISH. ?Sorry!
? ?I’m predicting an early halibut season thisyear. With the lack of rain and lots of clean San Francisco bay water, thechances are great that we may be successful before mid-March. ?The herring spawn was good the shrimpers arecatching the occasional halibut in San Pablo Bay and Outside (The OCEAN) thedrag boats are scraping up anything that’s coming in the bay.? That sounds like bad news, but with all ofthis halibut activity I think it’s my turn. ?I’m going!
Really predictions don’t mean much. What matters is we getout a little early and give it a shot. You can’t find them if you aren’t outthere.?
?I put a few trips onthe adventure list. If you are interested call me with your 2-5 man crew and wewill make something happen. ?

Spent the last week in garage each evening hanging new FF/GPS combo, dual manual Scotty downriggers, changing seat orientation, rigging a bilge pump and generally cleaning up PO POS wiring. Recruited Dangerous Trebles and Kaster for a New Melons trip to test it all out. Debra made the killer tuna fish/bacon sammys for the crew.

Wife is good

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Launched at Tuttletown around 9:00 AM and made our way to the dam. WX was springlike. Kevin nailed a nice bow on a gold rapala near the dam to get the skunk off.

Kaster on a nice Melons bow.

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Mike and I both picked up fish on the downriggers 20 ft down.

Mike with Guppy

Bow

Mine was on a Thomas Bouyant. Mike had fish on copcar needlefish. Figured out that the riggers need to be moved to midship position and the chairs  changed out to better balance the load but that is what shakedown cruise is for. Mike picks up a spot on the rigger.

Green Trout

Ran to the Carson creek arm but not much going there.  Was able to run 5 lines effectively with few tangles.

Clutter

What winter?

Miscreants

Gadabouts

Sunset at the dam

(sigh)

On the way back to the ramp there was literally 100′s of jumpers and surface feeders but they were not interested in our offerings.

Bankies

Electric trolling motor ran all day and still had juice. Vitually NO marks on the depth finder strangely.

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Every Trip Is Different: This week I challenged a few new customers.? On New Year’s Eve, Dave chartered the boat for 3 passengers and had limits for his crew(3 sturgeon)and (1 for the crew). Yesterday 2/4/2012 Dave put together another crew. This crew also included his wife, father and friend of the family. ? Dave’s wife, Crystal, put the whoop’ in on a 61 inch fish at the end of the day. The sturgeon fishing was very tough. The Local fish have been pounded by the derbies and boat traffic. The fleet has been concentrating in some deeper water just East of the Bridge and around Buoy 2. There were allot of boats on Friday, the day before the derby, most just stayed there all day, hoping to get lucky on one of the few fish passing by.? I took a chance and actually looked for some fish. Squatting and rotting isn’t my style. We found another small group of fish at Roe and Ryer Isl. This group went through pretty fast, as the current started to flow on the ebb tide. ?We hooked a few shakers. Seeing that the current was going to get faster, we looked in some shallow water and worked our way back to the Benicia Bridge, stopping in deeper water and waiting for the current to slow.? The patience of the crew and the hard work from the Deck hand, ZAK, took a day that didn’t seem very fishy in to a challenging battle of wit and patience. Please take the time to read the prior post . Our rates are going up.

My Hip has healed fine. Now I’m nursing a prostate problem, I hope, goes away soon. I have been on disability for 2-1/2 months. Right now I’m ?getting back to the job that pays the bills at Genentech.? So stressful!? Anyhow , The sturgeon fishing should only get better with the rain this week.??To be quite honest, I’m kind of tired of sturgeon . We caught allot this fall and winter. If you have eaten all of your sturgeon and need another, I’ll get you out there for another go round. ? My major focus for the next couple of weeks will be stacking the freezer with fresh caught herring for bait. Catching and bagging herring will save on the bait bill?, herring is close to $300 a case. Catching it ourselves saves allot of cash. ?I want to get a jump on the Butts. As usual, Ill be the one to get it rolling. As soon as I can get 5-6 halibut in a day I’ll open it up to my customers. I’m hoping for a great Halibut season. Say your prayers and show up when its time. We will get a few. ? All I can say is, be patient, eat up what ya got and stay in touch.
? Its a tough time for me right now, I have been off work so long and its tough to get anything other then my normal days off. I don’t think we will make the Mcavoy’s sturgeon derby this year. My normal days off are Wednesday Thursday and Friday
? I am looking for 2-5 guys to sturgeon fish. My rates will be going up?soon. Currently sturgeon fishing rates are as follows. $150 pp for 2 passengers. If you can manage to get 3-5 passengers the rate is $125 per person. Even at that price people still want to negotiate a price. ?That is the cheapest in the bay for a small boat charter.
??2 passenger charter will increase to $180pp and 3-5 man charter will be $150 pp. As most regular passengers know I don’t do open loads! Grab a friend or 2 and get on the boat. ? Coming Soon: The calender will be updated as soon as the 2012 tide/calender book is available. The Tide book Co. was sold and another company picked it up. We have been ?anxiously waiting for the new BOOK. Its our entire business in one package. Without it we are using 3 tools instead of 1.
I look forward to seeing all the regular fisherman and especially look forward to getting some new groups. In 12 years of Charter boat fishing I have met allot of folks and had allot of great trips. I think of every passenger as part of my family. I love fishing but even more-so I love seeing you get your ?fish of a lifetime.
Capt John, BARBARIAN Sportfishing 510-750-4237?

