Luke and his buddies were with me today hoping for a big fish. He had talked to me a couple of weeks back while clients were locked up on a monster and heard the play by play of the fight. I even sent him the pics afterwards, which made him want one even more! Hopefully today, they would get their wish. The winds were blowing about 10 knots out of the SE, so anchoring wouldn’t be a problem. We made our way out there in a full boat with Luke, Zachary, Derek & Mitchell and set up quickly. The bite however was a different story as it was anything but fast! We had gobies, perch and even a hateful eel before finally hooking into the real thing. I passed the rod to Zachary once the fish was on the line and cleared everything around for him to battle the fish. I don’t think he had realized just how hard these fish fought until he had the rod in his hands. I coached him on a bunch of things to do and what not to do, but the fish always has the last say in the matter. It took him around the boat and passed under the anchor rope causing me to do a little fancy manoeuvring to ensure that it didn’t break off. About ten minutes into the battle things took a turn for the worse when the rod just exploded. Again I had to act fast and managed to hold the two pieces together allowing him to continue the fight. I eventually taped the broken parts, with difficulty, so that he could actually land it. This too wasn’t easy, even with a giant net, but I managed! Looking at the beast laying in the net was impressive to say the least. It was just huge and had an enormous girth to go along with its length. Just when Zach thought his work was over, I informed him that it was just about to begin. Now he would have the difficulty of lifting it up for the pics. Good luck Zach! In his line of work he’s lifting 160 pound bags of cement all day, so this fish shouldn’t be a problem. Yeah right! It took some time but he finally managed somehow to lift it up with the help of a bear hug and we got the shots. Throughout this ordeal, Luke was videoing the entire thing and had some excellent footage to remember. I think Zach was relieved when I finally told him to toss the monster back too. Amazingly he got a clear throw and never even touched the rail upon entry! This fish was definitely worth the wait as none of them had ever seen anything so big come from any waters they had fished before. Now we had the task of trying for another and I got the lines back in quickly. Just like the first fish, the second one also took a long time. Despite many drive byes and nibblers eating our worms, it was a while before we were hooked up again. There were a few solid takers that were only on for a brief period that ended in disappointment. This time however, Mitchell felt the bite and reared back on a good fish. We had to go to holding the rods late in the morning when the winds went completely south and increased in speed. They had all felt fish bump into their lines and knew exactly what to do if they got bit. This fish fought like a champ and really took him for a ride. Although the fight only lasted 5 minutes, he got to feel the power of the sturgeon really well. It wasn’t a big one but definitely worth a few pics as it was his biggest fish to date. I really wanted Zach to tangle with one as he had orchestrated this entire trip and then it happened. With rod in hand he got bit and loaded it up perfectly! This was going to be the battle of his life as it was huge! While I was clearing everything and putting the rods up front, I heard a huge splash and although I didn’t see the fish, everyone else did. The consensus was large! Zach was now fighting a fish of equal size to the one Zach had battled this morning and feeling the pain too! The number of runs this fish took was just insane. Several times Luke had the line counter at 30 feet and the fish took him to well over 100. I think the fight lasted about 20 minutes before I could even get a shot at it with the net. Finally I was able to scoop it up but not without a couple of struggles before. This fish was super long and just a fat! I don’t even want to estimate how big it was but I needed a hand just to hoist it into the boat. Luke somehow managed to pick it up for the pics but it wasn’t easy. All I know is that he was physically exhausted after the entire ordeal and didn’t want any part of anything else afterwards.  It was a huge struggle just to put it back in the water and this one also cleared the rail. There was only one more person to get a fish and not long after we had the lines back, Mitchell hooked another and passed the rod to Derek to battle the fish. He had a good shot at one earlier and only had it on briefly but this time he was locked good. Unfortunately it was a juvenile and came in quickly. We tried a little longer but the weather wasn’t looking good and by 4:00 we were done and heading back in a light misty rain. It didn’t matter as these guys had the time of their lives with the fish they saw and caught today. Their expectations had been exceeded tenfold! I don’t think any of them had ever imagined, in their wildest dreams, that they would be doing battle with something out of Jurrasic Park. I think we can all say that today was a success! Something also tells me that this isn’t the last time I will be seeing the likes of these guys. I know I can’t wait to have them back!!

