From Lunge to Sturgeon

Due to the giant NE winds today, Chris & Don weren’t able to fish musky as scheduled. Instead, plan B was to hook up with me for sturgeon, if it was doable. Although we were trying, I still wasn’t sure it would work! Wind against current is never a good thing and this was 15 to 25 knots worth. I dropped the anchor to see if we could fish and was surprised to see that we were be being blown up stream. It was the first time that this had ever happened and I had to do a few other things just to position the boat correctly. It was a go! With rods in hand, Chris was the first to lock up. It was a juvenile and although he fought like a champ, came in quickly. The next bite was on Norm’s line and he was about to land his first sturgeon ever. This thing was big, but we didn’t realize how big until it took to the air. It was going to be a long battle! Norm was feeling the power these fish possessed, as well as the burn. Many times he thought  he was gaining when the counter went down, but it always climbed immediately after. This fish made multiple long runs before eventually coming to the boat for me to net.  He was thinking the hard part was done but it was only getting started! I prepped everything before bringing it aboard for him to hold. This task was not easy, but with a little help he got it done. Several good pics were taken and the fish was released unharmed. Norm had battled a real giant of a sturgeon and the day had just started! We reset the lines and continued fishing in the hurricane like winds and were immediately tight to a fish. Chris had hooked into another line screamer and loving every minute of it. What had gone from a scratched day of musky fishing was now looking like an amazing one for sturgeon. They had determined after the first big fish that it would take one even larger before they would require any more pics. They just wanted to fish! Less work for me was fine and fish we did. Chris had about a ten minute battle before bringing his fish to net. Just another average monster and nothing special! A quick net release and we were back in the game again. Even with these miserable winds the fish were biting. Throughout the rest of the morning as well as the afternoon, we kept getting bit. Most of the fish hooked into were long battles and they were huge. Unfortunately only one was the caliber of the fish photographed earlier and all were water released quickly after. The numbers climbed all afternoon despite the winds, as Chris had the hot hand hooking up most. Right around the time we were supposed to leave, the winds turned to east and now we were in trouble. It was next to impossible to fish so we decided to pull the plug on an absolutely unbelievable day. They had finished in the double digits and all fish were released to fight another day! What had looked like their fishing day wasn’t going to happen, turned out to be one of the best days ever with just a species change. Beats spending the day in the hotel! We headed back to the ramp in 3 & 4 footers but it didn’t matter. Our work was done and Mother Nature lost! Just another day in paradise!!