Two Sturgeon Firsts
August 14, 2021
A morning trip cancellation due to unforeseen circumstances by my client had me spending some time on the water with a friend instead. We fished an area for smallies for a few hours and hammered several on soft plastics. The lake was an absolute mirror this morning!
The afternoon guests wanted to fish for sturgeon so we headed out to an area to anchor up & wait. Cedric & John had never caught or ever really seen one close up, but hoped to today. I wasn’t sure how it would go but decided to give it a try. I usually start fishing them around the end of the month but with the high heat we had been receiving lately, it might have grouped them up where I wanted to fish.
I idled around for a bit searching for signs of these dinosaurs but never really found much concentration. Eventually I found a few in one area and decided to give it a try. Everything was ready and I casted the lines back for the big, long wait! I decided that we would give it 15 minutes and make a move if nothing bit here and that we did. I made a move!
The sun was high and the heat was intense once again making me want to raise the roof for a little shade. Unfortunately the winds had picked up considerably as forecasted and this would make it more difficult to remain positioned. We relocated and endured the punishment instead!
Once again we remained for another 15 or 20 minutes after relocation but never had a nibble. Time for another move! This time however I did mark a few more fish close to where we originally set up and stopped there to fish. I was seeing life under the boat periodically and eventually set into a small fish. I knew it was the right species but it wasn’t very big. John took the rod and reeled in his first ever sturgeon. It was a juvenile but it was what we were looking for and he held it for a few pics before the release.
The winds had picked up quite a bit more, making it tough to see the rods with all the bouncing. We held in this area for a while and only managed one more fish, but it was just a perch. With time not on our side I made one more attempt at relocating and stopped on one last spot. This too produced another perch for Cedric to reel in. Not feeling like we were going to get it done I was getting ready to pull the lines when I saw one of the rods take a strange bounce. I grabbed it and felt another tug before realizing it was an actual bite. I set into some weight and passed it over to Cedric to reel in. I told him that it was larger than the first one but not a true giant that we had hoped for.
This fish fought line he was 50 pounds but I knew better. It dogged under the boat and took drag from the reel a few times giving him a great fight. A few minutes later, it was laying in the net waiting for the photo shoot!
Today was a little difficult to say the least with the conditions. The sturgeon weren’t plentiful but at least some of them were starting to group up. We managed to catch a couple of smaller ones but did get to see some giants go airborne around the boat. Overall it was a success as both guest got to land their first ever sturgeon. I call that a win!!
