Sturgeon trip 5-26-28-2016

[Kent]

Randy, Don (sturgeon newbie) and I just returned from a sturgeon trip.

Thursday was painfully slow, Randy managed three sturgeon and Don and I were smelling skunk. We took an hour diversion or so, around noon, and caught a bunch of small mouth bass. As usual, they were plentiful.

Friday, we weren't sure where to try, so we fished the same general area where we caught three on Thursday. We only managed two sturgeon in about 7 hours of fishing and after moving several times.

Almost in desperation, I decided to try a hole that I rarely fish. This was a wise choice. In the next, approximately 5 hours we landed 6 sturgeon, lost one, missed several good bites, and I had a large one snap my line.[mad]

Saturday, we at least knew where to try. By 10:00 AM we had landed 9 sturgeon (in comparison, we caught the first sturgeon at 10:00 AM on Thursday and at 11:00 AM on Friday) and missed several bites. We ended up with 5 more landed and two lost before we left at 2:30 PM.

Final count was 25 sturgeon landed, around the same number of bass caught and two large pike minnows (I believe that is what they are called). The largest sturgeon went about 7'9" and the smallest was around 3'. The average was about 5'6". Don caught 9, which always makes me happy when the newbie does really well. Another great outing with fun fellow anglers. Can't wait to do it all over again.
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[bigfish6]

Now that sounds like a fun trip right their!! I can't wait until the day I have a chance to catch a fish that's bigger than me lol and with your average size at 5'6" shouldn't be to difficult ha ha. I'm glad you guys had a good trip and no problems with your boat. That Lee guy seems to do a pretty good job!!
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[Ktrout]

Glad you finally found the fish. It's touch just sitting for hours on end without a bite, but that's sturgeon fishing.
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[luckybob]

I am glad you all caught some Sturgeon. It looks like the weather was nice...not too hot.
Kent, sorry you had a big one break you off.
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[Kent]

[quote luckybob]

...It looks like the weather was nice...not too hot...

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It got a little warm, but I have had much worse. Almost no wind and when it did blow it was mostly downriver.[]
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[N.E.T.O.]

So as we were driving to the boat launch on the river in the dark on the 2nd morning I stated to Kent and Don that it was good to have the slow day BEHIND us. It was then that Kent said that he hoped we wouldn't look back at that first day and realize that it was the BEST day of the three!

When we finally found the fish, I told Don that I knew that Kent wouldn't take us to the honey hole immediately as he didn't want the newbie to feel like this fishing was too easy, but I didn't think Kent would wait almost two whole days to take us to the honey hole! []

It ended up being a really good trip with lots of fun and laughs with some really good company. The weather was about as good as it could have been with very little wind. Everyone got to experience a full body workout catching these big fish and there were no mechanical breakdowns of any kind other than the one break-off that Kent had and my own lower-back at the end of day three from fighting big Sturgeons. I actually used an ice pack on my lower back on the way home! The local diners were excellent as usual even though we had to change our come-home-trip lunch location in Bliss to some other restaurant in Wendell which almost as good.

Kent has got this fishing down to a science and even though he makes it look easy to first timers (eventually!) there are years of knowledge behind each trip that makes it so that everyone on board can be successful. He really knows his stuff and I really enjoy going on these trips with him. I also can't wait to do it again!
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