09-01-2014, 02:42 AM
Spent the last 3 ½ days fishing for sturgeon with Neldon. Arrived Thursday morning and met Rob and his son at the ramp. He reported that the day before they had caught 9 and had one break off, with the largest sturgeon going 7 ½ feet.
I knew it was going to be a rough trip when we couldn’t get the boat off of the trailer! I think the ramp has silted in some and with it being a little shallower the eye on the front of the boat got caught on the roller on the trailer. Finally got it freed from the roller, only to have the boat get hung sideways on the trailer. The bottom of the boat was stuck on top of the side railings. I didn’t like the ugly grounding sound that the reverse gears were making, as I tried to back if off of the railings. Finally got the boat freed and we were off.
On Thursday, it was dead calm (which, makes it nice for detecting light bites and keeping the boat positioned upriver) but we could not find the sturgeon. We tried most of the holes that have treated me well in the past, to no avail. Went bass fishing, for a couple hours in the afternoon, and the catching was pretty good, except that with the calm weather there was lots of thick seaweed around the shoreline that made fishing for bass difficult. We caught around 15 to 20 bass, with the largest going 15 ½ inches. At the last bass hole the reverse gears completely went out, so we were only able to move in one direction for the remainder of the trip.
We arrived Friday morning with hopes for a better day. At the second hole I got a solid bite and hooked the first sturgeon of the trip. I handed the rod to Neldon, because he had never landed a sturgeon before. It took steady drag for a minute or so, when the line went slack. I reeled in the line to find that it had straightened one of my two hooks. The day before I had tied on a small, but what I thought was a strong second hook. I had used 50 pound test leader and I thought the hook was strong enough to handle a sturgeon, if one happened to get hooked on it. I had tied it one to hook one of the bait stealers, to see what was taking our bait (hooked one right away and learned that it was perch). I reported that it had taken a bait that I had never fished with before for sturgeon.
We moved again in hopes of finding more sturgeon. After fishing for a while, Neldon said that a large fish had jumped in front of the boat and thought it was likely a sturgeon but wasn’t able to see it. I don’t know why sturgeon jump on their own, but it is not uncommon to see sturgeon jumping throughout the day. Shortly after that, we were both looking off the port side of a boat when a nice sturgeon jumped about 50 feet from the boat. Neldon announced that it was definitely a sturgeon and I glanced at his fishing rod. I could see that the line was headed up river, so I yelled that the sturgeon was on his line. After at least three more jumps, Neldon landed his first sturgeon. It went 6 ½ feet long. Surprisingly, it had also taken the new secret bait.
In the afternoon we moved back near where we had started the day and cast out our rods and waited. After cooking in the hot sun for a couple hours we both noticed that one of Neldon’s rods was bouncing a little. We both figured that it was just seaweed on the line, when we both noticed that it was pulling harder than seaweed. Neldon grabbed his rod and realized he was hooked up to a nice sturgeon. That fish pulled us from one side of the river to the other side multiple times and spun the boat in 360 degree turns several times (folks my boat is 19 ½ feet long and with a fiberglass hull, it is a heavy boat). We lost count of how many times it went entirely under the boat.
While fighting the fish the wind started blowing quite hard. That complicated matters even more, because the wind would blow us either towards the shoreline (dangerous lava rocks) or towards the thick seaweed. I had to fire up the outboard several times to move that boat either away from the seaweed or away from the shoreline (complicated by only being able to go forward). Not too far into the fight the sturgeon came close enough to the surface that we could see that it was a giant fish. I was thinking that it would possibly be the largest fish landed from my boat, if we were able to get it landed. At one point, we finally got hung up in the thick floating seaweed. I was sure that it would break the line while I used my dock rod to remove around 100 pounds of seaweed. Finally got the line clear again and pointed the boat in the direction the line was headed. Neldon announced that the fish was still on the end of the line. With his back and arms hurting, I am not sure if Neldon was glad that it was still hooked or not. We finally got the fish landed and measured. It was 7 feet 9 or 10 inches long (making it the second largest fish landed from my boat).
Before that day, Neldon’s largest fish landed was an 8 pound channel cat. With that sturgeon he increased his largest fish by approximately 340 pounds!
