Neil & Ben joined me this morning and we decided to try our luck with sturgeon. After moving a few times, unsuccessfully, I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get a bite. Well that answer never happened as I had to shuttle Neil back to the dock early due to a family problem. It was going to be Ben & I for the day!

I headed back out with Ben but this time we were going for walleye. It didn’t take long to get bit but unfortunately it was the only one. I wasn’t even marking fish and that concerned me some! With the winds increasing I opted for a species change and brought him to another area for bass. It was really slow here as well but a few fish were landed and one really big one lost.

I decided to give the sturgeon thing another shot but after about 30 minutes of re baiting hooks, we pulled out once again. The winds were too big to hold properly and see any bites, especially the nibblers! Time to get some walleye!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon making several drifts over an area that had a good population of keeper sized walleye. Both Ben & I fished as he was hoping to bring a limit of walleye back with him at the end of the day. Mission accomplished! He even managed to catch several others as well ending our day a little more successfully.

Although the fishing was slow at times today, we rallied in the end to finish strong. Ben was able to take dinner back with him as his father had left him in charge of the cooler when I dropped him at the dock earlier in the day. They would be eating well tonight!

What happens when 2 out of three days on a long weekend have foul weather? The third one has everybody out fishing! Today was no exception, despite the chilly start to the day, as everybody hit the water with their boats. Our first stop for sturgeon proved that as the place was just loaded. I had a rough time getting to the area I wanted to be, but managed to hold close by with plenty of room from the nearest boat.

Mike was in from California and although he had caught a few sturgeon before, they were all small. Hopefully today that would change as we were in the land of the giants! It wasn’t long before we had some action from one of the two rods and his first Canadian sturgeon came into the boat. It wasn’t the one I was looking for but he was officially on the board!

The next couple of fish were significantly larger by his standards, but still on the smaller side by mine. Although they were the largest ones he had ever landed I still wanted him to fight one of the beasts. After several more medium ones, I finally got my wish when I reared back on some weight. This one was going to do the others justice as he was about to find out!

Mike fought the sturgeon like he had been battling big fish all his life. It was nice to have someone in the boat that knew how to fight a fish by using the rod properly. Despite several long runs, this one never breached and it wasn’t until he had the fish close to the boat that we knew how big it actually was. This would definitely be his biggest by far! Minutes later I had his fish in the net and readied him for the pics. As difficult as it was, he was able to lift the beast out of the net and hold it for a few shots before the release. To say he was happy would have been an understatement!

I reset the lines and we went right back to fishing for more of these monsters! Fortunately there were others and eventually Mike reeled into another one with big weight. He had officially taken control right from the bite and hooked into his own fish once again. This time however, it wasn’t a small or medium sized fish but rather a large one! Soon into the battle the line started to come up and we both got to see what he was doing battle with as she breached. Definitely some big weight there!

The fight lasted over ten minutes and this fish really took out some line. At one point the counter reached well over 150 before he was able to turn the fish and begin gaining line. Each run got shorter and shorter until eventually I was able to slip the net under his catch to end the battle. By now he knew the drill and how to hold it for the pics. We made short order of this and returned to fishing quickly.

Plenty of other good sized sturgeon were landed afterwards and we decided to call it here and try for some walleye before the end. I packed everything up and headed to where I knew he would have his best chance. We spent over an hour or so making a few drifts and boated a dozen or so keepers. The perfect end to an already perfect day!

Mike couldn’t have ordered better weather for his day of fishing. Although cool in the morning, it warmed up just nicely and the lack of wind with sunshine made it the picture perfect fall day. Oh yeah, the fish cooperated too! Great day all around!

What a day from Hell today! Adam, Chris and Marc fished for sturgeon for the first couple of hours and unfortunately only landed a bunch of smaller ones. Despite marking several larger fish, we weren’t fortunate enough to get bit by them before the wind switched and got giant! It didn’t take long before we were in 3 footers and drifting backwards!

I pulled the plug on this area and checked a couple of other places in search of them instead. I marked a lot of fish but nothing that I wanted to set up on and decided to go for walleye instead. We were drifting open water flats in big waves but it was doable, at first! Several fish were missed or completely lost due to quick hook sets and low rods in the big waves. They should have had about 1 limit in the boat but were still at a big zero! I tossed in briefly and boated their first dinner fish! Unfortunately with each drift we made, the return back up was looking bigger and bigger. They continued to miss fish each drift but they did manage to boat a couple of bass and one walleye, eventually. I would have liked to stay on these fish but even with a drift sock out, our passes were way too fast. Along with this, the waves were ocean like and it was actually getting dangerous. It was definitely time to move!

I carefully surfed the 4 & 5 footers getting us closer to the shore and we spent the remainder of our day making multiple passes on ledges for smaller fish. It wasn’t any better here but at least we were somewhat closer to the shore! They continued to catch several more fish and unfortunately missed many more due to the conditions. It was so bad out that I had to run back for each drift, slowly ploughing the water, so as not to swamp the boat. I couldn’t go more than 10 miles per hour or everything would have taken a beating!

After making plenty of drifts and stretching it out, we unanimously agreed to call it a day! I think we had seen about enough of this roller coaster ride. Mother Nature has a strange way of protecting the waters we fish and this is about as extreme as it gets. She was cruel shortly after the start making my life more difficult than usual. All I know is when it started to blow, we were the only boat out there. I think I understand why! At least we were safe with the Ranger and managed to make it through the entire day. Less windy ones to come, I hope!

Serge & Pierre enjoyed a day filled with plenty of fish today. We began with sturgeon and they landed a load of them including some really good ones. After the last big fish, they decided that they wanted to catch some walleye for consumption and we relocated. Right on cue, the fish were there and cooperated, somewhat. A variety of techniques were used to land a load more but unfortunately most were overs and released. They did manage to get a limit though and that was a plus!

Today was a productive and effective fishing day with no shortage of action. They even caught a few bass and jumbo perch making this a slamming type of day! Great fishing day!

Rebecca and her father Eric joined me today hoping for some sturgeon. We spent the entire day anchored up and it paid off big time! Plenty of fish were landed including a few exotic ones. Thankfully there weren’t any eels today! Rebecca lucked out on her turn by landing the biggest sturgeon of the outing. I’m not sure how many were caught but it was many. Great day for sturgeon, finally!