Thursday, September 24, 2015

Weber Point, Stockton, California

Yuki, in his wanderings, ended up at Weber Point in Stockton a couple weeks ago. He said that he saw a guy catching Striper after Striper and another guy catching Red Ear Sunfish at this particular spot.

My last two Striper adventures were quite interesting so I said yes, let's go. First let me remind you of those two visits. First one was on the American River at Rossmoor Bar. I was throwing a Rattletrap and had one followup that was about a foot long and the second was more than two feet long. Didn't catch any though. The other adventure was with Yuki at New Hogan Reservoir and instead of catching a Striper, I caught a BIG Catfish. 

On to today. When we got to where he wanted to go I realized we were at Weber Point in Stockton, California. If you're a follower of KCRA 3 (Local TV station) they show this exact spot every night when they give the weather for Stockton. So here's a look.

Walkway along Weber Point

Toward the end and University Plaza Waterfront Hotel

On the left is the Stockton Arena
Stockton Arena is home to several sports teams like the Stockton Heat (hockey) and formally a soccer team, a couple football teams, and the Stockton Thunder.

The Sherman
The white ship above is The Sherman. The 144-foot ship was once called the General Frank M. Coxe. It was a steam ferry for the Army built in the 1921. Decades later, it will become a floating restaurant called The Sherman. From the looks of it today, it'll be a while so don't rush right down with plans for dinner. 

A full shot of the arena.
We fished from the side opposite the arena. I got a couple drive-bys from a couple small Stripers on a blue/silver Kastmaster, but that was it. I have no idea what to use for Stripers. Yuki struck out on that side of the water. Then we walked over to the side by the arena. Over a period of a couple hours, Yuki got a couple hits and one good miss on a Rattletrap. I fished four or five different lures and plugs, but nothing.

While we were fooling around with plugs and lures, we put in a couple lines with red worms in hopes of enticing some Red Ear Sunfish. The first to come to had was a small Bluegill (I think). I'm not so good at identifying Sunfish. It got to a point that we were having so much fun catching those little Sunfish, we forgot about Stripers.   

I really don't have bony legs. It just looks that way.

Bluegill I think
 Ooops, then I dropped one.
Sucker flopped under the rail.
 This was what was under the rail.

From what I can tell, a Redbrest Sunfish
Then Yuki got his first. A BIG Largemouth (or maybe Smallmouth) Bass.

Largemouth, I think. Smallmouth? who knows.
The Yuki added a small Sunfish of some sort (he wouldn't let me take a picture) and then another Bass (even smaller than that one) of which he wouldn't let me take a picture either.

So at the end of the day (about 1:30) I had caught 6 or 7 Sunfish and Yuki had one Sunfish and two Bass, but nothing that looked like a Striper. Then we went to In-N-Out Burger for lunch.

I think we'll do this again. Maybe next time with my little Okuma (2# test) or my 3 wt. fly rod. Could be fun.

5 comments:

  1. The second large mouth bass that I caught was even smaller; the size of my little finger.
    Well, I must say that catching such a small bass is more difficult than the larger ones. The real seasoned and skilled fishermen go after the smaller fish, I would say.

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  2. Mark, that old Army ferry is awesome. I think the bass is a largemouth.

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  3. A fish is a fish. But the term "drive-bys" carriers double meaning in Stockton. :)

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  4. I hope you get out to do some real fishing soon Mark.

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