We launched the boat at Tisdale armed with every kind of bait known to man and headed upstream to find us a likely spot. After looking over a couple places I found one that suited me and Ben threw the anchor! Within minutes we had the 4 rods in the water and the waiting game started. Our first bait hit the water at 5:30 PM and it wasn't until around 7:00 PM when we had our first pull down. The rod dipped 3 times and then buried but as I grabbed the rod to set the hook the fish popped off. I checked all the baits and got them all back in the water for another try. It wasn't long and the exact same thing happened, rod went down but fish was gone before I could swing. Again I rebaited the rods and cast them out and this time the rod buried and I grabbed it and set the hook, fish on!! We had the fish hooked but that only lasted for a couple minutes and the fish popped off!!
By now it was around 8:30 PM and the action slowed so I just kept fresh baits in the water knowing it was just a matter of time. At 10:00 PM the rod buried and the fight was on!! Ben fought the beast while I got all of the other rods reeled in and out of the way. The fish was stripping line off of the reel like crazy headed down stream before Ben got him turned around and headed back towards the boat. Two to three times Ben had the fish close to the boat and he would take off again headed down stream. The battle lasted about 25 minutes and on the last run the fish jumped out of the water right next to the boat and soaked us all before he finally gave up and came to the side of the boat. I tried to measure the fish but couldn't get an exact measurement, but it was a male between 7.5 - 8.0 feet long, a real beast!!! After removing the hook we took a long time to revive the beast and when the fish was ready he swam off to fight another day!! The boys were stoked to get a chance to see the last of the dinosaurs up close and personal. Cade has seen several of them over the years but this was the first one that Nick had ever seen and I now think he's got sturgeon fever like the rest of us!!
After the battle we got everything cleaned up and the rods back into the water to try and get another one. It was pretty quiet and I drifted off to sleep around 2:00 AM, but around 4:00 AM I was awoke by the sound of the screaming reel, fish on!! It took a minute to get my bearings but I managed to get to the rod and was barely able to get it out of the rod holder as the fish ripped line off of the reel!! The fish went downstream for at least 100 yards then back up stream for probably that far before we could get the fish turned and headed back down stream towards the boat. Again the fish went past the boat by a long shot and we battled it back towards the boat. As the fish came close to the boat we got a good glimpse and it was huge!! Easily bigger than the 7.5-8 foot fish we had landed several hours ago. This fish was 9-10 feet long and was twice as big around as the prior fish as it was a big, big, female. It was too dark for a decent picture so we un hooked the old girl and sent her on her way!!!
After all the chaos we baited the rods and went back to sleep for a few hours and hoped for another fish but it wasn't to be. We called it quits around 10:00 AM and headed in to the dock!! It was a great trip and I cant wait to get back out there.
If any of you would like to try one of these over night sturgeon trips give me a call and we can get it on the books!!
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