Cristina & Shawn had an absolutely perfect day on the water today, catching all kinds of fish. The weather couldn’t have been better with cool morning air followed by warm temps throughout the afternoon. Little to no wind made it easy to anchor for the big sturgeon as well. It took a while to get the first bite, but it was well worth the wait. Shawn battled a nice average giant for almost 10 minutes before we were able to get it in the net. Several pics later, we returned her to the water to fight another day. I had planned on getting them both at least one fish and switching to walleye & bass by afternoon, but this never occurred. After a relocation, we started getting into more bites and Cristina got the next rod when it was bit. She was into one slightly smaller than Shawn’s first one, but just as strong! It took her about 5 minutes to get it boat side for me to net and now we had two. She was in her early stages of pregnancy and I was glad to see that the fish wasn’t too big for her to handle. Shawn held it up for her pics as we weren’t taking any chances! Right about the time things were settling back to normal, the rods began bouncing. There must have been a bunch of fish down there hitting the lines, because we had plenty of false strikes. One of them however was the real deal and Shawn was back locked with a beast. This one was heavy and pissed off! It made several long runs and each time Shawn brought it in, it went straight back out again. After about ten minutes of fighting the monster, we finally got a glimpse as she came up. Definitely one of the large ones! Throughout the entire battle, Cristina was doing a live feed on Facebook. Apparently a lot of people were watching as her phone was pinging like crazy when it was done. I knew by how much trouble I had to lift the fish into the boat that Shawn was about to have even more. He had to bear hug this beast in order to be able to hold it for the pics. Once done, it bolted right to the bottom when he torpedoed it back into the water. Instead of pulling out of here, I decided to hang in with all the fish we were seeing in hopes of even bigger. Cristina & Shawn had no problem with this as I had the top up and everyone was comfortable in the shade. It had gotten pretty warm and without any wind, downright summer like! I reset the lines and soon after we were back hooking more fish. The balance of the day saw many more sturgeon coming aboard as well as a couple of exotic species. Cristina managed to land a big drum and a channel cat to add to her sturgeon giving her a great slam. One of her sturgeon proved to be a monster as well as it tended to grow during the fight. What I had thought was small ended up being a monster when we finally got it in the net. She did a great job battling it and especially in her condition. Shawn definitely had to hold this one for her during the pics and I believe it was also live on Facebook throughout the entire fight. I made a couple more moves before we were to leave and managed to get Shawn into one more big fish. Throughout the day with all the fish we had, not one jumped. I had found it strange but on this last fish, we finally saw one jump. Now we knew what he had to deal with and it was another large! It may not have been the biggest one of the day but it definitely gave him the best fight. This one took over ten minutes to land and really put him through the grind. This is how you end a day! We packed up afterwards and made our way back to the ramp. We were going to top off the day with dinner at a local restaurant in celebration of their 2nd anniversary. I don’t think we could have planned this day any better and for a change, Mother Nature shined! I guess moms stick together sometime!

A recent cancellation saw Darren & I fishing for a half day. We hit the lake for walleye & bass around 9:00 and were off by 2:30. Although it wasn’t fast & furious, we did catch plenty of big overs as well as good numbers of keepers. Flat calm conditions had me reconsidering the sturgeon fishing. Too bad I had left all the necessary items back home! I had decided earlier that the focus was going to be on walleye. There would be plenty more days ahead for sturgeon!  Darren was quick to hook up with a big eye on his first cast. Within 5 minutes, he had landed two walleye and a good smallie. Unfortunately it slowed right after and he struggled to hook another bass for about 15 minutes. Several misses were had from both of us as the fish were striking light. I made a few changes and we corrected that problem, catching plenty more throughout our stay. I’m sure that given more time, we would have really hammered them well. So much for cancellations! One person’s loss is another’s gain as Darren & I left the lake completely satisfied with the results of today. Cool morning temps and warm afternoons now make for comfortable outings.  Fall is such a great time to be on the water and it’s just around the corner. Days like these remind me that most boats are already in the process of pulling out and less & less traffic is coming. Even better fishing days ahead! Plenty of openings are available so book a trip now if you want to experience some of the best fishing ever!!

