Another Personal Best

A last minute cancellation/postponement opened the door for Christiane to get in a few hours of fishing. After taking care of a bunch of things at home, we finally got to the lake at the crack of 9:00. I decided before we left that I was going to try and lock her up on a giant and headed right to where they lived. It didn’t take long to locate them and I anchored up & set the lines. The gobies were a real treat and stripped many a hook before I finally found a spot with just fish. I somehow managed to set too early on a good take and got about 2 seconds of weight before it was gone. I really hoped that this wouldn’t be the only bite we would get! A little while later while holding the rods from cruiser waves, I set into a good one. Christiane was handed the rod and I cleared everything in her way including the roof so that she could move freely during the battle. It was a long one but five minutes in, it jumped and we really knew what she was up against. Giant! This thing took a ton of line several times and crossed under the boat several times as well causing us to dig deep under the motor not to get cut off. Just when she thought it was tiring, it would take off again and peel out more line. Eventually after about 25 minutes I finally got a shot and netted this dinosaur. The battle was officially over and now the hard part was about to begin. Time for a few pics! I really had to help, as it would have been impossible for her to lift it on her own. About all I could do was rest it on her legs for a few shots and gave a hand to toss it back into the water afterwards. There was no sense in resetting the lines as she wanted no part of another one! We packed everything up, had lunch and went for something smaller. It wasn’t easy drop shotting as the winds were from the SE and causing a cross current effect. The drift was practically nonexistent as the wind & current moved us in an almost backwards direction. Although the fish were there, it was hard to get them to bite. To make matters worse, the perch were playing havoc on our baits as well. If I wanted to eat them, we would have had a good meal with some of the ones we caught. As difficult as it was, we still managed to get a couple of walleye and Christiane also landed a really good smallie. With all the boat traffic, heat and tough wind conditions, we finally gave in and headed back to the ramp to take out. The lake had become a zoo and I didn’t want any more of it. The sailboats were the worst as they really don’t care about anybody in their way.  Regardless, the day was still a great one with Christiane landing her personal best sturgeon. The bass & walleye were just a bonus!!