Glen, Todd & Tony were with me today in pursuit of the giant one! We rolled out about 7:30 in chilly conditions that saw frost on the boat. A light NW wind wouldn’t be an issue anchoring up this morning! I quickly set the lines when we arrived and the waiting game began. Glen was up first and after moving due to the gobies, we got bit quick. He was into the first fish of the day and it was acting large. These guys all fish the big O, so fighting large fish wasn’t a problem. Glen was just enjoying, battling his first sturgeon and this fight was intense. It took to the air shortly into the battle and Todd somehow managed to capture a great pic. For the rest of the time, it dogged under the boat plenty and never wanted to leave the bottom. Eventually after about 20 minutes and several good runs, he finally brought her to the surface. Yuup, triple XL! I netted his beast and prepped for the pics. He was barely able to lift it on his own and bear hugged his catch. We shot fast and released her immediately after. Great starter fish! Todd was up next and managed to land a juvenile one that took his turn out of the rotation. Poor guy! Tony waited a while before he got his chance but when it came, it too was big. He fought this one for over 10 minutes and also had a great jump captured on film by Todd. Plenty of long, powerful runs later, he brought the fish up enough for us to see. Although not bigger than Glen’s fish earlier, a close second. Instead of the usual tarp for taking fish pics, he decided to lift it out of the net to save time. With a little difficulty, he managed to remove her and we got our pics no problem. More time to fish! She was returned and we were back in the game in just a couple of minutes. The remainder of the day saw several rotations as well as moves to stay on the fish and many more were boated. Glen even managed to land a nice drum in the mix! This day flew by with all the fish & great company and before we knew it, it was time to leave. The weather had started out barely above freezing but warmed up enough to make it quite comfortable in the end. Light NW winds stayed light but switched to a SW sometime in the afternoon giving us a little more heat. Definitely no suffering, except while fighting the fish! We ended the day just about 4:00 & headed to the ramp. They had a long drive back to the Toronto area and would have plenty of time to talk about today, along their way. I’m sure they would be ragging on Todd as he managed to land the three smallest sturgeon of the day. Way to take one for the team Todd! Great day and an even better bunch of guys to spend it with!!

Busy day today with double, half day trips booked. I began with Adam & his family for sturgeon early and spent the first three hours trying to hook them up. After several moves due to those pesky Gobies, we finally had a take and Andy was handed the rod for the fight of his life. With a little guidance and coaching, he started to understand how to play the fish, but was still struggling due to its size. Adam was use to fly fishing for smaller trout and had never dealt with something this size before. To him, it was like trying to reel in a bus, going in the opposite direction! He literally had no control over this fish after about five minutes. At first, she remained close and under the boat but eventually went wild, twisting and rolling and began going away. The line counter reached almost 250 before I decided to unpin he anchor to help him out. Andy was already exhausted and chose to pass the rod to his father in law for a break. I never like chasing fish but thought that it was either tangled or somehow foul hooked, when nobody could gain line. About 15 minutes passed before we saw color and they were shocked! I don’t think they had realized just how big this fish was, but they knew now! I had him steer the fish towards the boat and was able to net her without any problem. I also had a confirmation as to why they  couldn’t reel the fish in as it was massive! The hook was perfectly positioned in the corner of the mouth but this fish was large! Not having dealt with anything of this size before, I don’t think they understood how to fight it properly as the fish controlled them. We set everything up for pics and now they really felt the weight. It took two of them to lift it up for the photos and even at that, they couldn’t hold it for long. I shot fast and we released it immediately, watching her go straight back down. There was no reason to set back up so I just packed everything in and headed for bass. Andy wanted to try them on a fly & I had brought a couple of rods for him. A Clouser pattern had him locked up on his first cast and battling a nice fish. He had never caught a smallie before and was amazed at how hard they fight! I would have loved to take some pics but decided to release it due to how badly hooked it was. It released perfectly! We stayed on smallies until close to noon with everyone hooking up and I headed back for the afternoon switch. They were thoroughly satisfied with their first experience, fishing the waters in Montreal and with any luck, will return for more.

Frank was with me for the afternoon and had a couple of friends along as well. They opted for walleye and we made a long run to a place that had been holding some good fish recently. Frank had been with me earlier this year, had a great day trolling up plenty of pike & eyes and was hoping to have another banner outing today. With a little instruction, they began catching fish quickly and it never let up! I refined the areas and also their techniques to increase the number of walleye caught. The entire time spent during the afternoon had plenty of action allowing me to harvest a few fish for the table. I allowed them to each keep a couple and released all the rest. Plenty of overs were also returned in the time we spent making this afternoon extremely productive. The 4 hours or so that we fished just flew by and before we knew it, the day was done. These guys were amazed at just how many fish they caught in a short period of time and left wanting more. Who know, with all this warm weather we’ve been having, they might just get back out again! Great fishing was had by everyone today!!

