Live Release of The Beast

Zach, Andrew & Gabe wanted to fish for sturgeon today and what a day it was. We went to the area that had been putting out big fish and it was a waiting game. The junk fish and gobies totally destroyed me causing so many moves throughout the entire day. Despite seeing all kinds of fish on the sonar, I was forced to relocate at least a dozen times before we actually got our first bite. Hunting these big dinosaurs requires patience and these three had it in spades!

We had been fishing for over 6 hours when I actually saw one of the rods begin to bounce. I thought I was just imagining but when I picked it up, I still felt the bite. As I reared back it was dead weight and I immediately knew that this was the fish we had been waiting for! These guys had picked a rod at the start of the day and Andrew had just won the lotto! I passed it off to him and readied the area for the battle. Within minutes, the beast took to the air and I knew it was going to be a long fight. She was a giant! Many runs were had and one other breach was made with everyone watching in awe. Each time he thought he was gaining, the sturgeon took out more line with another run. This went on for over ten minutes before it started to show signs of tiring. Andrew fought it great and after remaining on the bottom, under the boat, for another 5 minutes, he finally managed to bring her to the surface. As I slid the net under his fish, a sigh of relief was had by all as this was the biggest thing they had ever seen on the end of a line.

All three of these guys held the fish for the pics and then something different happened for the release. Zach had said at the beginning of the day that he wanted to do a live release in the water with the fish, if we caught a big one. With the temps being 77 degrees, I had no issues with that and he jumped in and held the sturgeon by the tail. Soon after he was going down with the fish and literally swam with it as she headed to the bottom. What a great release!

We set up for the remainder of the day once again and unfortunately that was the only legit bite we had today. If you’re only going to get one, that’s the one you want! It may have been slow but hunting big fish is sometimes like that. I was focussing on larger marks on the bottom and eventually one of them made a mistake and ate. These guys wanted big fish and that’s exactly what they got! A true river monster! It may have been a slow day but catching that one giant made it all worthwhile and the release was spectacular. It was a slow, but very rewarding day!