A Birthday Wish

Karen was back with her father Richard again and her son Liam as well. Liam had just turned 14 and was hoping to catch a big sturgeon. If the conditions allowed, we should have no problem!

The run to our area to fish saw a bigger chop than I had hoped for, but it was still doable. I set the rods after locating a few fish and waited for a bite. Unfortunately our first of many bites were from small fish and all they did was nibble on the baits. I had to constantly check the lines and the worms never really had a chance to stay on the hooks for very long. Although I was on some good fish, I had to make a move!

The second stop wasn’t much better, but Richard did manage to reel in a small sturgeon from here. It was a real juvenile with sharp scoots and I warned him to be careful for the pic. The second fish went to Liam but it too was small and only a bass. We even managed a third fish, but once again it was small and a walleye. Another move was definitely in order!

We were getting on in the morning and all we had to show for our efforts were a couple of small fish and tons of nibblers. I had re baited so many times that I was wondering if I had even brought enough worms! Fortunately the next bite was substantially heavier when I set the hook! Liam was officially into the fish he had come for and was about to feel their power. I instructed him how to fight the sturgeon as he never had anything this big on the line before. He was only use to catching panfish and occasional bass. He was about to do battle with the beast!

This fish fought mostly on the bottom with short, powerful runs but did come to the surface once to jump. I knew right there that it was a decent fish but not a true giant. He should have no problem reeling this one in! About 10 minutes later he had it close enough for me to net and the fight was done. I told him that it was only going to get harder as now he had to hold it for the pics. As difficult as it was, he still managed to prop it on his lap for a few shots before releasing it back to the water. Now I wanted more!

The second fish came quite a bit later in the day after Liam’s big bass. We were set up for sturgeon and he brought a nice smallie aboard. On heavier tackle it really didn’t fight that great but it was also his biggest smallie to date and worthy of several pics. I reset the line and soon after was rewarded with a true bite! It felt heavy when I reared back and I knew this one was going to be big. Liam took the rod and held on as it screamed line from the reel. I had no idea just how big it was yet and cleared the area for him to do battle. The fish breached while I was moving everything and I never really saw the size, but the splash down afterwards was pretty loud. The others did however and all said it was definitely larger than the previous one he had landed.

This fish took more than ten minutes to get to the boat and made several good runs while fighting. At one point it went under the boat from side to side, multiple times. I call that the sturgeon shuffle as you are always reaching around the motor not to get cut off. Liam did a great job with his fish and eventually brought it close enough for me to net. The battle was over but the pain was about to begin! Now he would have to hold it for the pictures. I layed the tarp over his legs this time making it easier for him to hold and shot several from various angles before the release. Now we were going back for more!

We had been set up for a while with very little breeze but that was about to change. It began to blow from the SW putting a nice roll on the water and I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to hold much longer with the electric motor. We had already been fishing for over 5 hours and I didn’t know if the batteries were still strong enough with this wind. I had the cover up for shade and this too was putting more strain on them as well. We could only try!

Well we managed to hold for about 30 minutes longer, but the fish weren’t cooperating. I decided to pull the plug with about an hour remaining and packed everything up for a move. We were going to try for bass and walleye for the last hour if I could find an area to fish. The waves were a couple of feet now and would be bigger where I wanted to go, but I still wanted to try.

When I arrived I realized that it was doable and angled the boat for everyone to fish. Although I was marking both bass & walleye on the bottom, nothing wanted to eat. After 5 or 6 drifts, I decided to pull the plug and call it a day! We were out of time anyway and nothing was cooperating!

Overall today turned out to be a success with Liam catching a couple of big fish. He managed to learn how to fight something larger than a bass and now knows what to do. I would have liked to get Richard into something big again but unfortunately it wasn’t in the cards today. He has done battle with a giant with me before and landed a true dinosaur! Today it was Liam’s turn to catch them instead! Regardless, everyone left completely satisfied on this beautiful summer day!!