The big one got away

I am finally getting around to reporting on last Friday’s fishing trip. We went Striper fishing again and we did slightly better then last time. Unfortunately the big one got away this time. We got an early start launching in Antioch and immediately went to my favorite spot, a sand bar on the San Joaquin which didn’t produce any fish. As it turned out it was still the tail end of the Incoming tide but I still expected to do better here. We hit another spot upstream that we had heard held fish, but no luck either. The seal we trolled by in this photo didn't seem to mind being bothered by us. He barely lifted his head after his sleep was rudely interrupted.

We shot by Brannon Island and started trolling up the Sacramento River near the old Dairy and caught our 1^st keeper. It was caught on what must have been an antique. It had a white jig head with a spinner and long ribbon styled white rubber tail. The remaining fish were all caught on my rod for some reason. This trip out we were all were using various colored Yo-Zuri shallow running rebels with worm trailers. I was using my favorite with an off white with sparkles curly tailed grub which I shortened a bit to make sure if I do get a hit that it sticks.

We caught two more just north of the Rio Vista bridge on the East side. One around 22 inches and one that went 7 lbs. We then headed south and I ended up hooking into a large striper near Decker Island. I was just about to fall asleep after a long day when my rod started to thrash from the striper attacking the Yo-Zuri shallow runner. I jumped up and grabbed the rod and fought the fish up to the boat. He took a dive and I held him, and the second time he came up he turned hard and dove and the lure popped off. This was the second fish to pop off today for me. My dad said my drag was set to tight and I agree. I am always learning. The fish was definitely over 10 lbs, of course there is no proof of that. You just have to take my word. J

We hit my favorite spot one more time since it was on the way home and caught one more, so we had three fish in the boat. All fish were caught in Shallow water in the 6 to 10 foot range. I found two more area’s that hold fish now, so this is good for future trips. This will just about do it for striper fishing for a while. This weekend we will be camping on a lake catching trout, and after that I am off to La Paz Mexico for 5 days of fly fishing for big game. Should be exciting.