Battling Giant Winds

Round two for Brian & Royce wasn’t as kind to us today! We launched in big winds and they intensified while we were fishing. The run wasn’t too pleasant either as we had in 2 to 3 footers, against the current. Yuup, we had an east wind once again! The only good thing was that at least I would be able to anchor. We set up and I had to apply a couple of tricks in order to keep the boat straight. Brian wasted no time in hooking the first fish showing us that it could be done in big waves. We weren’t as fortunate as yesterday with the rods in holders and had to hold them to detect the bites this morning. Not only was he into a fish, but it was a giant! We had seen it take to the air and knew he was in for another great fight! Both Royce and Brian had battled so many fish yesterday that he was able to muscle this beast to the boat in just over 10 minutes. What a start to the day! After more pics he let her go as usual and we resumed fishing. In just a short time, the winds had actually intensified and I was having a hard time keeping the boat straight. We were going to have to fish off the side now in order to make it work. The gusts were over 25 knots and the winds had switched slightly to an E/SE causing us more problems. I don’t think anyone cared though as they were into fish. After a few medium sized ones, Royce hooked into a real monster. Although we never really saw the thing, the battle was epic. It made several long runs and at one point I thought it may have been accidently foul hooked. He brought it back to the boat each time and had some control, so that wasn’t the case. Bringing it off the bottom was the issue as this fish just didn’t want to come up. I’m sure the fight lasted close to 25 minutes and when he finally managed to raise her to the surface, we all knew why. Another triple XL! I immediately netted her and readied the boat for the pics. It was definitely his largest so far and I wanted some nice shots. Although exhausted, he somehow managed to find the strength to lift her and sat while I shot. Releasing it however was another story as he needed a little help from Brian in order to get her over the rail. What an absolute beast! I knew he wouldn’t be able to bring another fish in if he hooked up again and wasn’t surprised to see him pass the rod to Brian when he did. Brian helped him out by reeling in an average big one and did it in under 10 minutes again. Royce was back at it immediately after when he loaded the rod and brought a 12 pound cat to the net. I always love seeing the exotic species when fishing sturgeon and definitely shot a few pics of this kitten! We were kind of under the gun today as these guys wanted to get a jump on their drive so we were only fishing until about 12:30. Brian hooked up on another good one about 12:15 and by the time it reached the boat, it was closer to 12:25. I decided to fish right till the end and wouldn’t you know it, Royce hooked up almost immediately after. He was into a big fish and Brian left his line in to try and double up. This fight lasted almost 15 minutes and after the release, Brian did what he had wanted. Although technically not a double, it was pretty close! We now had to wait for him to battle his fish before packing everything up.  This too took nearly 15 minutes as well and the fight was a great on. We had officially ended with another bang today and had done it in difficult conditions too! They actually made it look easy and it was about as far from that as you could imagine! Hats off to the both of them for two of the better days so far this season! Although it’s drawing to an end quickly, I still have a few more days to fish these beasts and can’t wait to get back out, under any conditions! Mother Nature put up a great fight, but she didn’t win today!!