More River Monsters

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Another day of sturgeon fishing saw Naomi & her father looking for their first ever beasts. We wasted no time and headed right to where there were, anchoring up in anticipation. Too bad we had to wait so long!

After many hours and several moves we finally had a bite and I reeled into the first fish of the day. Although smaller than I was used to, Naomi did fight and land a fish she had never caught before. Soon after her father also got to bring one in as well, but it too was a juvenile and not really what I wanted them to see. I hoped they would do battle with something much larger and reset the lines, looking to get them a monster.

Sometime around mid-afternoon we hooked into something with weight and Naomi finally did battle with the one she had been looking for. Although it never breached, I could tell by how it was fighting that it had some size. She fought it perfectly through multiple long runs and eventually wore it out for me to net. She had no problem holding it up for the pictures either before the release!

I now wanted her father to fight one of his own and around 3:30 it finally happened. He was officially locked up and it felt huge! As it turned out, this fight lasted over ten minutes and with plenty of long runs. Just like the previous fish however, it too never jumped. Without exerting any extra energy, it remained on the bottom and just fought that much harder. When it finally showed, we knew why! It was very large and I was finally going to use the tarp for the first time this season!

Minutes later it was in the net and I prepped everything before heaving her into the boat. I never want to hurt these fish and by using the tarp, it keeps the protective layer they have on their skin. It also makes for a cleaner boat too!

Ironically instead of him holding the fish, Naomi was the one to hoist it for the pics. She may not be big but she’s really strong, as this fish wasn’t small. Several shots later, it was torpedoed back to the water to live another day.

We didn’t have much time left but I reset the lines regardless in hopes of another bite that just never came. By 4:00 we were done and I packed everything up to leave. They had done battle with a couple of fish each and at least had one good sized one apiece! I would have liked to see more but with all the boats in the area, I was happy to have gotten what we did. They too were also glad to have finally caught a true river monster and left with the memories and pics as proof. Success all around!