The Rescue Day

Stephan & his girlfriend Sylvie were with me this morning for a mixed day on the water. First cool start to the season since May had me layering up for the run and loving it. Hopefully all the boat traffic will be pulling out soon as it’s been a real zoo out there this year! After Stephan’s last trip, he wanted to try for sturgeon again and I headed to the hole hoping for a quick bite. It was a little rougher than I like with winds from the SW at 10 knots or better, but I’d give it a try. Well the quick bite didn’t happen and we had to wait well over an hour until he finally hooked up. I could tell by the battle that it was larger than the one he had landed on a previous trip and waited for the visual sighting. Several minutes later we got a glimpse and I was right, it was big! I netted her and hoisted it into the boat only to have her blow a hole through the mesh when she started kicking. When that pointed nose pushed through it kept going and now she was making it even bigger. Somehow I managed to pull her back and save them both, with only a little repair needed on the net. Stephan struggled to get a hold of the fish for the pics and she crapped all over the carpet in the process. What a nice mess as it resembled something a baby would have done! In the end he almost bear hugged her just to stop the struggle and allow me to snap a few quick shots. Once done she was returned and swam off none the worse for wear. We resumed fishing and waited quite a while again. The next bite was instant power followed by nothing on the end of the line. Damn I hate when that happens! Sometime later, another bite and after about three minutes, gone again. As the winds were getting stronger, I decided to pull the plug on these fish and try for another species. Musky were the next target and we made a long run to where we were to set the lines and troll. With these creatures there’s never a guarantee that you’ll get bit but they were wanting to give it a shot nonetheless. I soon found out why when after 15 minutes, they were both fast asleep! It was so quiet that even a bird decided to join us on the boat. I guess her little wings were tired being all the way out in the middle of the lake. We officially had a mascot on board and that could only be good luck, right? I continued the troll and the bird rested for almost 20 minutes before flying off. Another 20 later, so did we! I pulled the plug here and switched it up again elsewhere and for a different species once more. I was going trolling for walleye and pike and three minutes in, the first reel fired. While landing the pike, another one went off and we had a double. I think we can call it a triple as a third one fired as well before I could get the second one in the net! Wow, talk about quick bits! I figured we were just going to crush them after this, but I was wrong. Although we picked at them for the next hour, that was all we did. Eventually it seemed like the winds had calmed down a bit and we agreed to go back and try for more sturgeon again. Although a little lighter, they were still pretty bad and it made detecting the subtle bites quite difficult. In the next couple of hours we had four more bites with two of them staying on for several minutes. Unfortunately the outcome was all bad as every one of them came unpinned. Fishing for these giants is like a disease as the more you catch, the more you want. We called it here and made one last stop in an area along the way back to see if we could hook a couple of walleye. Not long after I set the lines a reel fired and I knew Stephan had the targeted species. When I netted it, another reel fired and he had his own double as Sylvie was on the phone. In less than a minute there were two walleye swimming in the well and they had dinner for tonight. We pulled the plug about 5 minutes later when I just got fed up of two other boats that saw the net come out. Again I had leeches that just had to fish on top of me! Our take out was extended a bit when we arrived back at the launch, as we had to rescue two overturned kayaks nearby. A family of three were enjoying a leisure afternoon on the water when the father & his son flipped out of their two boats. After a little struggle, we were finally able to get them both on board as well as the smaller kayak. The father’s kayak had to be towed, but it all ended well. At least they had PFD’s on and at 73 degrees, the water wasn’t too cold. I returned them to the dock, pulled out and we were on our way. Stephan & his girlfriend had a decent day on the lake catching a bunch of different species and were taking home dinner too. Who could ask for anything more? Great ending to the day as well!!