The Right Choices
September 13, 2020
What a difference a day makes! Breanne & Daniel were able to switch Sunday’s scheduled trip to Saturday when it opened up. I was a little worried about the forecasted weather and thought it was a better choice. It was definitely the right move!
We hit the water at 7 and soon after were anchored up, looking for the beasts! Daniel was hoping for something large and so was I as we awaited the first bite. Nibblers were all over and I was constantly re baiting the hooks as they destroyed the worms like piranhas! We had to make several moves just to get away from them but were finally rewarded. Breanne reeled in one of the smallest sturgeon I had ever seen, but at least it was the right species!
I relocated to another spot and after waiting for about 10 minutes, I set into a fish. Once again there wasn’t much fight and I knew it was small. Daniel soon landed his first ever drum! Although they thought it was a cool looking species, I wanted the beasts! We moved around plenty, giving 10 to 15 minutes on each spot. A few more fish were caught including perch, bass & another small sturgeon before we actually had our first real bite! This time I set into a little more weight!
Daniel was about to feel the power of what a sturgeon could actually do as it peeled line from the reel. I was pretty sure it wasn’t as big as I had been hoping for and a confirmation was had when it took to the air in a spectacular leap. Regardless, it gave him a great fight! Just when he thought it was about over another breach was made 5 feet from the boat. It peeled more line from the reel afterwards, heading right back to the bottom. A couple of minutes later, I was able to net his catch and it was done.
Although it was big by their standards, I was still a little disappointed. We had come looking for giants and settled on fish much smaller instead. Oh well, at least they were catching something they had never caught before!
We stuck it out for a little longer and made a few more moves without success before I decided to call it quits. The sturgeon hadn’t really come out to play today and now I was going to take them for bass.
I set up a couple of rods with blades and had them cover water at our first spot. With a little coaching on how to cast, I also had Breanne feeling more comfortable with her casts. She hadn’t done much fishing before and improved significantly in the time they fished!
It took a little longer than expected, but Daniel finally locked up on a good bass. Up until now he hadn’t caught anything larger than about a pound, so this was his personal best! Soon after the release, Breanne also hooked up and hers was significantly larger than his. Things were beginning to heat up and I hoped they would see more!
In the remaining time, they had many other chances and some quality smallies were even caught. Both Breanne and Daniel landed a few more big ones before we were done. Changing up from sturgeon to bass was definitely the right choice!
Today was much better than the last couple of outings, filled with a variety of fish. They had caught a couple of new species and increased their personal best smallies, considerably! I think we were all happy that their scheduled day was changed too! Tomorrow still isn’t looking good with the big SE winds and afternoon showers predicted. I’m sure glad I won’t be out!
