More Big Howls

Reda was with me today, along with his friend Guillaume & looking for some big fish bites. We wasted no time and headed directly to the sturgeon in hopes of a few hookups. With the winds already blowing 10 to 15 from the SW, I wanted to spend as much time there before getting blown out. We were suppose to have much stronger gusting winds by afternoon and I knew it would become impossible. This has definitely been the year of giant winds! Once set up, Reda was the first to connect and it was a good one. Although not giant, it was still a great battle. We took few pics and like usual, released it back to the water unharmed. I think he hooked two or three before Guillaume finally connected with one of his own. This fish was considerably larger and beat him up pretty good. I could see by the way he was struggling that this battle was wearing him out and quickly! Eventually bubbles showed and the end was near. When he saw what he had hooked into he was shocked and relieved all at the same time. I slid it into the net and brought it aboard for the pics. It was so heavy and awkward that Guillaume had a difficult time holding the beast. Even the release was a little bizarre as he barely made it over the rail. In the next couple of hours they landed several more and Guillaume managed one really giant dinosaur that was impossible to hold. He had to sit for the photo and have the fish on his lap! This release wasn’t pretty either and the fish slid over the rail with a little more clumsiness. Although I wanted to return to the area we were fishing, the winds had a different idea. They were blowing pretty big now and a relocation was needed. I decided to hit another place nearby and try a little drop shotting for walleye. It wasn’t much better for fishing but at least we had a shot! With winds from the west and 3 footers rolling, our drifts were rather short. I repositioned many times by running back up for multiple drifts. Somehow they managed to catch fish even these conditions and that’s all that mattered. Many of the bites were never connected with due to how hard they were to detect. Reda did get most of his and put on a clinic for Guillaume at one point. He could do no wrong in one place and landed a bunch. We fished similar places for the remainder of the day and caught in each area we stopped. Eventually we just pulled the plug when the conditions worsened and headed in. As with every day lately, I can get only a small window of calm before the wind blows. It would be nice to actually have a lighter breeze than these hurricane like howls I’ve received, almost every day out! Despite the conditions, they did catch plenty of fish and some really big ones too. All in all a pretty good day to fish!!