Took a guy out named Vance on Sunday who has a kakak to introduce him to sturgeon fishing. A fellow kayak fisherman (and great sturgeon fisherman) whom I fish with fairly often named Brian showed up to fish as well. We started out fishing in the current trying to battle the wind (20+mph and swirly) but it was tough going with only a few shakers to show for our efforts.
Brian moved to a calmer spot and hooked up with a beast. Then being a great guy he handed the rod off to Vance. Not many folks would be willing to hand their sturgeon off from yak to yak!
The battle was on and it took Vance a good 1/2 hour to 40 minutes to land that beast, Here is Vance, wondering what the heck he has gotten himself into while Brian offers encouragement:
Brian with the grab:
Vance getting a kiss goodbye:
We tried to fish that area, but with no current and the wind whipping us around it just was not possible to fish effectively so we went back to fishing for normal sized fish. Vance hooking into his first solo sturgeon:
And the look of relief at not having had to battle another oversized
Besides reeling in the oversized Vance ended up catching a handful of sturgeon and said the day was an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Vance left in the early afternoon and I headed back to go fish in the harbor where I had marked a ton of fish earlier (but it was impossible to fish in the shifting wind with two kayaks hanging off of one anchor buoy). I found Brian there and he said that the bite was insane, nothing but keepers and oversized. I anchored up a short distance away and pretty much immediately caught a fat 49" fish.
After picking up 4 keepers from that spot the bite died (Brian had been on that spot killing them for quite a while before I got there). Brian went and took a bio break and I pulled anchor and moved a few hundred yards away and the bite was just as hot there, although there were a few shakers. Brian topped of the day with another 6 footer!!! I picked up another 4 keepers and a couple of shakers.
Brian left around 3:30 or so but I decided to keep fishing. I started casting where he had just pulled his anchor and man that was like a sturgeon magnet. I landed 3 keepers on 3 casts and never waited more than a few seconds for a bite. I swear on one cast a fish bit before it had even made it all the way to the bottom.
Then on the 4th cast I waited for a few minutes without a bite and decided to move. (How spoiled is that). It was a bit after 4:00 and I wanted to fish inside the harbor a bit before I left.
It was freaky. I anchored up and there were were so many sturgeon jumping around me that it was scary. A fish was jumping within casting distance about every 15 seconds. I caught a mix of shakers and keepers here with really fast action. I fished the area by moving my bait every 10 seconds. It almost felt like I was fishing a Carolina rig for bass. Pretty much every bite came right after a move.
This one was close to oversized but I could not get an accurate measurement:
This one was one of the fattest sturgeon I have ever caught for its size:
Finally I hooked an oversized:
I battled it for about 15 minutes before it snapped my line. Quite a few sturgeon had rolled up my line during the course of the day and I think that it was probably frayed and I should have re-tied several times during the day. By then it was about close to 5:00 and getting pretty dark so I pulled anchor and hauled butt back to the ramp.
Overall it was was probably my best day of sturgeon fishing ever - and my day sucked compared to Brian's
I probably ended up with 15 or so keeper sized sturgeon. I went through 36 baits (1/2 anchovies) counting the ones I shared with Vance. I would guess I used about 28 myself. I caught multiple fish on baits quite a few times. I would guess I ended up with 30 or more sturgeon on the day. Plus it was awesome to hook another kayak angler on sturgeon fishing!
I just have to end this by saying that I have never seen anyone do so well on the oversized as Brian did on Sunday. I bet he caught over a 100' of sturgeon yesterday. That is just downright insane, especially out of a kayak.
_________________
Fish tremble when they hear my name
A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928
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