10-20-2018, 10:06 PM
Hue and I spent the last three days fishing for sturgeon. Well, the quantity was on the slim side, but the quality was on the amazing side.
I had received a report that fishing with Pat's huge fligs was the way to go for the sturgeon, so I went prepared with two of them tied on and ready to go.
The first morning, I quickly caught an 8' sturgeon and three quick catfish (the most catfish I can recall catching, on the entire boat, was two for the whole trip and this trip we caught 6). I thought I had found the magic way to fish for sturgeon, but alas maybe not quite so fast. Hue was getting about three bites to every bite I got and he was fishing the old fashioned way with his bait on the bottom. I will continue experimenting with various floating methods, on future trips, and decide later what seems to work best for me.
One catfish I caught was unbelievably heavy. It was only 26" long and it was so heavy that I had to pull out my digital scales and weigh it. It weighed over 11 pounds! I have never seen such a healthy specimen.
Hue landed his personal best sturgeon at 8'4" and although we only got 7 to the boat four of them were 8' or longer. Hue also lost two that would have likely also run around 8' (one broke off in the rocks and I cut off his leader on another one trying to reel in this second fishing rod).
When I hooked my final sturgeon, as soon as it jumped I realized I had hooked something special. We fired up the outboard and followed that sturgeon (all the time while it was dragging the boat upstream for 300 feet) three different times. I am confident had we not followed it at least the first time that it would have spooled me and broken off. After about a 45 minute battle we got it landed and measured. It was my new personal best at 9'4"
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Pictures are attached but realize that it is next to impossible to get decent pictures of a sturgeon with only two anglers on the boat.
I'm debating about whether or not I am hoping to catch an even larger sturgeon. I made the comment to Hue that I was uncertain whether or not I could land a sturgeon any larger than that one. Wow - what a work out.
Another great outing with Hue and someday I hope to get as many bites as he does. In the meantime I will just have to be satisfied with catching fewer but larger sturgeon than he catches.
[signature]
I had received a report that fishing with Pat's huge fligs was the way to go for the sturgeon, so I went prepared with two of them tied on and ready to go.
The first morning, I quickly caught an 8' sturgeon and three quick catfish (the most catfish I can recall catching, on the entire boat, was two for the whole trip and this trip we caught 6). I thought I had found the magic way to fish for sturgeon, but alas maybe not quite so fast. Hue was getting about three bites to every bite I got and he was fishing the old fashioned way with his bait on the bottom. I will continue experimenting with various floating methods, on future trips, and decide later what seems to work best for me.
One catfish I caught was unbelievably heavy. It was only 26" long and it was so heavy that I had to pull out my digital scales and weigh it. It weighed over 11 pounds! I have never seen such a healthy specimen.
Hue landed his personal best sturgeon at 8'4" and although we only got 7 to the boat four of them were 8' or longer. Hue also lost two that would have likely also run around 8' (one broke off in the rocks and I cut off his leader on another one trying to reel in this second fishing rod).
When I hooked my final sturgeon, as soon as it jumped I realized I had hooked something special. We fired up the outboard and followed that sturgeon (all the time while it was dragging the boat upstream for 300 feet) three different times. I am confident had we not followed it at least the first time that it would have spooled me and broken off. After about a 45 minute battle we got it landed and measured. It was my new personal best at 9'4"![
] Pictures are attached but realize that it is next to impossible to get decent pictures of a sturgeon with only two anglers on the boat.
I'm debating about whether or not I am hoping to catch an even larger sturgeon. I made the comment to Hue that I was uncertain whether or not I could land a sturgeon any larger than that one. Wow - what a work out.
Another great outing with Hue and someday I hope to get as many bites as he does. In the meantime I will just have to be satisfied with catching fewer but larger sturgeon than he catches.
[signature]