3-23-13

We headed out on the river around 10AM, and I wasn't leaving until we caught a sturgeon! We launched at Ward's Landing and headed up stream to see what we could find. I found a spot that looked good and we set the anchor and started fishing around 11:30. We had 3 sturgeon rods out, one with ghost shrimp, 1 with pile worms, and 1 with eel out! While we waited the boys were getting restless so I baited up a striper rod with sardines and let them see what they could catch. The water was 54 degrees and the trash fish were leaving all of the baits alone, so the boys got bored with no action and set the striper rod in the rod holder. Around 3:00 I looked over and watched as the striper rod doubled over and the fight was on!! The fish was stripping the line off of the little reel so I threw the anchor over and we drifted down towards the fish and gained all of our line back. We no more than got the line back when the fish headed back up stream and the chase was on. We caught back up to the fish and got our line back one again before the fish decided to head across the river, over my anchor rope and into a snag! We headed over there in the boat and were trying to free the line from the snag, but just could not get it to come out, but the fish was still pulling and I was pulling back! About that time a friend of mine cam up river and saw what was going on and stopped to see what the outcome would be. As we were tyring to get the line out of the snag the fish came to the surface and my buddy drifted down to take a look. We decided our best bet was for him to hook the line and get it tied onto his rod and then I would cut mine and drift down and grab his rod and finish the fight. We did not know if it would work but we were out of options and decided to give it a try! When he said he had it tied to his line I cut mine and we drifted down to him and the fish. The fish was still full of energy and we grabbed the rod and eventually fought the fish to submission!! That was one hell of a rodeo but it worked, and we ended up landing, reviving and turning loose the monster! Before letting her go we snapped some quick pictures and threw a tape on her. The big female taped out at 90+ inches!!

We headed back up to the anchor and got the rods out and fishing again. Around 7:00 the rod doubled over again and it was fish on!! Right off the bat the fish jumped completely out of the water and we could tell it was a keeper sized fish. We fought the fish for 20 minutes and eventually got it next to the boat and into the net. A quick tape job measured out a 49" male, that was to be destined for our dinner table!

We fished the rest of the night with no action at all and surrendered around 8:00 AM. We had a great time on the water and I know those fish will not soon be forgotten in the boys memory. In all reality I think the big one may have scared the hell out of them!!

Casey