Multiple Personal Bests

I had a group of four with me today, all looking to catch something big and I knew just where to go! They had rescheduled from a few days ago when it just wasn’t fishable due to the giant winds, but today the water was like glass. I was sure we would have a much better time!

After looking around for a brief period, I settled on a place that showed some potential. With three lines in, we waited for our first bite. Unfortunately it took some time before something other than gobies actually bit. We had already moved once and were finally getting a little action when I set into a sturgeon. As it turned out, this fish was just a young one and didn’t really put up much of a fight when Dave reeled it in. The next one wasn’t much bigger either as Curtis found out soon after! We were in a day care area and I needed to make another move, quickly!

Garnet managed to get the third fish and at least this time the size was somewhat better as he did battle with a decent one. I was still looking for something much larger and continued to make adjustments in hopes of finding the real giants.

Although it didn’t really matter, I added a fourth rod to the holders and we were now loaded for bear. With the additional rod came another move and the next time we got bit, it was the real deal. Matt was officially into a quality beast of a sturgeon and likely the biggest fight of his life!

Although we never saw what Matt was fighting, I could tell by the way it was acting, she was big. It made several good runs that had him feeling the pain. It may not have jumped but the fight was a long one and lasted over 15 minutes. When he brought it up to be netted, we all knew why! As I slid the net under his fish, he was relieved that it was all over. Or was it? Now he would have to hold the fish for the photos and this was even harder than doing battle with her. He struggled, but we managed to get a few quick pics before the release.

We resumed fishing afterwards and it didn’t take long before we had another big fish on the line. I think it was Curtis that had this one and after seeing the last fish, we hoped his was equally as big! Many runs were taken before he was able to bring it to net. It may not have been quite as large as the previous fish but it was close! He held it up for more pics and torpedoed it back to where it belonged.

We had managed to get into a couple of other junk fish before another sturgeon actually bit. Matt had been taking a long break after his earlier beast and was now back up, doing battle with another one. He was well rested but soon tiring with the fight from this fish as it looked like another giant. With 15 minutes passed and still no sign of the fish, I knew it was probably larger than his first. I was actually able to net it somewhere around the 20 minute mark and a sigh of relief was had by Matt! A little exhausted from doing battle with another beast, he somehow managed enough strength to hold it for a few quick pics before the release.

After resetting the lines, it didn’t take long before our next bite! I had set into another one and Curtis was hooked up on, what he thought wasn’t big! When it decided to breach, his opinion quickly changed! Now he knew exactly what he was dealing with and it was going to be a long fight!

Sometime close to 20 minutes later I was wishing for a bigger net. I had managed to slide the fish into the bowl but its nose had jammed in one of the openings not allowing it to actually fall into the net. It was a struggle to fold the fish, but eventually it dropped into the net properly. The battle was officially done! I think Curtis found his inner strength when the adrenaline kicked in to hold the dinosaur for his pics. She entered the water right after and went straight to the bottom where she belonged.

They had wanted to keep some time to try for walleye in the end and after one more fish by Dave, we packed it in. The SW winds had picked up a bit too and I was looking forward to hitting an area in this wind. We would be drop shotting open water and it would definitely help!

I set up the four rods and began the drift and it didn’t take long before Curtis was hooked up. Although it was the right species, it was the wrong size and had to be returned. His next one however was a good keeper and went into the livewell. He also landed 3 other keepers in the time we were there and added them to the livewell too. The others weren’t fending as well with only Matt catching one perch. I’m pretty sure everyone had hits but just didn’t realize that they were fish and missed the strikes. We had only about an hour on the spot but it was well worth stopping as Curtis would be eating fish tonight!

Today couldn’t have gone any better than it did with everyone landing sturgeon. Some of the fish were truly giants and likely the biggest things they would ever see. The icing on the cake however were the walleye that Curtis managed to put in the boat in the short time we fished them. Conditions couldn’t have been any better either with practically no wind all day. We may have had times when it rained but with the roof up, we all remained dry while fishing. It was definitely better than a few days back when we postponed the trip. The 3 & 4 footers wouldn’t have been much fun to fish in and sturgeon would have definitely been out as anchoring would have been next to impossible. Today was a great day filled with plenty of memories of all the monster fish they had caught! Great day for fishing!