Mike, Steven & Bobby joined me today for sturgeon. They were hoping for some action and possibly a few big ones too! I knew exactly where to go and headed out to the area that had been producing. Too bad we had to run while the rain was falling, but at least it wasn’t supposed to last!

We anchored up in a light south wind after scouting the area for fish. I had marked a few good ones and wanted to see if we could get an early bite. In less than ten minutes I saw a rod bounce and set into something small. Bobby took the rod and reeled in the first sturgeon of the day. Although not big, it was still nice to get the skunk out of the boat, early!

We were getting into fish all morning but I wasn’t satisfied with their size. I made many moves to try and set up on the bigger ones but each time I relocated on large marks, they didn’t eat. Plenty of small fish did however and numbers of sturgeon were landed. They even managed to catch a couple of exotic fish with one red horse sucker and a drum!

The conditions were almost perfect today with the south wind and I was able to hold with the electric motor for the entire time. Sometime after 2:30 and the last small sturgeon, we decided to make a big move. I packed everything up and was going to see if we could spend the remaining time trying for walleye. The skies were looking a little threatening and the radar as well but we would give it a try!

On the run back, I finally got a good look at what was coming and it wasn’t pretty. We were already getting rained on and I could see the shoreline starting to disappear. I gave them the option to fish & get wet or head in and get less wet and they opted for the latter! We headed in!

The day was successful but mostly for numbers and not size. Everyone was still happy to have caught as many fish as they had and to have spent it on the water. The weather was just a bonus as we weren’t frying in the heat! The rain may have been falling heavily now, but at least we were on shore and ready to take out! Or so I thought!

After having major work done on my truck just a couple of days ago, I was surprised to have the problems I did today. I had front end repairs done as well as a fuel pump replacement. When I tried to gas up this morning, the fuel wouldn’t go in the tank. Instead it just pumped out onto the ground. I guess they forgot to connect the pipe back from when they dropped the tank. The biggest problem however was when I tried to back the trailer down the ramp to load the boat. When I put it in AWD and went in reverse, it just jammed up. A loud grinding noise was heard under the engine and I was locked. Apparently a cap front the front axle had fallen off and was stuck where the wheel turns. It was held on with 6 bolts and only 1 was found on the ground under the truck. I guess they forgot to tighten the bolts! The other 5 must have vibrated out between Friday night and now! Lucky it didn’t happen while I was on the highway or the results might have been different!

I was forced to make a few calls afterwards. One was to a friend to get my boat and the other to CAA for a flatbed tow. I still had to disconnect the trailer from the truck without having it roll downhill into the water and pin it up to the other vehicle. I blocked the tires and tied a tow rope to the front of the trailer and we pulled it away from the truck on the tongue jack. Once it was on a level surface we pinned up to the other truck. We quickly had the boat on the trailer afterwards and the first of the problems was resolved.

After about 30 minutes from the time we called, the flatbed truck arrived and we had it loaded on the truck to be taken to my house. I was actually able to drive it onto the bed when the piece that was jammed fell off, freeing the wheel. At least we had that going for us!

Both truck & boat were taken to my house and Tuesday morning when the repair shop opens they will be getting a call. In the meantime I will have to cancel the customers that I have for Monday as I have no way to get the boat to the water. Hopefully things will work out quickly, Tuesday morning. I don’t need to be down longer than one day with customers and fishing to be done. Welcome to the world of a fishing guide!!

Nick was with me today looking to get his first ever sturgeon. We would try for them early and switch over to another species afterwards. Hopefully it would all go as planned!

The bottom looked dismal as I idled around searching for a spot to start. Eventually I just settled on a couple of smaller marks and gave it a try. This went on for a few areas before finally finding one place that I didn’t get harassed by nibblers. It was here I finally set into something decent and handed Nick the rod to fight the fish. I knew it wasn’t the one I was looking for but hoped it was at least the right species! Soon after he had the small sturgeon beside the boat and I tailed his catch. A few pics later it was returned unharmed and we went right back to searching for a giant!

I made a few more moves to try and find the fish but all we could come up with was one more bite. As it turned out, it was the biggest bass of the day! Too bad it had to be caught on the heavier tackle! Soon after we pulled the lines and switched to a different species!

I decided to begin with smallmouth and had him dropshot a ledge in deeper water. I too had a line in the water to get the right presentation and speed to remain vertical. We made a long drift over the same area that had been producing well for me lately and unfortunately only managed a couple of smaller bass. We did both however miss a couple of fish that I know were much larger when they just came off!