We arrived Friday to strong winds blowing up river. After fighting the winds for a few hours and not getting any bites, except from the bait stealers, we called it a trip. Definitely not the quantity of fish that I was hoping to catch, but can’t complain about the quality. I could go back tomorrow, but not sure how soon I could talk Neldon into another trip.[:/]
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I knew it was going to be a rough trip when we couldn’t get the boat off of the trailer! I think the ramp has silted in some and with it being a little shallower the eye on the front of the boat got caught on the roller on the trailer. Finally got it freed from the roller, only to have the boat get hung sideways on the trailer. The bottom of the boat was stuck on top of the side railings. I didn’t like the ugly grounding sound that the reverse gears were making, as I tried to back if off of the railings. Finally got the boat freed and we were off.
On Thursday, it was dead calm (which, makes it nice for detecting light bites and keeping the boat positioned upriver) but we could not find the sturgeon. We tried most of the holes that have treated me well in the past, to no avail. Went bass fishing, for a couple hours in the afternoon, and the catching was pretty good, except that with the calm weather there was lots of thick seaweed around the shoreline that made fishing for bass difficult. We caught around 15 to 20 bass, with the largest going 15 ½ inches. At the last bass hole the reverse gears completely went out, so we were only able to move in one direction for the remainder of the trip.
We arrived Friday morning with hopes for a better day. At the second hole I got a solid bite and hooked the first sturgeon of the trip. I handed the rod to Neldon, because he had never landed a sturgeon before. It took steady drag for a minute or so, when the line went slack. I reeled in the line to find that it had straightened one of my two hooks. The day before I had tied on a small, but what I thought was a strong second hook. I had used 50 pound test leader and I thought the hook was strong enough to handle a sturgeon, if one happened to get hooked on it. I had tied it one to hook one of the bait stealers, to see what was taking our bait (hooked one right away and learned that it was perch). I reported that it had taken a bait that I had never fished with before for sturgeon.
We moved again in hopes of finding more sturgeon. After fishing for a while, Neldon said that a large fish had jumped in front of the boat and thought it was likely a sturgeon but wasn’t able to see it. I don’t know why sturgeon jump on their own, but it is not uncommon to see sturgeon jumping throughout the day. Shortly after that, we were both looking off the port side of a boat when a nice sturgeon jumped about 50 feet from the boat. Neldon announced that it was definitely a sturgeon and I glanced at his fishing rod. I could see that the line was headed up river, so I yelled that the sturgeon was on his line. After at least three more jumps, Neldon landed his first sturgeon. It went 6 ½ feet long. Surprisingly, it had also taken the new secret bait.
In the afternoon we moved back near where we had started the day and cast out our rods and waited. After cooking in the hot sun for a couple hours we both noticed that one of Neldon’s rods was bouncing a little. We both figured that it was just seaweed on the line, when we both noticed that it was pulling harder than seaweed. Neldon grabbed his rod and realized he was hooked up to a nice sturgeon. That fish pulled us from one side of the river to the other side multiple times and spun the boat in 360 degree turns several times (folks my boat is 19 ½ feet long and with a fiberglass hull, it is a heavy boat). We lost count of how many times it went entirely under the boat.
While fighting the fish the wind started blowing quite hard. That complicated matters even more, because the wind would blow us either towards the shoreline (dangerous lava rocks) or towards the thick seaweed. I had to fire up the outboard several times to move that boat either away from the seaweed or away from the shoreline (complicated by only being able to go forward). Not too far into the fight the sturgeon came close enough to the surface that we could see that it was a giant fish. I was thinking that it would possibly be the largest fish landed from my boat, if we were able to get it landed. At one point, we finally got hung up in the thick floating seaweed. I was sure that it would break the line while I used my dock rod to remove around 100 pounds of seaweed. Finally got the line clear again and pointed the boat in the direction the line was headed. Neldon announced that the fish was still on the end of the line. With his back and arms hurting, I am not sure if Neldon was glad that it was still hooked or not. We finally got the fish landed and measured. It was 7 feet 9 or 10 inches long (making it the second largest fish landed from my boat).
Before that day, Neldon’s largest fish landed was an 8 pound channel cat. With that sturgeon he increased his largest fish by approximately 340 pounds!
We arrived Friday to strong winds blowing up river. After fighting the winds for a few hours and not getting any bites, except from the bait stealers, we called it a trip. Definitely not the quantity of fish that I was hoping to catch, but can’t complain about the quality. I could go back tomorrow, but not sure how soon I could talk Neldon into another trip.[:/]
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says it all. Sorry to hear about the technical difficulties, always a bummer. But at least you made it in and out safe, and had some catching action all around.