I'd had the feeling that something was going to happen all day long. Call it intuition, instinct, wishful thinking, or what ever. If you are an avid angler you know what I am talking about. It is that little voice deep in the recesses of your mind that says, "Today is the day, the conditions are right and everything is going to come together."

That little voice was chanting its mantra when my rod tip twitched twice ever so slightly, signaling a visitor. A few seconds later the tip twitched two more times before slowly pumping down about three inches. Springing from my seat, I gently picked up the rod by its butt and lowered the tip, giving the visitor a few inches of line...

Hey hold on, I'm getting way ahead of myself. The trip I've been describing really got started back in 2003, long before I became part of the Fish Sniffer team. That was when Allen Bonslett, the Fish Sniffer's publisher ordered what he considered his perfect boat, a 20 foot Pro Line 20 DC complete with a Lowrance LXC-19C sonar unit and a 130 horsepower Honda Four Stroke outboard.

Just about the time the boat was delivered Allen began feeling poorly, so he went to the doctor for a physical. A short time later Allen was diagnosed with multiple myloma, a type of blood cancer. For the next year Allen fought for his life, enduring chemo-therapy and a bone marrow transplant, as the new Pro Line sat covered in his backyard.

The treatment regiment was ultimately successful and Allen has regained his strength, vigor, and desire to fish. Unfortunately Allen's commitments at the magazine combined with our rigorous winter sports and boat show schedule left little time to take the Pro Line out for it's maiden fishing adventure.

Needless to say, by the time March rolled around Allen was really itching to get his new boat wet. With a consistent sturgeon and striper bite in the west delta and a few slack days after producing issue number 2408, Allen and I decided to take out his boat in search of sturgeon.

After consulting with Captain Barry Canevaro of The Fish Hookers Sportfishing, we decided to head for Montezuma Slough where the Fish Hookers had taken a number of sturgeon in recent days. I rolled up at Allen's house at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, with the full moon shining brightly. After transferring gear, we were off. The hunt for diamondbacks had officially begun!

After stopping in Rio Vista to stock up on eel, ghost shrimp, and shad, we arrived at the Grizzly Island launch ramp around 7:00 a.m. with high expectations. Several minutes later, we had the boat in the water and were headed upstream looking for fish on the sonar.

We had covered about two miles when we the sonar registered several big blips near a hump in 27 feet of water. We felt confident that the blips were sturgeon so Allen positioned the boat and I quietly lowered the anchor.

Our terminal rigs consisted of 20 inch 80 pound test monofilament leaders adorned with two 8/0 Gamakatsu octopus hooks. On our top hooks, we pinned lively ghost shrimp, while our lower hooks were baited with strips of lamprey eel.

After spraying our baits with anise Bang, we lobbed out our rigs. For two hours we sat attentively watching our rod tips. Despite the fact that sturgeon were jumping all around us we had zero action.

When the tide bottomed out, we moved downstream to the mouth of Hunter's Cut and soaked our baits for about and hour and a half again without results.

After that we cruised about for the rest of the afternoon trying several more locations without any action. At high tide we called it a day.

Day break on Saturday once again found Allen and I at the Grizzly Island launch ramp where we hooked up with several guys Allen had been communicating with on the Fish Sniffer's sturgeon message board. After introductions, it was decided that we would spend the day fishing together.

We spent the last two and a half hours of the outgoing tide fishing the lower mouth of Montezuma Slough. The area looked great, with several fish showing on the sonar, but they all had lockjaw. At slack tide Gary Hepfener, the "Sturgeon Stomper", suggested that we travel up Montezuma Slough past the locks and try our luck near Chain Island.

Once we cleared the lock Allen and I headed over to the Pittsburg Marina for fuel and bait. Within an hour we'd returned, relocated our buddies, and dropped anchor just beyond the western end of Chain Island in 42 feet of water.

After a couple of hours without much action, several boats in our group decided to head back into Montezuma. Allen and I were debating whether we should do the same, but Gary urged us to stay, "This is a good spot and we are into the best part of the tide," he said.

I'm glad we took his advice, since it was about 30 minutes later when my rod twitched to life. "If he touches it again set the hook," Allen advised as I stood holding the rod. A beat later I felt a couple taps followed by slow rubbery pull. I slammed the hook home hard and felt solid weight. Reeling down, I set the hook four more times with hard jabs and the fight was on.

The fish was heavy and determined to stay deep. Despite the tight drag, the diamondback pulled 30 pound test line from the Penn reel with apparent ease. A couple of times the fish ran toward me with such speed that reel couldn't keep up due to it's low gear ratio.

After several minutes of give and take struggle, the sturgeon wallowed to the surface off our port side. Seconds later I had the diamondback aside the boat. Allen slid the lasso around the fish's tail and hauled it aboard. When all was said and done, the fish measured 51 inches in length and registered 41 pounds on my Rapala spring scale.

We fished for a while longer without any further action before heading back to the boat ramp. Once back in Montezuma, we learned that our buddies in the other boats had a couple of good stripers to show for their efforts.

As I nodded off to sleep that night, I couldn't help thinking it had been an exceptional two days on the water. I had a husky sturgeon, Allen's Pro Line was officially broken in, and we'd met some new friends. What more could we want?

If you're looking for a place to fish now is a great time to visit the West Delta. Sturgeon, stripers, black bass, and catfish are all providing good action when the weather cooperates.