Fishing in The Rain

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Rick & his brother Danny were back again this year and this time they brought along Kevin. We were going sturgeon hunting and hopefully going to get into them real good!

Although we began in overcast skies, it wasn’t going to be this way for long. We would be fishing in rain, according to the weather forecast and they were right. It began shortly after we arrived in the area and pretty much lasted all day long. I didn’t care as it would reduce the number of boats on the water!

Kevin had the first shot at the fish and he landed a real tiny one to start. He also got the second rod and it too was on the small side as well. For some reason we were in the day care area and catching little ones, but that was soon about to change.

Danny was the first one to finally get into a good fish and it battled him for a while. Lots of strong runs but no jumps were had and the fight lasted close to the ten minute usual. Finally, a photo fish! With the lines back in we now expected more big ones. They caught several more, but they weren’t the ones I wanted and I decided to try another area nearby.

I idled all over looking for fish but didn’t really mark anything worth stopping on and ended up back closer to where we had begun. It was here that we started catching once again and several more good ones came to the boat and were released. For some reason we were catching mostly small to medium ones and not many of the ones I had hoped to see.

As the morning lapsed, and the rain & winds grew, I made another move. Here I did finally mark fish & something worth holding on. We stopped and I don’t think the rods were in for more than a few minutes when Rick got his shot at another one. It was coming to the boat pretty easy and he thought it was a small sturgeon when all of a sudden, it grew! Seconds later it began peeling line off the reel and didn’t seem to be stopping. He had officially pissed it off!

For the next 15 minutes Rick went back & forth with this thing, reeling & running out line again. He eventually managed to wear it out and I was finally able to net his fish and end the fight. Now for the hard part! After a couple of minutes of preparation, Rick lifted the sturgeon from the net and held it for the pics. We made him suffer a little by asking for a few different angles and it nearly killed him too! Back in it went and we watched it swim off, disappearing to the depths.

With all the lines back in the water, it didn’t take long before we were locked up again. Kevin was up and although his fish wasn’t a true giant, it was the largest he had dealt with so far today. I had decided to leave one other rod in the holder, hoping for a double as he battled his fish. He was just amazed at the power these things have and was enjoying every minute of the fight. His line rose and soon after, the fish leaped and showed us its true size. He was going to be a while!

After playing with it for over 5 minutes, I slid the net under his catch and prepped him for a few pics. This was his biggest fish and he wanted proof of its size!

After the release as I was resetting the other lines, Dan noticed a bite on the rod I had left in and set on probably the biggest sturgeon of the day. He was locked up, but for how long! As it came up and jumped, the hooks just pulled out and it was gone. That was truly a beast!

The remainder of the day saw a few more moves and lots of other fish landed but unfortunately none were the likes of the one we lost. Plenty of small & medium sturgeon were landed making this the best day by far for the season. Too bad they all couldn’t have been giants but you just never know when a fish bites!

We ended with a couple of other smaller ones being landed and then we were done. Tomorrow we will be back out, hoping for the next big bite and with any luck we will get another shot at the one that got away. If we’re real lucky, maybe several big ones!