I wanted to try several spots and moved to another area where we finally got bit. I was marking some good fish and we actually doubled up on the first place we switched to. Things were looking up as I made a couple more passes over the hump and we also saw more bites. Too bad they were either small or missed all together!

I wanted to hit as many places as possible with what I thought was plenty more time left in the trip. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case as Nick told me that he only wanted to fish for about another hour. I decided to go back and see if we might be able to get another sturgeon. We spent about 30 minutes trying without any luck so I moved to another place looking for smaller fish instead.

Our last spot turned out to be full of fish but they were apparently all perch. We had tons of little bites while trying for walleye and although I did mark several, we only caught the little guys. Time passed quickly and we were done!

Although we didn’t get into as many fish as I had hoped for, Nick did manage to catch his first ever sturgeon today. He also landed a few smallies and I’m sure given more time that he would have caught plenty more! This turned out to be a very short day of fishing. I guess he’ll just have to come back again to try for another River Monster!!

Wilma, Ronnie and their son Daniel joined me today for another mixed bag outing. With the winds light I decided to try for a big bite early and headed to fish for sturgeon. I had hoped to get at least one before switching over to another species.

The bottom looked almost void of fish and I spent more time idling around before I finally settled on a few marks. Lines went in and as usual lately, we were nibbled to death by small fish. In fact, I even managed to catch one of the culprits!

I had been forced to relocate a few times and beginning to lose faith in the possibility of a bite when one of the rods began to bounce. I grabbed it quickly and was into some decent weight on the hook set.  Daniel was passed the rod and I instructed him on how to fight the fish. It was definitely the biggest thing he ever had on the end of the line and I wanted to see him to land it.

After clearing the area I guided him a little more and saw the line begin to rise. They were about to see what he was hooked up to as it breached behind the boat. Although not a true giant, it was still a very good one! Line peeled from the reel as the sturgeon took almost 75 feet out in just one run. Daniel was enjoying fighting a big fish and also tiring at the same time. He did manage to reel almost all the line back to the boat just before the fish went into a crazy spiralling and tangled itself. Now he was bringing it in, backwards! I tried to untangle the line when he had it to the boat but it was all tied up. Instead I just netted his fish and unwrapped it in the net. This thing was still full of energy so I set it free to finish the fight.

Daniel was tired from the battle and his father decided to take the rod from him. All was good with the sturgeon wearing itself out enough to almost be netted one more time. Unfortunately this is where it went wrong! Ronnie allowed the fish to go around the motor and tangled the line in the ladder afterwards. By the time I saw what had happened, it was too late. The fish had snapped the heavy braid, leaving us with nothing. First time in all the years of fishing sturgeon fishing that this had ever happened! I didn’t want to continue after this and packed everything up and went for bass instead!

We spent several hours drifting deep water and everyone had lots of chances. Unfortunately due to many different reasons, only a handful of them were caught. Although the bass were a good size, they only managed to bring about 25% of them to net. We remained on this technique for a while longer and eventually went back to try for sturgeon one more time. The winds were still down and it was early afternoon but they wanted to give it another go!

I idled over the area and found a small concentration to set up on. It didn’t take long before one of the rods bounced and I was tight to a fish. I knew it wasn’t huge so I passed it to Wilma and instructed her on what to do. It fought like a big one, screaming line from the reel and even breached once for all to see! After 5 minutes or so she brought it close enough for me to net. Now she would have to hold it for the pics!

We shot several pics and Wilma released her fish to where it belonged. I still don’t know why anyone would kill one of these things! I tried for a while longer to see if we could get into more but without success. Time to pull the plug and go for another species, elsewhere!

There was limited time remaining in the day and I decided to hit an area that I hadn’t fished in a while. The winds were good enough for a drift and I was sure there would be fish there! Almost immediately, Wilma was into a good one but too much slack was in the line and she lost it as it took to the air. Ronnie locked up at the same time and he managed to bring in a jumbo perch. I was seeing all kinds of fish marking and made several passes over the area to see if they could get bit. They did, but almost all were either missed or lost! I dropped in quickly and also landed a jumbo perch! Kinda wish I had of kept the first one too!

In the last 15 minutes we drifted over a section that produced two more bass for Wilma and Daniel before we were done. I had arrived at this area a little too late as I wish I could have refined it a little longer. In the end we finished with a bang and I packed everything up for the run back.

Today was an interesting one with plenty of opportunities for everyone. They did manage to bring several of them into the boat though and that’s all that counts. In the end they left satisfied and landed some of the biggest bass they had ever caught, along with a couple of fish they had never seen. I call that another successful day of fishing!