Josh & Denis flew in to enjoy some of our excellent smallmouth bass fishing, literally! With both of them being pilots for a large company they are fortunate enough to travel all over and occasionally take the time to fish. Just coming off another trip from catching cutthroat trout on the Snake River, they were really looking forward to getting into some of our northern smallies. The conditions were absolutely perfect this morning with flat calm waters, beautiful sunshine and cool air temps. We began over a large flat trying to get an idea of what the fish were doing. It didn’t take long to find out what they weren’t doing, eating! Several of these big footballs hit the baits but none of them stayed pinned. I made another attempt at changing baits, covering the area a second time, but it produced the same results. Time to move! The next location was somewhat better, but also slow in my opinion. Josh managed to land some good fish here but we really had to work hard at getting them. Most of the fish were just lookers! The next area was quite similar with only a few fish getting caught as well. I immediately made a long run to what I thought was going to be great spot, only to find it wasn’t. A couple of fish were landed by covering plenty of water and I knew I had to make a decision, fast. All the years of tournament fishing had me in tournament mode and under the gun to locate fish. I headed much shallower and almost immediately got them into fish. They started pounding on all kinds of smallies congested in a very small area. Josh was first to locate them and brought to net a really good one that started the ball rolling. These fish weren’t chasing but were eating if you presented the right baits from the proper direction. I tried several different angles and soon realized that they were definitely current oriented. They practically had to dead stick the baits in order to get one to commit! They milked it for every last strike before we moved on. I finally had something to go on and hit another area further away with the same results. Unfortunately the winds had picked up considerably and I was having a difficult time holding in the two & three footers. Josh continued hammering smallies of all sizes right up until I pulled the plug, because of the wind. I had planned on the big winds and left an open water area just in case. We ran to it and fished the remaining couple of hours here, catching mostly walleye. Although it was difficult, the style of fishing made it much easier on everyone. By 5:00 we were done and headed back to take out. Both Josh & Denis had experienced some great fishing while here in Montreal and I think the next time they get back to the city, I will be hearing from them again. I look forward to hooking them up on more of our big brown bass!!

Darren & his friend Gary joined me a little late this morning as we met up about 9:00. This was the third straight day with a big blow happening and I wasn’t sure if we would be able to anchor for sturgeon. In fact it was howling so bad yesterday that I had to reschedule a client! This is the way the entire season has been going with either flat calm or hurricane like winds. There’s been no in between! Well at least the anchor eventually held today, but despite all our efforts, we never really got bit. The gobies were out in full force but the sturgeon just didn’t seem to want to eat. Shortly after 12:30 we switched gears and headed to deeper, open water in search of bass & walleye. Darren hooked up first with a nice eye but it was an over and had to be released. Dave was having a difficult time getting into the drift thing but eventually caught on and hooked his first fish soon after. It turned out to be a northern though and we put it back as well. Although I was marking plenty of good fish they weren’t hooking into as many as I would have thought they should. I made multiple drifts over the area in hopes of better results but they just picked at them here & there. I even made several casts to see if it was just them and hooked a few, but missed more than I caught. The bites were terrible and the fish weren’t staying pinned for long. Throughout the afternoon over several areas, they did manage to catch a bunch but the results were definitely lower than usual. Darren finished the day off with a nice big smallie that fought like a champ. It wasn’t the largest bass, but it had plenty of attitude! They may not have caught the sturgeon that we wanted but pike, walleye, perch and bass were landed through the afternoon. By 4:15 we were done and called it a day. I was surprised that the waves were as bad as they were and cut through a 45 degree angled roll back to the ramp. It felt like ship waves and looked like 3 to 4 footers as we made the run. Darren even had several good keeper walleye to take back with him that they had both contributed to. Although a tough one, it was successful and fish were caught. More giant winds scheduled again for tomorrow! Go figure!