Tough Sturgeon Day
September 3, 2023
An afternoon booking had me venturing out earlier, in search of another spot to fish sturgeon. Forecasted winds would likely not allow me to get to where I wanted and I needed a plan B. The water was flat calm while scouting, but I knew that it wouldn’t be when they were here. Big SW winds of 15 to 25 knots were suppose to arrive by late morning, making it next to impossible to fish. Hopefully their predictions would be wrong!
I picked up Tabitha and her husband Curtis before 10:00 and in the short time it took to get them, the winds had begun. Flat calm turned into 2 footers in no time but, I decided to make a long run to my original spot to fish. I idled around looking for marks but never really found anything worth stopping on. The rollers weren’t great either, so I decided to pull the plug and go to my plan B instead.
We had made another long run once gain and I was now back where I had prospected before they had arrived. Although fish were marked earlier, I wasn’t seeing too much now. We looked for longer than I really wanted, before settling on a few smaller ones. The winds were blowing pretty good here as well and out of the west at about 15 knots, when I set the lines and began fishing.
Several moves were made before I noticed a light bite and hooked into a fish. Too bad Tabitha reeled in a walleye instead of the targeted species! It wasn’t all lost, as this was her very first walleye! We remained in this area and made a couple more moves with the same results, before I noticed a decrease in the wind. With this, I decided to head over to the other area to try and fish.
The winds looked like they had gone from west to south west on the run there and possibly given me the window I needed to fish. When I arrived, I wasted no time idling around and anchored up on the first marks I saw. Within minutes, we were into a fish, but it unfortunately came off while Curtis reeled it in. Soon after, Tabitha had her chance when I handed her the rod with what felt like a small sturgeon. She may not have gotten much of a fight but she did get her wish when she landed her first sturgeon. Several pics were taken of her fish and she released it back immediately after the shots.
We resumed fishing and it seemed like the winds were picking up when I noticed another bite. I set into something small and handed Curtis the rod. He soon landed his very first sturgeon as well. Both these fish were well below the size I usually see but on a day like this, quite welcomed nonetheless!
The winds were building quite a bit now and despite our attempts at continuing, we were done. I had a long run back and even while packing everything up for the ride, they were still increasing. Waves were 3 to 4 footers most if the way back and we were going with them. The lake had gotten huge in a very short time and were glad to be getting off.
Although the fishing wasn’t like I had hoped, they still managed to get the fish they had come for. Mother Nature didn’t make it easy, but we still got it done. It was definitely a tough, but rewarding kind of day!!
