Dodging A Bullet

I had a half day booked this morning and we decided to get an early start. Peter & Alan met me around 7:00 and we headed right to an area that had been loaded. Peter was with me last year and had experienced the unbelievable sturgeon fishing. This time out he brought another friend along for the experience. Being the nice guy that Peter was, he offered the first fish to Alan. Big mistake! I instructed both of them on all the ins and outs with the rods and set the lines. Very shortly after they were in, a down rod fired and Alan was into the first fish of the day. It was heavy and I was pretty sure it wasn’t what we were after. Immediately, we cleared the other lines and I stayed on the motor, trying to give him the angle needed for the fight. After maneuvering the boat all over in the wind, we finally saw what was attached. Yuup, a monster lunge! Alan had never caught one before and was thrilled at the possibility of landing this fish. Well after several minutes of battling this monster, I was finally able to put the boga grip on her and this fight came to an end. I kept the fish in the water and carefully removed the hooks all the while making sure her head was under water. Despite the fact that it was out of season, it was also out of my control. I informed them that all pics would be in the water and held on until she was ready to be released. She swam off nicely and no worse for wear! After the composure was back we set the lines once again pursuing our targeted species. With the NE winds creating a nice one foot chop on the water, the fish were on fire. They fought and landed multiple pike & walleye all morning, right up until the thunder started. I did a quick check on the radar and made a decision to run back to the ramp when I saw what was coming. We even caught a glimpse of lightning making that decision easier! I pulled  off the water and waited the storm out on land. No fish is worth dying over even if we did leave them biting! As luck would have it, the system passed us by and within an hour we were back to pounding fish like crazy. Pike & walleye were coming in the boat hand over fist. Plenty of doubles and even a few triples were had today. By about 1:30 we pulled the plug but not before they each landed one more fish apiece! I’m sure both of these guys will remember the day with everything that went on. It started with a bang, had a different bang in the middle and were banging fish the entire time. Sounds like a “Bang On Day” to me!!