Since moving down to Napa, Lake Berryessa has become adopted as my new home waters. I can get to the ramp in just over thirty minutes, launching is free, and there’s healthy populations of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. So whether its an impulsive last minute fishing trip or a planned one, I end up there a lot.

On Friday I headed out to Berryessa on an impulse, and to figure out how the fish are responding to this wacky abnormally sunny winter weather, with water temperatures hovering around 51 degrees. I drop shotted, spooned, jigged, cranked and even threw an alabama rig. Didn’t get a bite. Zilch. I was struggling to find anything alive all day on the graph. It was the first time I didn’t land a fish at Berryessa since I started fishing it late last summer. The one bass fisherman I talked to at the ramp said his only fish was over 5lbs on an alabama rig in around 20 feet of water.

Yesterday, I got to the ramp around twelve once more, looking for revenge. When I go fishing solo it gets personal. Just me and the fish. I tried focusing on chunk rock points in around 25-35 feet of water, throwing the drop shot and spoon. I was still failing to mark fish, and chose to make the run from the south end (I launch from Capell Cove) to the Putah Creek Road bridges in the north end. In the past I’ve been able to entice some nice bass to hit either a drop shot or senko on the fall, thrown up against the bridge pilings.

Surrounded by trout fisherman anchored up to the pilings and trolling under the bridge with down riggers, I began to attack the pilings, watching my line, waiting for it to stop. It never stopped. I marked fish on the bottom, 70 feet down, and began to slowly work my drop shot. Finally I got that familiar tick tick, and set the hook into what hardly qualified as a fight. A 4 inch bass in 70 feet of water? You’ve got to be kidding me. Definitely a testament to fishing with braided line, in being able to pick up such a light and deep bite.

After giving up on the bridge pilings and praying I had enough gas to make it back to the ramp, I made the run back to Capell Cove, not wanting to give up, but starting to get dark and cold fast. I idled by a few last rock points, keeping my eyes glued to the graph, and finally saw a solid school of fish stacked up in 45 feet of water. I downsized from a 6″ Roboworm in Morning Dawn color to a 4.5″ Roboworm in Prizm Shad color. First cast produced a decent smallmouth out of 46 feet of water. A few minutes later, I brought in an identical smallmouth. The key was to work the bait very slowly, giving it the slightest shake and pause. I headed back into the ramp with my hands finally smelling fishy, and content in knowing I had learned a little more about the fishery.

In Short: 2.5 Fish caught (does 4 inches count as a half?), 45 feet deep, using a 4.5″ Prizm Shad Roboworm with a 1/4 ounce drop shot weight, off a solid rock point.

Drop shot setup: Dobyns DX702SF, Shimano Stradic CI4, with 15lb Daiwa Samurai Braid/ 7lb Sunline leader.

You can find all these products at www.monsterfishingtackle.com

Debra and I spent Saturday night in Angles Camp as she is not a big fan of the 6:00 AM start and 2 hr drive. Wanted to launch at the 49er bridge but locals advised against so we hit the G-spot and headed for Carson as usual.

The Hump

WX pretty nice for January

FLAT

Was special being out with my Baby

Wavette

She pedalled 11+ miles with me.

Creekage

Hey, don't leave me!

Had one little one to show for our efforts on cop car needlefish

Didn't get the memo about lunar phase

Weather just got better as the day went by

January?

View

Tried:

Thomas Bouyant

Needlefish

Panther Martins

Various Rapalas

Seps Grubs

Kastmasters

Water was actually up by a couple of feet from December. They are obviously holding water here in preparation for the coming drought. Talked to PB’s at the ramp who did well on the wire. Noticed most fish on the meter at 40 ft and lower. May leave the yaks and go tin can next run.

