Got out yesterday morning for a few hours for my first try at a sturgeon for the year. I had invited my buddy Todd( a casual fisherman, primarily fly) along to try and hook him up with one, as I had been telling him what a blast they are to catch. It was a pretty slow morning, with only an average size channel cat and a bunch of sheepies to show for the early-mid morning bite. After a couple of moves, it was about 11:30 and we were getting ready to pack up and get a burger when the clicker started zinging on 1 of Todd’s rods. He didn’t have the drag set and wasn’t able to hook the fish, but his blood was pumping and it wasn’t hard to talk him into staying out a little while longer! About 5 minutes later, Todd says “I got a fish!” After a fun fight, a 10 3/4 pound channel cat was in the net!
Well, now Todd is pumped! I landed a nice 24″ channel shortly after that, then about 5 minutes later I felt a couple of bumps on my line and it was fish on! It came right up and jumped, then headed for the bottom. I handed the rod to Todd, telling him this was what he was here for! After a bunch of nice runs, with Todd laughing and saying “I can’t move him! I can’t do anything!”, a nice 39″er was on board. A couple of quick pics and back into water.
We packed up after that, as we had stayed out as long as we dared with work commitments looming for both of us in the afternoon. I think Todd has got the bug, as he is now asking me what rods to buy!
All the good fish came on fatheads and cut sucker, with only sheepies taking crawlers. I picked up a St Croix Triumph rod based on the recommendations here, and that’s the rod the sturgeon came on. What a set-up! I highly recommend picking 1(or 3) of these up! Light, with plenty of backbone.
Ingy
Nice kitty!
Sturgie!
p.s. Pay no attention to the background! If I catch you in my secret spot… 