The Beast of All Beasts

Darren & Dave were with me today on yet another scorcher! We got a later start than usual and headed out about 9:30 instead of the usual  7:00 Am start. I thought I’d see if the sturgeon had finally arrived and ran to where I usually see them. After idling around for a while, I finally stumbled upon a small concentration and decided to give it a try. I had brought everything I needed and moved above the area to drop the anchor. After three attempts, I finally managed to get it to hold and set the lines awaiting our first bite. After a few nibbling pests, we finally had a real taker and Dave landed a small sturgeon to start the day. A quick pick or two and right back it went. The next rod to get bit wasn’t so small. In fact, it took both of them tag teaming this beast to finally bring it to net, after a really long battle. Although Darren was first up, Dave was the one to finish the battle and I slid the giant net under the beast. I have brought many giants into the boat before but this one needed all three of us just to lift the net over the side. I won’t estimate just how much it weighed but only say that I had never seen anything this large before. Photos didn’t do it justice as both Darren & Dave tried to hold the thing for a few pics. The length & girth was just insane! To release this dinosaur they had to slide it over the side and along the rail just to get it back in the water. It took off immediately and I assume, right back to the depths below! We all needed a break after this and I just raised the roof so that we could have lunch comfortably. Eventually we wanted to get back in the water and I reset all the lines and awaited the next bite. Several hours later we had two smallies and 3 more small sturgeon to show for our efforts. Unfortunately the only large one came off in less than one minute after being hooked. Unanimously everyone agreed late in the afternoon to pull the plug and try for some bass & walleye. I re rigged the other rods and let them both drop shot in almost flat calm conditions. Without a drift going, it would be difficult. Dave managed to hook into a really good walleye almost immediately and at least I knew it could be done. Each drift seemed different as light gusts of wind from all kinds of directions changed the angle constantly. I had a hard time reading it and kept missing all my waypoints because of it. Whenever we were lucky enough to pass over the right areas, someone hooked up. Darren managed to nail a nice smallie that would have been welcomed in any tournament angler’s livewell! Several other small walleye and jumbo perch later, we finally called it quits. It was almost 7:00 and we had been on the water for just about 10 hours. The heat was pretty much unbearable without the aid of the roof but the last couple of hours saw it down due to the style of fishing we were doing. We were all fried! It turned out to be a great day with the arrival of the sturgeon and they ended it with both bass & walleye. I know the next couple of days will be bringing pretty foul weather but I will be back out none the less. Hopefully the sturgeon will cooperate once again as my clients are looking for something big and I know just where to find them. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate too!