Family Day Outing

Darren was out with me today, but this time he brought along his dad Al & Dwight. Dwight was in Montreal visiting family and Both Darren & Al wanted to show him some great fishing. I decided to head straight to the big fish area, so they could tangle with a sturgeon or two before switching to smaller fish. The lake was rolling pretty good for this time of day & I hoped it wouldn’t get bigger! Winds were out of the SW at 10 to 15 knots making it more difficult than I liked, but not impossible. We set up and I don’t think it took 3 minutes before Darren was locked. He was into one of those average giants and it was game on! He fought this beast for quite a while before the bubbles arrived and a sighting soon followed. Both Al & Dwight were shocked to see the size of this fish and even more in awe when I hoisted the beast into the boat. Darren on the other hand was just relieved as he had spent plenty of time fighting this thing and was totally spent. Pics and release as usual and back to the task at hand! It didn’t take too long for the second one to arrive and it was Darren, once again that was tight lined. He decided to pass the rod over to Dwight so that he could enjoy the fight, but I just think that he wasn’t ready to do battle with another one so soon! As Dwight was use to fishing for quite a bit smaller fish back in the Philippines, a little coaching was required. He was already feeling the burn and I showed him a few tricks to help with the battle. Eventually the fish tired, but not before tiring Dwight out first! I think he was happy to see me finally net it and glad the fight was over too. Definitely his largest fish to date and some pictures for proof were required. We turned it lose afterwards and decided to try for one more before switching species all together. Wouldn’t you know it, Darren locked up again and this time his fish was big! He would have loved to pass the rod to his dad but it would have been too difficult for him to fight. Darren would feel the burn one more time! I knew by the length of battle and the way this fish didn’t want to come up that it was large. Darren also knew as he was the one hanging on through this rodeo ride. The sheer power of these things is amazing to feel and I was glad that I wasn’t the one holding the rod. When the fish finally showed, we saw why it took so long! It was giant and almost 5 feet long. Darren had a hard time getting a hold of her for the shots, but somehow found the strength for a few quick ones. Over the rail she went and back down to the bottom without any signs of fatigue. Darren on the other hand was ready for a different species! We packed it up here and went for bass & walleye elsewhere. I thought they could all use a break and opted for the troll. It was more work than I would have liked due to all the floaters but it would give them all a break. Eventually one of the outside reels fired and I passed the rod over to "Big Al" for the fight. Moments later I was netting a nice 4 pound walleye that was returned after, due to the slot. Not before several pictures though! We resumed our troll and managed one other pike and a whole lot of weeds before relocating. The winds had picked up considerably and drop shotting was what we were about to do. I moved around until I started marking some fish and instructed them to toss the lines. As with the morning, Darren was first to hook up once again. He was tight to a really decent northern over 8 pounds, but not what we wanted. We were searching for a few walleye for Al & Dwight to take back with them. In the next couple of hours they managed to land 6 walleye, a few perch and a couple of decent smallies. They also lost several others due to the rollers they were trying to fish in. Darren landed one more big smallmouth on his last cast and then we packed it in for the day. I don’t think that any of them had realized that the sturgeon were as big as they were when I mentioned we would be fishing for them today. It’s always fun to watch people fight them that are use to much smaller fish. Although mother nature blew hard today, we managed to get everything done that I had wanted. On top of that, they were bringing a few fish home for dinner tonight and Dwight would finally get to try Canadian walleye. Overall a pretty successful day of multi species fishing!!