The Agony of Defeat

Neil was back today along with his Nephew Ryan, hoping for a little sturgeon action. I only hoped that the water wouldn’t be like yesterday with the huge waves! Forecasts were for a light east wind but we all know how that goes!

We headed to the area in a N/W wind that didn’t seem too bad on the run. Once we arrived however, it was rolling more than expected and made it difficult to see the bites with the rods in holders. At one point, we were forced to fish with rod in hand just to detect any nibbles. So much for the light winds!

I had adjusted locations a couple of times and only seen a few small fish come aboard. In fact, the winds switched around to a N/E and were actually turning the boat sideways. After several hours of painful fishing again, I decided to relocate altogether. We were headed for bass and hopefully better results!

Somewhere along the route, I marked several big fish while running and immediately slowed down to investigate. As luck would have it, I had stumbled onto an area holding what looked like big sturgeon. Change of plans, we were going to give it another try!

I reset up all the rods and searched the area to find what I knew were sturgeon. With the wind blowing from the opposite direction, we required the aid of the drift sock just to keep us in position. We weren’t anchored for more than 5 minutes before I saw the first bite and reared back on some substantial weight! It was time for Ryan to get beat up!

I could tell by the way this fish fought that it was a monster and cleared the way for him to do battle. It may not have jumped but the runs were long and the fight was intense. His was by far the biggest thing I had seen in a while and I definitely wanted to boat it for the pics. The struggle to bring it in lasted close to 15 minutes before Ryan was actually starting to gain on the beast. He had it within ten feet of the boat before the rod went slack and the fish was gone. Somehow the hook pulled free and his sturgeon was lost before anyone cold even see what he had. I knew by the battle that it was likely one of, if not the biggest one so far this season. Talk about being deflated! Ryan was just devastated by the outcome and hopefully he would forget the loss with another of equal size!

We regained our composure and set the rods back again, looking for more. Well more we got as it was one fish after another for the next few hours. Although they may not have been the calibre of Ryan’s first one, it definitely made for interesting fishing. The numbers of good fish was nice to see and we remained here until the bites stopped. I also made one more move and spent about 15 minutes longer, but the show was over and the fish were gone.

With limited time in the day, we packed the tackle up and headed somewhere else looking for a few smaller fish to catch. After yesterday’s epic end to the day, I decided to go back to where we had smashed the walleye. Hopefully it would be the same!

The wind was still blowing from the east and I had to use the electric motor just to move downstream. We made several passes and marked fish, but unfortunately never had a touch. They were just glued to the bottom in these conditions and didn’t want to move!

I jumped around and hit a couple more places before finally getting into a few fish on the last spot. Both bass & walleye were landed before we called it a day. I stayed out about 30 minutes longer just to get the job done before pulling the plug on this day.

Neil & Ryan had seen the ups and downs today but the highlight had to be the sturgeon fight that Ryan had. It was so intense that even his legs were shaking in the end. I know we were all disappointed but Ryan will probably be having nightmares about this one for quite a while. With any luck, he will be able to get back out before the season is done. If not however, there’s always next year for his redemption. He can always relive the agony of defeat by watching the video his uncle shot while battling the beast!