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Annual maintenance of one’s reels is often overlooked by many anglers, for one reason or another. Some are intimidated by figuring out where to start and what to use. Others have messed up their reels too many times or simply don’t want to take the time. Whatever your reasons, take a deep breath, turn on some tunes and open up your reels, because come spring time you’re not going to want to deal with that coffe grinding sound and malfunctioning drag.

There are only a handfull of essentials one really needs to thoroughly clean a reel:

-Oil: Use either the oil that came with your reel, or a versatile oil like Quantum’s Hot Sauce, which you can find at MonsterFishingTackle.com

-Reel grease: I like Cal’s reel grease.
-Rubbing Alcohol: (Isopropyl) and Qtips: To clean off dirt.
-Reel tool: (to take off handle) or small screwdriver

I like to use a small muffin baking pan to keep the parts in order as I take them off the reel, so I don’t have to think about the order when I’m putting them back on or consult a schematic. It also insures you’re not losing your parts by simply lying them on a table. You can use one of the muffin molds to hold some rubbing alcohol for cleaning off dirt.

I had the pleasure of joining ten family/friends on a 9 day R&R in Quepos Costa Rica over the holidays. Good times.  We rented   a  newly built 4 bedroom villa that was fabulous.

Jungle Land

hosted by an Americano who coincidentally was a charter boat captain as well.

Capt Dave

For the first couple of days we lounged HARD. We fished one day 5 of us on a 31 ft Bertram with decent gear.

Berty

I told Capt Dave that we wanted to fish in-shore, hold our own poles and hook/fight our own fish. Forget the fact that Quepos is the sailfish-marlin capital of the world.  Dave gave our instructions to the Captain in Spanish with much gesturing. Dave was actually deck hand that day. Off we go.

Pez Vella departure

Crew

Yours truly

El Capitan

We promptly headed out to to 1500 feet 28 miles out and put the trolling gear in LOL.

Randys up

After 3 missed bites a sail comes up in the spread, Dave starts dragging in the  wayback outside clone teasers, the sail commits to a second wave ballyhoo and it is off to the races. Randy is on the board with a nice sail.

Money shot

Thelma was up next and brought a bleeder in which was released at boat-side. Thelma always catches fish.

Luz D'Alma

We trolled for HOURS with 10 boats in the vicinity and it was quiet through the middle of the day. At noon the Capt scrambles down from the bridge and shoos us off the port engine cover where we were fighting off sleep and pulls off a large tin foil package. Out of the cabin comes killer fried chicken, pineapple slices, homemade tortillas and pickled vegetables.

More boring trolling ensues and finally we pick up and run closer by 15 miles. Back in with the trolling gear 8 rods out. Clay farms one and we give him the next bite which is a dorado. DINNER BELL!

Bubbles

Mahi

dave hogties him

Safety measure?

The fish blows color by the time we take pix

Table fare

Nothing for the rest of the day. Debra whipped up a mighty fine dinner for ten

To die for

The rest of the trip was a pleasant succession of beach, butterflies, birds, monkeys, beach and more beach.

Playa Ballena

Coops

Randy Y Luz

Posse

Group grope

Grape roll

Manuel Antonio

Slothlike

This was my 3rd trip in 4 years and I really feel at ease in Costa Rica. The people are friendly and seem to enjoy life although there are clear distinctions between haves and have-nots. We rented cars one day and took a 6 hr drive through Jungle, mountains, plantations, Indian reservations, river canyons and back to the coast.

Myst

Amazing beauty.

Deck view

Head high

Had a killer rainstorm and fireworks show New Years eve with all ten of us up in the third story open air patio. Mucho Bebidas and great company.

Supremes

Pura Vida!

Launched solo Sunday at 8:00 am to pea soup fog and 37 degree temps.

Navigation hazard

Messed around in Franks until I could see enough to motor. Ran straight west and stopped on some terns and gulls doing their bird business on the bar at Eddos. Pitched a chrome blue rattle trap right into the weeds and popped it off into the mouth of a 5# schoolie with all kinds of enthusiasm.

Typical fatty

I picked up 3 more almost on back to back casts

Horizontal

and decided I better put on the helmet cam. Got five more on on the gopro H2 (editing now) before I spaced and drifted too far. Got back up to the tip of the bar but birds had split so I knew I had lost the session. I kept mixing in a spook cast but they liked the rattles.

Moved on to inner Sherman and found a couple willing to go on the spook but still small fish. Saw a number of small fish caught by guys plugging in the middle of Sherman. Tide started going out so started running and  gunning. Tried all over in Sherman, Broad (dirty), Sac, SJ, the Break and Franks but that was it for the day.

Weather turned out to be pretty nice so felt really lucky to have this day on the water. Feel like the bulk of the fish are still holding out west and have no idea where the momma are.

back bay in the break

Blue on Blue

World Peace

South Franks