Searching For South Bay Sturgeon Aboard The California Dawn   By: Cal Kellogg February 29, 2008 More Articles by Cal

I define sturgeon fishing as long hours of boredom, punctuated by minutes of frantic excitement. Sturgeon bites are hard to come by, but when you do get a pump followed by a hookup and that big ‘ol fish screams off on its first run, the adrenaline rush that kicks in will make your heart do the Macarena!

My last sturgeon trip was a successful one. For folks that missed my article, I traveled up to the Chico area of the Sacramento River and landed a 7 footer while fishing with Chuck Powell of the River Run Guide Company. Before landing that big diamond back with Chuck, it had been 78 hours since my previous hookup. That’s a lot a lot of waiting, in fact I was beginning to wonder if I was really patient or really stupid? Depending on who you ask there is no definitive answer to that question!

With my sturgeon timer reset at zero and with storm after storm passing through northern California, dumping runoff into the Bay/Delta system, I’ve had my ears open hoping to catch another sturgeon in short order. I love to fish for sturgeon off my own boat, but if I can go out with a guide or charter boat skipper that has found a concentration of willing fish I’ll literally jump at the opportunity.

Well, when Captain James Smith of the California Dawn stopped by the Fish Sniffer booth at the Sacramento ISE Show, shared that he’d been nailing big numbers of sturgeon while fishing in the South Bay and asked if I’d like to join him and Justin Wolff of Angler West Television on a sturgeon hunting expedition I didn’t hesitate in saying yes.

Originally we set the date of the trip for Friday, January 25, but the day before we were slated, James called me and cancelled the trip. A storm was rolling in and it was supposed to be really windy. That was fine with me, since I was in the middle of fighting off the flu. We rescheduled the trip for Wednesday, January 30.

When I left Auburn early on Wednesday morning snow was falling, but by the time I got to Allen Bonslett’s house in Galt stars were shimmering in the night sky. After tossing my gear into the Fish Sniffer Suburban, we headed off for the Berkeley Marina with Allen behind the wheel.

We were supposed to depart from the marina at 7 o’clock in the morning, so of course we showed up at a quarter before 6. After catching a few winks in the warm Suburban, we headed down the ramp to the California Dawn at about 6:30. Boarding the boat we were greeted by Tawny, the Cal Dawn’s cook and few other anglers including Justin and his buddy Todd.

Not only is Tawny a lot of fun, but she is also a fabulous cook. She makes the world’s best breakfast burritos and I knew I’d be enjoying one of them soon!

A few minutes after I put my gear in the cabin and rigged my rod for sturgeon, James arrived and we slid out of the marina right on time with about 10 anglers aboard. It wasn’t a regular charter trip. Instead it was a fun fishing trip that James put together for his friends and close associates in the fishing industry.

As James cut a course to the south across the glassy smooth bay, he explained that the fish he’d been targeting had moved during the passage of the last storm. “There was a concentration of fish near the Oakland Airport and the bite was really consistent,” said James. “Over the past couple weeks I’ve had days when we boated 8 keepers for 9 anglers, 5 keepers for 7 guys, 8 keepers for 13 anglers and 7 keepers for 13 anglers.”

“Fishing in the South Bay can be a real boom or bust deal. The fish are down here to feed on the herring spawns. It is the one time of the year when the sturgeon tend to school up. When you locate a school the action can be really good, so long as the school sticks around. If they move, you’ve got to relocate them and that is what our challenge is going to be today,” continued James.

After doing a good deal of searching James saw a few good looking marks near the Alameda Ferry Station, so we dropped the anchor and pitched out 10 rods baited with ghost shrimp spiked with several different types of Pro-Cure Super Gel.

We got a few bites and eventually landed a kingfish, a bullhead and a good sized flounder. When no sturgeon bites came, James told us to reel up our lines and we headed off in search of a more productive area.

James covered a lot of ground cruising both the east and west shores of the South Bay searching for fish, but the fishing gods were not smiling down on us. The conditions were great with no wind and plenty of sun, but we just couldn’t find any fish. Despite trying our luck at a handful of different locations, we finally admitted defeat at around 2 o’clock and headed back toward Berkeley.

All of us aboard were experienced sturgeon anglers, so we were more frustrated than disappointed. When you go sturgeon fishing, it is a given that you stand a pretty good chance of getting skunked, but the way James had been nailing fish, we were all hoping that we could beat the odds. Instead, luck had bitten us right it the backside!

Yet despite the lack of fish we’d had a wonderful time, which is the norm on the California Dawn. We got to see the sun, which hadn’t really shone itself for two weeks, and Tawny’s cooking went a long way toward taking the sting out of the fact that we’d been thoroughly skunked.

On the way back to the marina I asked James about the sturgeon outlook. “I’m sure there are still a good number of fish holding in the South Bay. You can generally count on there being catchable numbers of fish in the South Bay through the end of January and into February,” James disclosed.

“Once the fish start to disappear from the South Bay, they typically head up into San Pablo Bay as they migrate back toward the delta for their spring spawning run. I think I’m going to move the California Dawn up to Martinez next week and see if we can get in on some good action up in San Pablo Bay. During the late winter it is really tough to beat San Pablo for consistency and you can experience great days up there too when you put up big scores,” said James.

“When I’m fishing San Pablo I look for days that have a lot of tidal movement and of course all the freshwater runoff coming down the river will do nothing but help the bite in both San Pablo and Suisun Bays. In general I want at least 4 feet of tidal movement and more is even better. When the current is ripping that is a great time to get out on the flats and work in water that is 3 to 12 feet deep. Shoot, maybe we should have been up in San Pablo today, the conditions are great. I hate getting skunked, but when you‘ve got a writer onboard you’re asking for trouble,” laughed James.

If you’d like a shot at catching a big winter diamondback give James a call at (510) 773-5511. I guarantee that the food will be great and if I don’t tag along the fish will probably bite. One way or another you’re certain to have a great time and learn a lot about fishing for the elusive white sturgeon. If you catch one, look the fish over good. There is a fat keeper out there with my name on it, so if it’s my fish be sure to throw it back!