Allen Bonslett, Fish Sniffer general manager, his daughter, Elizabeth, his father in law, Chuck Dunham and I fished aboard the Fish 'N' Fool IV with Captain Barry Canevaro. Fish Sniffer staffers Charlie Myer, Larry Lindhorst and Nanette Hart fished aboard the Fish 'N' Fun with Captain Diana Canevaro.

Both boats got on the water a little before 8 a.m. Barry anchored up in 15 feet of water off Seal Island. As soon as the threadfin shad hit the water, we began to get bit. Elizabeth landed the first striper of the day, a scrappy 4 pounder, followed by Chuck and Allen, who each landed quality stripers. Elizabeth's second fish was the largest striped bass on the boat, an 11 pounder that she battled all by herself with some coaching from her grandpa. As she was fighting the big fish, Allen brought in another 7 pound striper and I caught a 9 pounder. We could have gone home with five limits for all of us, including Barry, at 9 a.m., but we kept releasing fish. I landed the last fish of the day, another 9 pounder, at around 10:30 a.m, on a bullhead after all of the other rods were out of the water. Our count for the day was 30 hook-ups, including 20 keeper stripers landed, of which we kept 10. For winter fishing, it was about as wide open as it gets!

At times, it was difficult to keep the hooks baited up because there was so much action. We fished the incoming tide all morning; the tide had 4-1/2 feet of tidal movement, going from a 1.5 to 5.9 foot tide. "It's the best day of striper fishing in the Delta that I've ever experienced," summed up Allen Bonslett.

As we were leaving our spot, Diana, who was about half a mile away, reported that Larry had just landed a 48 inch sturgeon. They were trying to catch a quality bass before they finished the day, since they had released a bunch of keepers. Larry was stoked, since it was first ever limit of either stripers or sturgeon that he had ever caught; he hit the piscatorial jackpot by catching limits of both species in one day. They ended up bagging full limits of stripers to 9 pounds.

On the same day, Mark Delnero of Fin Addict Sportfishing also ended up with limits of stripers.

"The water temperature has stayed around 52 degrees for a week," said Canevaro, "so this has helped the fishing. When drastic changes in water temperature occur, it shuts off the bite. When the water temperature is stable, the fishing is good."

On his previous trip, Canevaro returned with two limits of stripers, including two fish weighing 31 and 19 pounds. They caught all of their fish while bait fishing with shad also.

For more information on fishing aboard the Fish 'N' Fool IV or Fish 'N' Fun out of the Fish Hookers Sportfishing, call (916) 777-6498 or check out their website at www.fishhookers.com