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2009 OWAC CONFERENCE A
HUGE HIT
By: Ron Wilson
April 23, 2009.... I just returned from
the Outdoor Writers Association of California 2009 Spring Conference
held at
the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield.
Talk about a whirlwind conference, this
was definitely one of the better ones for the wife which she will write
about at a later date.
While most of the people chose the Hilton
to stay at my wife, Diana, chose another lodge, one that served a buffet
breakfast. I about fell over laughing when she asked what time they
started serving when we checked in at the desk and the gal said 6 a.m.
the exact time we were to meet at the Hilton to depart for our
activities on the next day.
Monday morning before 6 a.m. Mike
Moropoulos and John Henigin of Fish Talk Radio and I loaded into Diana’s
van and headed to Rio Vista to met Captain John Asher of Hitman
Sportfishing for a morning of Striped bass and Sturgeon fishing. Talk
about a captain being put under pressure I figured we would be lucky to
nail a striper or two let alone a sturgeon.
We launched and headed up above the Rio
Vista Bridge to a spot that had a shallow sandy bottom area and started
long lining rebel lures. The lures had a white worm attached to the
treble hook at the end. Captain John would hook the worm and then insert
a wire from a bread wrapper tie through the head of the worm and wrap it
tight around the shaft of the treble hook so that the stripers could not
tear the worm off on the strike if they hit it short. Great money saving
idea. Any day I can learn one more trick about a different fishing
technique my day is made.
We started off on the troll and we put
the lures back 100 feet on the mono and placed them in the rod holders
and started to get to know one another. I found out John was the hero
who saved 3 guys from drowning as their boat was being crushed by the
ships at the mothball fleet several years ago. I was fishing the same
sturgeon derby as John and would not travel through the fog and shallow
water at night like he did. He had a big advantage as he new the area
and had a jet boat at the time. He saved three guys lives that night as
we had a freakishly high tide that night that crushed the boat into
pieces between the ships shortly after he got the men into his boat and
backed out of the hazardous area away from the ships.
 Mike
was first to score with his first ever 7 pound Striped Bass the light
action rods that Captain John used made for a good fight. The other
boats in the distance saw the net wave and here they came and the area
really got crowded in a hurry. We managed a couple more small fish and
then a couple sea lions came into the area and Captain John had had
enough so we left.
We headed down river close to Sherman
Island looking for a sturgeon or two on the depth finder. Captain John
took us to one of his areas to check and see if they were in the area
and the huge marks said some of the big boys were hanging around.
Captain Mark dropped the pick and then I
learned another little trick. When there is a tide Mark uses an old bass
trick to attach a weight to his lead so the bait stays on the bottom. He
inserts his leader through one or two small cylinder weights we use to
make up a Carolina rig for bass and he also runs a rubber inside the
weight so he can adjust the distance he wants it from the baited hook to
compensate for the speed of the water he is fishing in. The idea is to
always have you baited hook on the bottom at all times.
Captain John rigged two rods with ghost
shrimp and two with grass shrimp and the wait began. John Henigin hooked
a couple sturgeon that was not in the slot limit and we were pumped as
there was one big sturgeon after another swimming underneath the boat in
20 feet of water according to the depth finder and we just knew that the
big boy would soon take a bait.
The first thing we knew it was 11;30 a.m.
and we were not going to make the appointment time to Tour Sandy Beach
with Dan Sykes who we were supposed to meet at Fosters Big Horn
Restaurant. A quick phone call letting them know we still had our rods
in the water and would not make it in time was made. It eased our minds
a little so that Dan wasn’t left sitting and waiting but it still wasn’t
right. Lets see stick around a little while longer and possibly catch a
huge sturgeon or rush into Fosters to eat. Dumb question to me, Well we
stuck around and fished another hour and then headed in to Fosters for a
quick meal. We could of had a free meal by coming in earlier but chose
to pay for our own hoping for that big bite that never came. Mike, John
and I had a great time fishing together and a good lunch, we just wished
that we had more time to wet a line together but these conferences are
designed so that you keep on the move and see as much of the area and
absorb as much information about the hosts as possible!
Here are the options we (OWAC Members)
had to choose from Solano Land Trust Guided Tour #1, #2, #3, #4. A
day in the Suisun Valley, Wooden Valley Winery and the Lanza Family,
Mankas Corner and Vezer Family Vineyards, Winerhawk Winery, Erickson
Ranch Produce Stand and Dahlia Garden, Birds Landing Clay Sport
Shooting, Lake Berryessa Bass Fishing, Putah Creek Fly-Fishing, Suisun
Slough: Kayaking, Biologist For A Day as you can see the local
organizing committee of Beth Javens, Nicole Byrd, Phil Kohlmetz, Tracy
Ellison, Stepen Pierce and Corey Boswell did one heck of a bang up job
putting this event together.
All these years the only thing I knew
about Fairfield was that once I arrived there Suisun Slough was just up
ahead and I would soon be launching my boat.
In 3 days I had the opportunity to see
and learn a lot about Fairfield and the surrounding area. Once you get
off the freeway you only have to travel just a couple miles and you will
not believe the beautiful scenery that is hidden in the nearby
hillsides.
I suggest you get on the web and take a
visual tour of Fairfield and the surrounding area and then check out the
many places and winery’s that I mentioned and then plan to make a visit
there in person and hopefully you will be as pleasantly surprised as I
was. |