Mike & Cory joined me on this chilly morning for a shot at the elusive ‘Holy Grail”! We launched in a north wind gusting at 15 to 20 knots at times. Add the 36 degree air temps and it felt more like, below freezing! The area I was fishing had the winds hitting from the side and some of the waves were splashing us in the face. Although we endured this suffering for almost two hours, we finally pulled the plug and opted for something catchable. I was pretty sure the bass fishing would be better and Mike happily agreed to go for them! I started shallow and although we had a few fish with plenty of others following, it wasn’t the size I was looking for. I slid out a little deeper and they both began hooking into many more, but landing them was a different story. For some reason, they were losing twice as many as they were landing. Fortunately there were a bunch schooled up and it didn’t seem to matter. We hung in this area for quite a while until they depleted the dumb ones and another move was in order. I tried a shallow place and once again, the fish were small. Back out to deeper water and the big ones were ready to eat. We remained here for the bulk of the afternoon and they caught quite a few quality smallies. With our end nearing and the want for a few fish for the table, we gave the last 45 minutes up in order to try for some eyes. As with the bass, the walleye were getting off more than being landed and it ended up seeming like 3 to 1 in the loss category! Fortunately they did get a limit in the short time spent and would be dining on fish tonight. Overall a pretty good day with the exception of the start and those damn toothy critters! Both Cory and Mike had a great time landing and losing all kinds of bass & walleye and quality ones too! With the overnight temps cooler now, the fishing should begin to pick up and high numbers of big fish will be the norm. The next few weeks should be excellent and I will be on the water almost every day following their movements. With only a few open days left for this month, anyone wanting to experience fall’ s great fishing should get in touch with me before they’re all gone. Many more great days ahead!!

Sam fished with me today and brought along a few family members as well. His had his two young children and his father. Sam Jr. was 6 and his daughter Mia was 5 making for an interesting time on the water. Although his son had fished with me before, this was the first time for Mia and I wanted to get them both into fish. We started late in the morning and I decided to look for the numbers, settling on a walleye spot. After a quick instruction to Sam sr. I started baiting the lines for his kids. All of a sudden I was going for the net, because he was locked up with a decent walleye. I guess he caught on quickly! I put it in the livewell as they were going to take a few back home with them tonight for dinner and resumed baiting the kids lines. It didn’t take long before Sam Jr. was hooked up and he brought to net a really nice over that was released right after several pics. His daughter was also landing a few of her own while the bite was good and everyone was having a great time. Sam was hooking several walleye and handing off the rods to his children as well, keeping them constantly occupied and on fish. Although it was cool and we could have used a little more sunshine, the bite was hot and that’s all that mattered! Both kids managed to land a lot of fish in the short time we were out. Towards the end I began making a few casts, hooked up and passed the rod to them to land as well. The time flew by and before we knew it, we were done. Sam didn’t want to stay out too long with his children, keeping them interested for the next time. This was a great idea as they never lost interest and left wanting more. We finished the day with a couple of overs and pulled the plug by 2:30. In only 4 hours of fishing they had managed to land about 20 walleye making this a great day all around. Who knows, maybe the next time they might land a sturgeon even heavier than them. I know Sam Jr. is already wanting to try for one on his next trip! Great day of fishing!!

Greg was back again, along with Andrew & Kevin, looking for more of those monsters. Kevin had a taste yesterday but we were only able to fish for about 90 minutes at the end of the day. Hopefully he would get to feel the pain this time out! A light rain was falling when we reached our destination but it didn’t matter as the winds were from a good direction and light for the start. After all the lines were in, I raised the top to give us more shelter. I’m really glad that I didn’t remove it yet, as the protection it provided was perfect today! First up was Kevin and I handed him a loaded rod to do battle with something large. Now he felt the power of these fish and the burn in his arms. She was definitely heavy by the way it acted. Although there were no jumps, the runs were significant of weight and he possibly had the one we had been looking for, for the past two days. By now Kevin was in total pain but wouldn’t give up. He had been informed of how difficult it was to land these things and was now experiencing it firsthand. It was already 20 minutes into the fight before we were able to get a view of his fish and when we finally did, everyone was in shock. This was undoubtedly the largest one by far! I eventually got a shot at this goliath of a fish and somehow managed to get her in the net. Although we had caught plenty of huge fish in the last couple of days, this one dwarfed them all. It would definitely be a two person job for the pics! I readied everything while keeping her in the water, before hoisting her into the boat. Both Andrew & Kevin held this mammoth for the pics and we shot quickly to preserve her. The release was something out of Jaws 1 as she slowly swam away. We reset the lines and hurried to get them back in the water, in hopes of another one. By now the rain was no longer a mist and was falling pretty good. Thankfully being under the cover, kept us dry! They managed to get a couple more good fish soon after and then Kevin was back up. As luck would have it, Andy handed him the rod and it was game on! He was now doing battle with another giant and still suffering from the first one of the day. This fight was identical to the previous one he had and after almost 30 minutes of battling the fish, we saw why. I was netting something even larger than the one he had already caught! Although happy for Kevin, there was a little envy from the others as they had hoped for one of their own. He had flown in the day before and now had the two largest ones under his belt, in just a few short hours of fishing. Talk about winning the lottery! As with the first one, we prepped everything and shot fast before releasing the giant back to where she belonged. I’m just glad it was us that landed her as some of the other boats would have probably killed her for food. Unbelievable! After composing ourselves, we were back at it hard, waiting for more River Monsters! Although we never really got into any more of that calibre, there were plenty of other great fish landed throughout the day. The rain fell heavy at times along with the arrival of a cold front, causing the winds to increase. We managed a few more fish and eventually the anchor slipped and we were done. The guys had a long drive back home and had decided to leave a little earlier than usual, so this was a sign. They all had their fill of fighting fish and were all suffering from the battles. Kevin had been broken since before 9:30 so my work was done! I was hoping to crush him by noon but completed the job ahead of schedule! I’m sure they will have a lot to talk about in the truck, unless some of them fall asleep from the sheer exhaustion of the day. These past three days had produced high numbers of big fish and exceeded their expectations tenfold! Not in their wildest dreams did they ever imagine it would end this way. Although they had never fought and landed fish this size in fresh water, all three of them now had another check off their bucket lists. Mission accomplished!!