Well, today I headed off to one of my favourite dog-days of summer hotspots. It is connected to lake Onatrio and holds a variety of lake fish year round, typically white bass, perch and drum in the summer, with trout and salmon in the fall. I started off with a typical pickerel rig with worms, and launched it out as far as I could. I caught a few white bass, a few perch, and a few small drum. It was almost 9am when my third of a worm got smashed! At first I thought it was a big old drum. It was giving some really good tugs, when suddenly a 4 foot fish flew straight out of the water, clearing it by a whole foot. I scrapped the drum idea, and decided it was a musky, pike or possible a sturgeon, but I highly doubted it was a sturgeon. The next 15 minutes was a grueling fight, filled with huge runs and sore arms. Everytime it got it a few feet from the pier, it would dash back to the bottom, pulling out 15+ feet of line each time. Eventually I was tired of the fish doing the same thing, so I buckled down on the drag and hoped for dear life that the 20lb power pro would hold up. Well it did, and out popped the most prehistoric beast I have ever seen in person.
The lake sturgeon was 40" and made a hole in my 70$ rubber net, but well worth it IMO.
Can't believe that the thing tried to eat a 1 inch piece of worm, and can't believe that a cheap #6 hook held up. The fish got a few pics and was released back to the deep very quickly. It was a ton of fun to fight these incredible fish, and also to see one for the first time. I really hope that these fish come back so that we can actually target these amazing creatures. The good news is, this isn't the first time a sturgeon has been caught there, there have been numerous catches and during the salmon run last fall at least 2 that I know of were caught and released.
Well thanks for reading!
