We had a few other nibbles but no takers. Then at 5 am, the words I didn’t want to hear were said. “Brian,” Paul said “let’s give it 15 more minutes and call it”. I started packing up shop.
17 minutes later… one of the rods went tap tap tap. Paul picked up the rod and started reeling. Alright! No matter what size or what it was…it’s a good way to end the night.
As I was getting the net, I recall Ron asking Paul how big he thought it was. Paul said, I’m thinking about 10 pounds.
As he was reeling and with the fish getting somewhat closer to the boat, I noticed the St Croix Premier rod was bent pretty good, more than the normal trophy 20 pound channel, or even a 50 pound flathead. Paul was putting some muscle into bringing her in. It was at this time, I sounded the alarm to go to battle stations!
Ron reeled in the line that had the bullhead on and put that rod out of the way. I jumped the gun by about 20 minutes when I grabbed the net. The fish was nearing the boat.
That’s when I heard the 80 pound PowerPro running through the guides….non stop! There wasn’t much any of us could do. Paul was just hanging on…and smiling! I reminded Paul a couple times to make sure he kept the fish from going into the anchor rope….too late!
I lifted the river anchor up until I could see the four wraps of PowerPro around the rope. Ron was assisting by wrapping up the loose anchor rope on the rope keeper. Then together Ron and I circled the PowerPro with the end of the rope and keeper. Success!! In came the anchor. The only other hazards were the two lines out on the other side of the boat. Too late! One line stayed clear, the other ended up going from the rod underneath the boat and tangled with Paul’s line.
The team went to work again, Ron and I managed to get the wrapped line out of the way and it was back to watching Paul struggle trying to get the fish closer to the boat…all the time smiling.
The monster fish surface about 30 feet from the boat for the first time. I don’t think any of use were prepared to watch a submarine surface.
Once the Lake Sturgeon was to the side of the boat, I thought for a moment I could net her, but quickly realize it’s not going to happen. I called for the IA team member Ron to come to the side of the boat. With a bit of instruction, Ron grabbed hold of he tail and then supported tail section while I had both of my arms around the area just behind the gills. On three! 
She came in at 65 inches long with a 23 inch girth. I’ve seen a lot of Lake Sturgeon from the St Croix and Mississippi Rivers and this old lady was filled out much better than the normal sturgeon. She was thick!
There wasn’t anyway to get a weight on her unless I placed a scale in her mouth or gills. That wasn’t going to happen. Besides, I don’t think I could lift her high enough to get her tail off the floor.
We quickly shot bunch of pictures and back over the side of the boat she went. Once in the water she wanted to take off right away, but I held on to her tail until she was ready to go…15 to 20 minutes later. This is about the time Paul’s legs stopped shaking.
What a way to end the night…or start the day depending on how you look at it. 
Paul and Ron, it was very fun fishing with you even when it was slow. I think you’ll be showing that picture to a lot of folks and that memory should last you a life time!
Sometimes it does take a team to land a fish!!
