Another Rewarding Day
October 26, 2019
After a week of pounding on crappie, I was back out once again today for sturgeon. Phil wanted one more shot at his personal best and I aimed to please!
I had decided to devote the entire day, trying for only big fish and although it was slow, we made it happen. The first one to get hooked put up a great battle and remained on the bottom for almost the entire fight. Each time Phil tried to bring it up, the fish wanted no part of that and took off again. This fight lasted about 15 minutes and once it was near the boat, we realized why. It was really long and quite large too!
Although it was a big fish, it was also a male and had very little girth. Despite its size, we were still happy to have gotten a bite and even happier that it topped his previous largest. Several pics and a quick release later, we were right back in the water, looking for more!
The area wasn’t really looking great, with very few fish showing as I idled around. I made many short stops on places and moved several times before fishing one last spot. It was here that we managed to get a couple of red horse suckers and one other great bite. I had set into some weight and Phil was back in the game!
I could tell by the way this fish was fighting that it was big and hoped it would be heavier than the previous one. It was acting the same with the entire battle deep. Several good runs took plenty of line from the reel but she wasn’t coming up. At one point, the fish was right under the boat and going from one side to the other, completely on the bottom. It was a long battle that lasted almost 20 minutes before Phil was able to raise her up from the depths and into the net. Definitely larger than the first!
This fish was a little more difficult to hold as she was quite a bit fatter than the male he had caught earlier. It was about the same length but weighed much more! I shot a bunch of pics quickly and we got her back in the water to live another day.
We reset the lines again in hopes of another bite but with limited time, we were unable to get it done. Phil was going to have to settle with the two big ones he had landed for the day. Thankfully they were both larger than his personal best and that made it all worthwhile.
With everything packed up, we headed back to the ramp. Although we would have liked more action today, landing the two sturgeon that we had was very satisfying. I will be back out again tomorrow in search of more of these river monsters and with any luck, find a few of them to play with. More and bigger I hope!