Rich, Chabil & Kevin spent the day with me catching smallies. They had requested to remain on the bass so that was exactly what we did! From deep to shallow, we covered it all and they caught fish right until the last minutes of their fishing trip.

Rich & Kevin got the ball rolling early on the first drift over deep water. I had been catching good fish in the area and decided to give it a try. The winds were also more favourable than I had expected with the forecast of 20 to 40 km from the west. Fortunately we weren’t at that point yet and able to work the water properly! Their bass were decent but not the jumbo’s I was hoping for and were released quickly.

We made long passes in the deep and everyone caught bass on each one. Unfortunately there were more lost than landed, but that is almost always the case when people are new to this technique. Chabil seemed to be getting less bites but landing most of the ones he received!

After fishing the depths for a few hours, I decided to try some shallower areas and had them toss soft plastics for more bass. We made a run to an area I was sure would produce and both Kevin & Rich managed to get into a few smallies. Chabil wasn’t having much luck until he finally hooked a fish. To his amazement it turned out to be a walleye and was introduced to the livewell with hopes of others joining as well.

I had spent a while in the shallower water with limited fish bites and after Chabil landed another bass, decided to move back out deeper where I knew the better fish were. We spent the remainder of the day fighting both big waves and bass before we were done. On the very last drift, Kevin managed to bring a good one aboard that became our last pic of the day. We were officially done!

Today was a learning day for everyone as they got their first taste of vertical drop shotting in deep water. This wasn’t the power fishing that they were used to but rather a finesse approach to catching summertime smallies! Everyone had a great time and plenty of fish were brought to net, as well as lost! Hopefully the next time they are back it will be cooler and the fish will have moved back up shallow for them to catch. I know they are hoping for a more aggressive bite!!

Eric had two of his sons out with me today in hopes of getting Ernest into a birthday sturgeon. The conditions had taken a turn for the worse with big winds out of the NE blowing up current. I wasn’t sure if we would even be able to fish for these beasts! Holding in the rough water wouldn’t be easy but we headed there to give it a try!

As I neared the area, I was in big 2 to 3 foot rollers from the opposite direction of the current flow. The boat was literally spinning around and I needed to throw a drift sock to even partially straighten out. Once the lines were in, it was next to impossible to see the rods and as usual the junk fish nibbled us to death and I spent more time re baiting hooks than anything! In fact we ended up reeling in one of those pesky perch at one point!

I had made several moves trying to get away from the nibblers and finally found a spot where I was able to hold for more than 5 minutes. It was here that we managed to get an actual bite and when I reared back, I thought it might be a small sturgeon. Ernest reeled in something other than what we were after with a red horse sucker! Not the species I was targeting but a new fish for him!

I realized after much frustration that it wasn’t going to happen and finally decided to pull the plug on sturgeon. If it layed down later, we might try fishing for them again!

I prepped some drop shot rods and told the boys that we were going deep for the bass. They would be fishing for smallmouth and although tough boat control would be happening, I was sure that I could get it done! I explained to Ernest & James what to do and almost immediately they were both locked up! Both fish came off however when they gave the fish some slack line after they set into them. It was going to be a learning curve for sure!

Eventually they were able to keep some of the fish pinned but still continued to lose more than they caught. One of them was giving slack while the other was winching them in like they were reef fishing in 200 feet of water. Finesse was the name of the game and with a little more coaching they were finally able to start landing more than they lost. Both of them landed multiple fish in a couple of hours including some real quality.

Sometime around 2:30 the winds looked like they had diminished some and I thought we would give the sturgeon another try. Instead of prepping all the gear I first wanted to see if I could mark anything. As I idled to the area I noticed a boat fishing exactly where I had been catching them all week. I hoped that he wasn’t right where I wanted to scout but unfortunately he was bang on several of my waypoints. It turned out to be a previous client that had seen me fishing there and I was unable to even search anymore. It sucks when you’re trying to make a living, but what can you do! I pulled the plug before we even got started and went back to deep smallie fishing instead!

The remainder of the time was spent with the boys catching and of course losing more bass. They both added several more smallies to the numbers before we were done. Even their father Eric was able to drop a line in and catch a couple as well. Shortly before 4:00 we packed it up and headed back to take out.

Although I wanted to get the boys into big fish today sometimes Mother Nature has other ideas. At least I had a backup plan with the smallies! They had a great time despite the miserable misty rain we had on & off throughout the day. In the end they all caught plenty of quality bass to make this a memorable end to their vacation. The boys will be heading back home tomorrow but with any luck I may see them again this winter on the hard water as they are interested in ice fishing. Hopefully it will all work out!