Short Sturgeon Day
August 31, 2018
August 30th 2018
Allen & his son Kevin joined me today for a little sturgeon fishing. With strong winds out of the NE, I knew it would be a challenge. Waves were rolling, with the current & wind direction opposite and it felt more like a tide. Anchoring up was going to be a challenge!
I searched the area we were to fish briefly and had to use the drift sock to secure our direction after dropping the anchor. The wind was actually pushing the boat upstream otherwise! Once positioned, I set all the lines and gave a brief explanation on what to expect. We were ready!
After 30 minutes or so without a bite, I pulled up and moved around in search of fish once again. This time however, it took much longer before I was able to locate them. Round two with the anchor and sock and the lines were in. When we did finally get a few bites, they weren’t what we were after but rather those pesky goby minnows. They were eating our baits like piranhas! Although we did get an actual bite, it turned out to be an eel and not what I really wanted to see! Time to move again!
I idled around plenty this time before I settled on an area that looked promising enough to drop down. It didn’t take long before Allen got bit and set into the real deal. He was about to do battle with something much larger! It was at that moment that I realized, I had forgotten the net. I was going to have to land his fish the old way, with a glove. I only hoped it wasn’t one of the monsters!
After a few minutes fighting the fish, I finally saw what he was hooked up on and relief was had. It was definitely manageable with only a glove! Minutes later, I grabbed it by the tail and passed it off for Allen to hold. It was not a giant but it was his personal best and worthy of a few pics before the release.
The entire morning wasn’t easy with the wind opposite the current and holding the rods was the only way to fish. There were several missed bites and a couple more eels brought to boatside and released. I had also thought that we were going to be at it all day, but it was cut short when Allen decided to call it instead. We were pulling the plug on the fishing and heading off the water before noon!
Despite the short day in difficult conditions, we still succeeded in landing our targeted species. Along with a few unexpected guests too! I’m sure that if we had of remained out, we would have been able to get into several more sturgeon. Oh well, the fish had a break today! I will be back out again soon searching for more giants in the coming days and with any luck, succeed! I can’t wait for more!!
