The Champion's Sturgeon

{Monkeyface News editorial machine: if you're here for the video scroll to the bottom. The vimeo video is higher quality but may take longer to load}

Champion's white sturgeon, thanks to Arturo for sending me this photo.

Well, I was just sitting down to write another post about the advantages of limpets and mudsuckers (yawn yawn) when the phone rang. Champion de la Banana, (scroll down after you hit the link) who doubles as Monkeyface field operative and herring scout #007, was on the line. Being that everyone is talking about birds, sea lions, and big schools of clupeids loaded up in the channels, I figured it was winter 2012-13 herring run #1, and I was already looking for my rubber boots and buckets when the Champion posed a strange question.

"When are you coming here to make me famous, champion?" Guys laughing in the background, as they always are when Champion's speaking.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"I just caught a 64 inch sturgeon on a number 6 hook with 10 pound test, come poot me on the internet!"

When this man speaks, everybody smiles.

Well... even though I have dipped my A-frame into the musky lands of sports biography of late and tend to shy away from reporting on the mainstream Bay Area fishes... this is, after all, a fishing blog. And really, what kind of fishing blogger am I if I can not grant so humble a request from so great a local fisherman as Champion de la Banana?

Suffice it to say, I threw on my Santa hat and rain pants and headed for Champion's secret location (not much of a secret, really. Everyone in the know, knows where the Champion likes to fish in the winter... and though I tried to limit the background (which is why the field of view is so annoyingly low in the group shot at the beginning) a few harcore types will easily figure it out. Go crazy guys. It still takes (on average) 100+ hours of fishing time to produce one shore caught sturgeon (anecdotal data only, just my opinion).

Mikis Theodorakis

In any event... here is the latest Monkeyface cinematic masterpiece. Been a while since I made one of these. By the way, even though his nickname is Spanish, the Champion hails from the ancient land of Hellas. Hence the soundtrack here, which I hope he likes (it is quite possible that every Greek on earth is woefully tired of this particular album... Nevertheless, the Monkeyface News considers it one of the greatest soundtracks ever).

Oh yeah, I should mention that Pedro did a pretty awesome job removing the notochord so if you are new to sturgeon butchery, take heed.

You know, I just spent like 5 hours trying to upload this sucker on Youtube. In the end I decided to go with Vimeo. But because a lot of fishermen have no idea what Vimeo is, I'm also uploading the crappy Youtube version down below.

Have at:

Nice Version From Vimeo:

Crappy version from Youtube:

Oh man... the herring ran today. (Mark that down: first run winter 2012-13, was Nov 29th) and here I was with my phone turned off, sitting on me arse, screaming at the computer. Aaaagghhh!

Anyway, from high above the storm-wracked city, this is Lombard of the Intertidal... signing out.