Sturgeon Russian Style

Iliya & Pasha were with me this morning on yet another beautiful day. They really didn’t care if they caught anything, so I brought them to Jurassic Park for a few dinosaurs! Pasha battled the first fish and it was a beast. It jumped a couple of times and really pulled line. As many times as he reeled it to the boat, it took him back out every time. This battle lasted close to 15 minutes before we were able to bring it to net. When I Did, I informed him that the easy part was over and now it was time for the difficult task of holding it for the pics. He struggled to lift it from the tarp after it crapped all over the damn thing and left skid marks over itself too. Quite the messy ordeal! Eventually he did manage to hold it for a few shots but due to the angle, they were all belly photos. This fish was fat! After the release Ilyia was up next and he somehow managed to land a juvenile sturgeon under ten pounds. We tossed it back and he was still up due to the fact that it was a whole lot smaller than his friends earlier. The next fish was another giant and now Pasha had the last laugh as he got to watch someone else endure the pain he had before. I think this fish was landed in under 10 minutes but between the jumps and line ripping, it felt like more to Ilyia. They had both managed to land really big fish and I decided to take them for something smaller to be able to bring home. We hit another walleye area and almost immediately after an instruction they were both locked up. They had never caught walleye before and I explained to them how good they were to eat. They pounded on them for the remaining part of an hour and released most after they had one limit. They started the day out by thinking they wouldn’t catch anything and both managed to land huge fish as well as some for the table. We called it a day before noon and I took them back to await my afternoon customer. Something tells me that after today I might just be seeing more of Ilyia as he resides in Montreal. Pasha however lives in Russia and the only time I’ll see him again is the next time he comes to visit. Either way, everyone had a great time and I’m sure I will see them both sometime in the near future!