A Perfect Relaxing Day

Philippe and his wife Ghislaine joined me today in hopes of catching their first ever sturgeon. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have a problem, but lately the size had been smaller than expected. Would this be the day that things turned around?

With very little wind at the start, I knew we wouldn’t have a problem holding with the electric motor. I set the rods quickly in an area I was marking and we began the wait.

In the first few hours we were able to land 4 sturgeon but just like usual, they were all small. I had made a few moves to get the job done and seen plenty of bigger ones on the sonar. Unfortunately it was the juveniles that bit first and we continued searching new areas in hopes of a bigger bite.

Sometime before lunch I had set up on a favourite late season spot and it wasn’t long before we got our wish! The bite was better than anything we had seen this morning and I finally felt some weight when I set the hook. This was the one we had been waiting for!

Philippe was impressed by how strong the fish fought and struggled at times just to control the beast. It made many long runs and each time he thought he was gaining, it took everything back out again. This lasted for close to 15 minutes before he was to see why. When the fish finally appeared, both of them were in awe at its size. This was a true monster! It was extremely long and going to be a challenge for him to hold!

After laying the tarp out I heaved the sturgeon aboard and now they were really shocked at just how big it really was. I had to lift the fish up and place it on his lap in order to get any pics. We shot quickly and torpedoed it back immediately afterwards. Now I wanted more!

We were all set up and having lunch when Ghislaine was interrupted by another bite. Fortunately for her, it wasn’t a giant and didn’t take too long to land. We were soon once again disturbed by another fish that actually turned into a double and both of them had to stop eating in order to fight the fish. No time to eat when the fish are biting! One was small and the other was in the teens but they were all great fighters.

We remained in the area fishing sturgeon up until about 1:30 with only one other small fish landed. They had hoped to try for walleye and I packed everything up to make the run. With the winds completely still, I knew it wouldn’t be an easy task and would likely need the electric motor just to get any movement at all.

With a couple of drop shot rods in the water, I slowly moved over the area and Philippe set into a good fish. Once in the net, I realized that it was over the slot and needed to be returned. He landed another fish soon after too but this one was a jumbo perch and gladly retained it for his dinner. We had made a couple of short passes over the area before Ghislaine also connected with a nice eye. Hers was a high end keeper and they were both happy to keep this one as well.

We didn’t stay much longer before they decided to call it a day. They had a great time catching plenty of sturgeon including a true giant and were done. They would be going home with dinner for tonight as well.

Today was a great one all around and especially the weather. For a change I wasn’t fishing in gale force winds or monsoon like rain. It was actually a pleasure to be on the water and definitely made my life much easier all around. Now if they could deliver two of these in a row I would be even happier! Who knows what tomorrow will bring!