Short Notice 1 Hr Cat Trip - Catfish & Sturgeon - Catfish & Sturgeon

Last week Chris Winchester at 4 Seasons sent a text message saying he was picking up some good size channel cats using crawlers on Pool 4.

This last Sunday I had plans of checking out some of the areas I fish getting ready for the guiding season, but I thought I would spend an hour to check out the bite Chris reported.

When I was backing the boat down the ramp at Everts, I saw Trumar and Ms Trumar on the dock fishing. I figured it wasn’t out of my way by much to take Ms Trumar along for the hour of fishing and then bring her back to the dock. I would leave Trumar on the dock looking for the elusive walleye/sauger and other fish that’s been populating that area.

Once anchored I tossed out 3 flavors of stink bait while Mary hooked up a crawler on the 4th rod. It didn’t take long for the tippy tap of a sheephead to snatch up the crawler. Then a small twoish pound channel came in and a 5 pounder came in shortly after that. All on Crawlers.

It was time to head in but I noticed the last section of a two part barge was just entering the lock chamber. I didn’t make sense to go in until the lock was free as I wanted to get into Pool 3. I figured we had another 35 minutes of fishing left.

I was telling Mary that since the only fish we caught came in on a crawler, it would seem to make more sense to switch all the rods over to crawlers or at least something else.

Shortly after switching up we had a good bounce on one of the rods. Mary spring out of her chair like she saw a mouse! The Team Catfish I-Cat rod bent over as she pulled the rod out of the holder and it was fish on! Moments later a fighting mad Lake Sturgeon broke the surface and landed again with a loud splash!

First Mary was on the ports side of the Lund, then the starboard side. “Who was in control? Take control of the fish Mary!!” I love saying those things because there is nothing a person can do to control a good size sturgeon.

We brought the fish aboard, took a weight (25), length measurement (47) and a few photos when I asked Mary if she would like to release her. I should have taken a girth measurement as she was a very plump sturgeon for the Mississippi River.
I was going for the camera to get a release shot when I spotted another rod bending over. Love those 3/0 Double Action hooks. They set themselves or the angler can set them if they like.

Mary did a fast release of the first sturgeon and grabbed the second rod just in time to see this fish come out of the water and air borne, she was obviously larger!

This 52″ sturgeon came out of the water 4 times total. The last time was right beside the boat and directly below me. Less then 2 more feet and we would have been nose to nose! Another three feet with a little more angle and she would have been IN the boat! I’m telling you, seeing the nose and whiskers of a fairly large sturgeon coming at you is not something I’ll for get for a long while!

This old girl went from side to the other side of the boat twice with the 80 pound Tug o War braided line hooking to the motor once. Mary? LOL! Mary was spent but still a trooper. I’ve caught sturgeon back to back before and someplace in the second fight your arms turn to rubber. But what do you do? Breath harder, laugh a little and when the fish heads to the bottom of the river again say…”Not Again!”

Lift and reel, lift and reel….then wait for the fish to stop pulling out line with the drag cinched down… start all over again. I kind felt sorry for Mary…NOT!

I had the honors of netting this girl and darn near screwed that up but we don’t talk about those things here.

Now the catch and release Lake Sturgeon season is closed until June sometime I believe on this section of the rivers so it seemed like a good time to pack up, get Mary to the dock and for me to get my scouting done. It was kind of a double bonus to me. Not only did I get my locations checked out but I know all my gear is ready for the flatheads this year.

On a side note, man is the water low for this time of year. Skinny water that normally have 5′ only had 2′ and sand bars have grasses growing on them. I would suggest checking out your favorite fishing area during the day to ensure you don’t end up stuck up the creek as I did…four times!

Thanks for the trip Mary and letting her out of your site for 2.5 hours Jeff!

It’s looking like it’s going to be a great flathead season this year and it’s time to start pitching out live bait. I can’t wait to hear the sound of the rod when the big old flat hits the bait!

THUNNNG!

Opps, that’s not the 5 pound channel or Mary wasn’t holding it out far enough!!