05-29-2016, 04:54 PM
Had another great sturgeon trip. We landed 15 or 16 sturgeon (two at 7 1/2' and the smallest about 3'), had two break off, and lost about 6 others after they were hooked. One got off when it jumped totally out of the water, right next to the boat, and either hit the side of the boat or the trolling motor (likely with it's tail).
Nate (sturgeon newbie) and my cousin Randy joined me. Nate started it off with a 7 1/2' sturgeon! Not bad for his first sturgeon.[
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It was a strange trip because I don't believe we had any bites from anything other than sturgeon, while we were fishing for them. It is not uncommon for the mud cats, squaw fish, or the perch to bite while attempting to fish for sturgeon, but not this trip.[] We fished for bass for an hour or so and they were quite easy to find and catch.
I caught a 7 1/2' sturgeon that was extremely heavy. My cousin held the tail with both hands and he was unable to touch his fingers or thumbs, because the diameter was too great. In order to unhook the fish my cousin held its mouth with both hands and there was still plenty of room for me to reach in with my pliers and remove the hook. Landing that fish was wild because at the time only my cousin and I were on the boat, and despite realizing the wind was blowing us towards the rocks, and using the outboard to move us back out into the open water, we still ended up landing on the rocky shoreline. I was very happy that we were able to get off the rocks without damaging the boat.
I got reminded again that "wind" is a four-letter-word.[frown] The wind didn't cause many problems until we would hook a sturgeon. We tie the anchor rope to a floating cushion and then when we hook a fish we toss the cushion into the water and leave the anchor down. This allows us to follow the sturgeon quickly and return and anchor up quickly. This works great except when the wind is blowing upstream, which is the direction that it usually blows. The wind blows the boat upstream and pulls the sturgeon towards the anchor rope. We lost a couple fish because of the anchor rope and in hindsight, a few times we would have been better off just pulling the anchor and dropping it again after landing the fish.
Great time and great company. Can't wait to get back up there again, which will be soon.[]
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Nate (sturgeon newbie) and my cousin Randy joined me. Nate started it off with a 7 1/2' sturgeon! Not bad for his first sturgeon.[
] It was a strange trip because I don't believe we had any bites from anything other than sturgeon, while we were fishing for them. It is not uncommon for the mud cats, squaw fish, or the perch to bite while attempting to fish for sturgeon, but not this trip.[
] We fished for bass for an hour or so and they were quite easy to find and catch. I caught a 7 1/2' sturgeon that was extremely heavy. My cousin held the tail with both hands and he was unable to touch his fingers or thumbs, because the diameter was too great. In order to unhook the fish my cousin held its mouth with both hands and there was still plenty of room for me to reach in with my pliers and remove the hook. Landing that fish was wild because at the time only my cousin and I were on the boat, and despite realizing the wind was blowing us towards the rocks, and using the outboard to move us back out into the open water, we still ended up landing on the rocky shoreline. I was very happy that we were able to get off the rocks without damaging the boat.
I got reminded again that "wind" is a four-letter-word.[frown] The wind didn't cause many problems until we would hook a sturgeon. We tie the anchor rope to a floating cushion and then when we hook a fish we toss the cushion into the water and leave the anchor down. This allows us to follow the sturgeon quickly and return and anchor up quickly. This works great except when the wind is blowing upstream, which is the direction that it usually blows. The wind blows the boat upstream and pulls the sturgeon towards the anchor rope. We lost a couple fish because of the anchor rope and in hindsight, a few times we would have been better off just pulling the anchor and dropping it again after landing the fish.
Great time and great company. Can't wait to get back up there again, which will be soon.[
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