An Insane Nor Easter

Peter & his wife Justine joined me this morning on probably the worst day so far this year. We held at the dock for 15 minutes to let a system pass that showed on the radar to be clear afterwards. Well, even the radar didn’t seem to work this morning as I had to raise the top for the run when it began to pour, while idling out. The winds were out of the NE and blowing about ten knots and expected to increase terribly, later in the morning. All I could hope for was a small window where I could get them into fish! I headed back for sturgeon in hopes of another big one and anchored up. The wind was crossways against the current & twisting the boat around, so I had to right it with the aid of a drift sock. Of course the rain was still coming down so the cover remained up and made fishing a little more complicated. We were having a difficult time detecting some of the bites and smaller fish were nibbling the bait from the hooks. I had to check the lines often to ensure they were still were baited. Rain stopped cover down, rain got heavy cover up! This went on several times during the morning and was a pain in the butt, or so I thought. It wasn’t until the rain got heavy and the wind started gusting that I found out what a real pain in the butt actually was! By now with the cover up and the winds gusting 20 or more from the NE, it began to turn the boat sideways and even the sock didn’t help. The boat was bouncing so much that seeing any bites was practically impossible. Time to fish with rod in hand! I instructed them on what to do & how to detect the bite and we held on with the cover up, once again. The rains fell at times so hard that even the raindrops felt like little nibbles. I was almost getting ready to give up on any chance at getting them into a sturgeon when I felt a good bite on my rod. Seconds later I had the rod loaded and passed it off to Peter to fight. Justine had taken his rod and I slid under both, in order to reel one of them in. As soon as I started to reel, I felt another bite and locked up on a second fish. We officially had a double and they were both fighting monsters. I cleared the last line and dropped the cover in the rain to allow room for the battle. Neither one had realized just how strong these things actually were and struggled to bring them in. The battle went on for a while for both of them and I had to jockey their rods around when they kept crossing each other during the fight. Eventually Peter brought his up and I was able to get the net under the fish. Justine still had a ways to go & I was glad because I had work to do with his beast. Several pics were taken and the fish was released before Justine was able to have hers boat side. I netted hers as well and what had started out as misery was all of a sudden a celebration. A giant double header and both of them landed! I would have been happy just landing one of these dinosaurs but somehow we managed to get them both. I heaved the fish aboard and slipped it out of the net for her to hold. Although it wasn’t easy, she managed better than most men and I shot several pics before she slid it back in the water. Both fish swam away great to be fought another day! After all of this, I decided to go for some bass as Justine had never landed a smallmouth before. All they have back home are largemouth and I really wanted her to feel the power of the bronzeback! By now the winds were real ugly and the waves were getting even bigger so I headed to an area somewhat sheltered in order for them to cast. Peter had wanted to catch on top water and brought along some of his favourite lures to try. The conditions weren’t great but I thought he had a chance when I had a fish explode on a soft plastic while instructing Justine on how to fish it. She had a few takers and landed a couple on the bait and Peter also got his wish with a nice one on the surface lure. Justine missed a few on a blade bait when I switched her up in one of the areas too. These conditions really didn’t help as it was next to impossible to do anything with the wind direction we were faced with. As we only had a half day scheduled, we called the day around 12:30 right after she managed to land one more. This day was a roller coaster of everything from the weather & waves to the fishing and conditions we faced. I think under the circumstances, we fended quite well. They had both battled and landed giant sturgeon and a few smallies were caught afterwards. Justine had caught her very first smallie and now knows the difference in how these bass fight as well. I packed everything up for the run back as I wasn’t sure what to expect. We took a slight short cut to the ramp but still had to run in 3 footers all the way. Fortunately I was running directly into them and had great boat control in the Ranger. Smooth like butter, with a few lumps! Mother Nature didn’t win today, despite all her attempts to de rail us from our quest. For once, we kicked her butt!!