The top area to target San Pablo Bay sturgeon is known as the Sturgeon Tringle, an area of water bounded by the Pumphouse, China Camp and Buoy 5. Optimum conditions would be during a strong outgoing tide. "Try fishing a variety of shrimp baits, grass, ghost or mud shrimp, during the last half of an outgoing minus tide," tipped Fraser. "The most consistent action has been found in 8 to 20 feet of water."

"We finally have something to talk about and the rain made all the difference," confirmed Captain Mike O'Connell of the New Keesa out of Point San Pablo. "We made our first trip out since the rains hit on Saturday, January 13 and we landed two keeper sturgeon and four striped bass. Up until then, the bite had been extremely slow."

O'Connell said they were fishing grass shrimp and herring fillets in 18 feet of water between the Pumphouse and the Sisters when they caught the two sturgeon. Eleven year old Ramon Meacham from Palo Alto landed his first ever keeper, a 58 incher that weighed in at 40 pounds. Co-Captain of the New Keesa, Chad Aho from Hayward, landed the other keeper. "We caught one sturgeon at the bottom of the outgoing tide and the other fish on the incoming tide," added O'Connell. "The largest striped bass of the day was right around 10 pounds."

"We ran one sturgeon trip this week and even though we didn't land any keepers, things are definitely starting to look up," reported captain Scott Baggett of Nobilis Sportfishing. ""Water conditions are much better now since the last two storms came through and we had a lot more action on our last trip."

According to Baggett, 9 anglers aboard the Nobilis landed several undersized sturgeon, 4 striped bass and a couple starry flounder. "We also heard several reports over the radio from private boaters catching sturgeon as well as a couple of the other party boats," he added. "We caught the shaker sturgeon and two of the bass between China Camp and the Pumphouse, then we moved back into shallow water at the Hamilton Flats where we caught two more stripers. All of the fish were caught in 8 to 11 feet of water."

"It's amazing how much the bite improved from the small amount of rain we had this week and things should really break loose if we can get another good storm," explained Baggett. "Because of the lack of rain, most of the sturgeon have moved upriver towards the Delta. As soon as they get a taste of fresh water from the runoff, they will be moving back into San Pablo Bay. It looks like they're already on the move and all we need is a little more rain."

It looks like Mother Nature has finally loosened her grip on the storm door and these next few weeks may offer some of the year's best odds for catching one of the north states most elusive fish. Remember to watch for the larger outgoing tides and try to plan your trip following periods of moderate to heavy rains.