Peter Ottesen, Record Correspondent reported March 14, 2012 that striped bass continue to build in the Sacramento River as the spring run begins to take shape. The full moon and large tides caused the water to cloud up, preventing anglers from hooking too many on the troll. Find clean water and your chances improve.

"With this good-sized storm predicted, all bets are off," said guide Barry Canevaro of Isleton. "Trolling was good on the Sacramento River at the Old Dairy and West Bank until the water got dirty. If conditions stay murky, I'll continue to fish for sturgeon."

Canevaro said eel is the "top bait" for sturgeon, worked in combination with grass or ghost shrimp or pile worms. He hooked sturgeon, some within the 46- to 66-inch slot and some oversized in the shallows of Grizzly Bay, Suisun Cut, Middlegrounds and between Roe and Ryer islands.

Others tout sturgeon above Rio Vista in Cache, Prospect, Shag and Steamboat sloughs.

On the San Joaquin River side, school-sized stripers to 8 pounds are found in the Mokelumne River, Peacocks, Santa Clara Shoals and Prisoner's Point. The trick is to locate a school and stay with it. Flies, lures and jigs will score if a concentrated school is discovered.

Of course, the best way to fish in murky water is with a GPS fishfinder combo. GPS fishfinders will help you find that school of fish and stay with it as Peter suggested is the best way to get a really good haul while out fishing. After all, a simple GPS fishfinder combination doesn't need clear water so that you can see to the bottom of the river, lake or other body of water. It will help you figure out where the shoals are and which items are the fish and which are the debris or the contour of the lake or river bottom. Anyway, now that the weather is really turning nice you want to maximize your fishing opportunities. Why let a storm stirring up the silt on the bottom ruin your day? Get out your GPS fishfinder combo and have one of your best fishing days ever!

We got a call recently from someone wondering whether he would be able to use the existing transducer that came with his boat with new GPS fishfinder combination.  That opened a conversation about compatibility.  Not all brands of ducers will be compatible with all brands of GPS fishfinder combination.  You really want to do your homework on that one to be sure that you have the correct match.  Also, his old fishfinder was set into his boat, permanently affixed; and he wanted to be able to drop his new model into the same slot.  We did the homework and found the GPS fishfinders that would meet all his criteria.  That was an interesting exploration, but we found some great options that would fit perfectly.  During that search it brought out the fact that, although some GPS fishfinders will work permanently affixed to the boat, some will actually get much better reception and give you better screen visibility if they are on a swivel mount which gives clearance all around.  These are all important things to consider when shopping for a replacement GPS fishfinder combo for your boat to give you the best fishing possible.  Happy fishing, and I hope you catch the Big One!

There are several parts to a gimbal mount.  Normally it is made of a set of rings, but sometimes is a ball and socket arrangement, attaching ultimately to a bracket which will support the equipment and another part which will attach to the vessel.  In this case, we would use them to attach our GPS fishfinders and/or chartplotters as important and useful marine accessories.