09-01-2013, 06:00 PM
My cousin and I just returned from fishing for sturgeon.
The weather was unbelievably calm, which is always a pleasant surprise. Although I wouldn't have minded it being at least 10 degrees cooler. It was so calm that for much of the time I just used the i-Pilot to anchor up.
Only had one ugly experience this trip and it wasn't on the water. I decided to "Go exploring" on one trip back to our motel and I took a different road back from the ramp (others had taken this road, so I wasn't just heading across country). After traveling a short distance I immediately realized the error of my choice, but it was too late then and I could only try to go forward. I sunk one of the rear tires in the "moon dust" which also caused the trailer spare to drag on the ground. For those who have never experienced Idaho Moon Dust, you can take my word that stuff has got to be one of the worst soils known to man. Fortunately, a couple guys from Ogden (at least one if not both of them said they are fellow workers with one of our forum members) came to our rescue. Unfortunately, neither of us had a tow rope or a tow chain. Decided that the next best choice was my expensive anchor rope. The rope worked great, except that none of us knew how to tie a knot that wouldn't tighten itself while towing a Suburban. Got one end untied, but had to cut the other end lose. Could have been much worse, only lost a couple feet of rope.
Now to the catching report. We caught 14 sturgeon, a cazillion (whatever that is) smallmouth bass, in a couple hours going after them, a few perch, one small channel cat, one 7 pound flathead cat (correction -- it was also a channel cat)and a few squaw fish.
Caught more small sturgeon (smallest 27 inches) this trip than usual, which is an indication that they are still reproducing, which is great news. My newbie cousin caught the two largest at only 6' long. We had two sturgeon break off, due to equipment failure, that appeared to be much larger. The largest smallmouth bass were 15 inches long.
We had to move a couple times because huge schools of perch moved in, and it was impossible to try to catch a sturgeon, because the perch would immediately strip all of our bait. First time this has happened to me up there. We also got pestered by squaw fish stealing our bait.
Great trip and it was a special experience catching up with my cousin after far-too-many years.
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The weather was unbelievably calm, which is always a pleasant surprise. Although I wouldn't have minded it being at least 10 degrees cooler. It was so calm that for much of the time I just used the i-Pilot to anchor up.
Only had one ugly experience this trip and it wasn't on the water. I decided to "Go exploring" on one trip back to our motel and I took a different road back from the ramp (others had taken this road, so I wasn't just heading across country). After traveling a short distance I immediately realized the error of my choice, but it was too late then and I could only try to go forward. I sunk one of the rear tires in the "moon dust" which also caused the trailer spare to drag on the ground. For those who have never experienced Idaho Moon Dust, you can take my word that stuff has got to be one of the worst soils known to man. Fortunately, a couple guys from Ogden (at least one if not both of them said they are fellow workers with one of our forum members) came to our rescue. Unfortunately, neither of us had a tow rope or a tow chain. Decided that the next best choice was my expensive anchor rope. The rope worked great, except that none of us knew how to tie a knot that wouldn't tighten itself while towing a Suburban. Got one end untied, but had to cut the other end lose. Could have been much worse, only lost a couple feet of rope.
Now to the catching report. We caught 14 sturgeon, a cazillion (whatever that is) smallmouth bass, in a couple hours going after them, a few perch, one small channel cat, one 7 pound flathead cat (correction -- it was also a channel cat)and a few squaw fish.
Caught more small sturgeon (smallest 27 inches) this trip than usual, which is an indication that they are still reproducing, which is great news. My newbie cousin caught the two largest at only 6' long. We had two sturgeon break off, due to equipment failure, that appeared to be much larger. The largest smallmouth bass were 15 inches long.
We had to move a couple times because huge schools of perch moved in, and it was impossible to try to catch a sturgeon, because the perch would immediately strip all of our bait. First time this has happened to me up there. We also got pestered by squaw fish stealing our bait.
Great trip and it was a special experience catching up with my cousin after far-too-many years.
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