Good / Bad Day for Fishing

[SDale]

Yesterday the weather let up, the rain stopped and the sun came out to warm things up a bit. SO, me and my brother-in-law decided to hit Berkeley Pier to go do some fishin. I checked the tidal charts and the fishing report for what was biting. Found out that Stripers were hitting left and right, so we got geared up and bought the appropriate bait.

     We ended up getting to the pier at about 5:30 in the afternoon and set-up. The pier was almost empty. There were only a handful of people there. I guess the rain had scared folks off. Well, after we got set-up, we baited our hooks with Pile Worms and a sliding rig with Live Anchovie. less than 10 minutes after we cast, we BOTH got hits back to back. No real luck though. We ended up landing 2 Leopard Sharks on that cast.

     Took a break for a while and decided to walk the pier to see what everyone else was getting. Turns out that not only are stripers biting, but so are Sturgeon!!! A group of guys about 300 yards down from us were packing up and geting ready to leave with two 67 inch Sturgeon. Got some info on what they were using for bait. Live Anchovies were getting the job done.

      Get back to fishing and AGAIN! back to back bites. THis time BOTH fish we had online were big enough to break 50LB Spider Wire. We were all excited now so we keep fishing and finally end up running out of anchovies, so I set up a drop line for Shiner Perch to use as bait. I was about 20 yards away from my pole putting the drop line in the water when I hear my bell ring. As soon as I hear it, I take off running to set the hook. 15 feet before I got there I see my BRAND NEW Tidewater Pole & Daiwa reel, bend STRAIGHT DOWN towards the water and flip in. Damnit...Lost my 1 week old rig in less than a minute. Luckily I had a Stand By. An old Olympic Pole with a Johnson reel. We caught about 15-20 shiner perch on the drop line, so we go back to fishing. After that, it wasn't very good. We ended up pulling in (and throwing back) about six to seven stingray each. Weighing from 8 to 15 pounds. Also a few Leopard Sharks. But no more BIG BITES like when were using the Anchovie.

     All in all....It was a good day for fishing. But a BAD day for new Poles......

Here's a couple pics of what our typical catch was after switching to shiner perch bait:

[Gene_SC]

Glad to hear about the Good part of your day.. Is that the famous Berkley Pier area where the pregnant lady was murdered by her husband Scott? Just curiouse..

Gene

[SDale]

Gene...Yup, thats exactly the same place!

[SDale]

bullseye...Tried that for over an hour. I've got a trebble as big as the palm of my hand with a lead sinker cast onto it. Snagged a few old crusty poles, but never mine.

Yup, we kept one of the largers sharks and 2 of the 15 pound stingray. I'm goin over the my brother in law's house today so we can work on his Mustang and skin the Ray/Shark and turn the sting ray into immitation scallops!   .  Coupla beers, a hot grill...Got the day made!

[dw33]

Too bad about the new pole, but man, I should would like to have seen what broke 50lb. test.  Sounds like a great time.

[nyairman]

Good fishn day dood. Sorry about that pole though. Happened to me once too. Got mine back though from another fisherman who pulled it out of the lake  2 days later. He was nice enough to track me down and give it back to me . What a guy! Good luck fishing this year. I can't wait to get out again

Greg

[Big_Bill]

Hay Sam,

Sorry to hear about your rod and reel, I,' a cheep bastar_, and always tie my reel to the rod, and the rod to the pier. Heck I even tie off when I'm on the beach or boat, like I said, "CHEEP".

You had some good activity there though, those sharks andrays give you plenty of fight for you money !

And as my buddy Ed pointed out, some good eaten there ! I like the artificial scallops better than the real ones.

Well take care now,

Sounds like one of my fishing trips. Catching everything but what I was after.

Yep, I even have a few poles at the bottom of a few lakes and a oceans. Best one was while casting off the fan tail of the ship, I hit a post with the rod and watched a $400 rod and reel sink in a half mile of water.:0

Glenn

[SDale]

gdswartz - 4/15/2007  12:32 PM

Sounds like one of my fishing trips. Catching everything but what I was after.

Yep, I even have a few poles at the bottom of a few lakes and a oceans. Best one was while casting off the fan tail of the ship, I hit a post with the rod and watched a $400 rod and reel sink in a half mile of water.:0

Glenn

Sounds like the times I was restricted to the Boat when I was in the Navy  

Why'd you have to bring fishing up? I live in the middle of dirt. No water, no desert...dirt. Sometimes cotton, but mostly dirt.

[SDale]

Dookie - 4/25/2007  7:16 PM

Why'd you have to bring fishing up? I live in the middle of dirt. No water, no desert...dirt. Sometimes cotton, but mostly dirt.

awww man, sorry 'bout that!

There's GOTTA be a lake or stream near ya SOMEWHERE???

It was like that when I lived in Oklahoma. So me & my cousins used to go frog giggin & catfishin in Irrigation slouses. Good crawdads there too!