The story starts with me finding a Lamiglas 7' BFC rod at Dick's for 129.97. The angels sang when I picked it up and I thought it would be a great gift for my wife to give to me on Christmas. I bought the rod, but when I decided to go fishing on the 23rd I asked my wife to give me my rod early. Turns out that Santa does not like that. The 23rd was a frustrating day on the water. I fished all day for 3 shakers, while watching Brian (minnowmagnet) land 27. I had plenty of bites, but I just could not seem to hook the fish.
When I got home I knew what I had to do. I quickly wrote an apology letter to Santa and express mailed it to the North pole. I begged forgiveness for using my present before Christmas and asked him to bless it with some good mojo when he stopped by Christmas night. I waited breathlessly when I heard him come down the chimney Christmas night, but let out a sigh of relief when I heard the door to the garage open - it was going to be all right.
On the 26th, I went back to Swan Island and it was a different story. In the first half hour I caught 2 shakers and 2 keepers. Here is a pick of my first keeper on the new rod:
That rod is a dream when it comes to fighting the fish. It has a much smoother bend progression than my tiger stik. The Lamiglas bends sort of evenly all the way down the blank. The tiger stik has a soft tip for the first 15" or so, but is a pool cue after that. The tiger stik is a fine rod, but man is the new rod sweet!
Anyway after that first flurry of action the bite just died for Brian (minnowmagnet) and I. He had caught 7 during that same period. After a bit we decided to move further out of the harbor. Boats closer to the mouth seemed to be doing well. I went all the way to the edge of the current where I marked a few fish. I dropped anchor, but Brian decided to look around further and eventually went back into the harbor to fish. I did not see him again that day, but he said he never found a really good bite back in the harbor.
I only fished this first spot for about 20 minutes. I did not get a bite there and was trying to decide what to do when I was visited by the tadpole of wisdom.
Seriously, a tadpole came swimming by right under the surface. Blew my mind. Well I decided it was a sign so I pulled anchor and headed down river. I looked for fish in all my usual spots but really was not marking much. I did not want to fish out in the main current because there was a lot of big wood coming down the river. I had pretty much given up hope of marking fish and was heading back up to the harbor when I marked a few fish in a spot I had never fished before. It was a big relatively shallow flay (35'). I decided to drop anchor and fish. Man was that fortunate.
That was the fastest sturgeon fishing I have ever had. As soon as I dropped down I would get bit within 30 seconds or so. I ended up catching 30 fish from that spot in a little less than 4 hours. I caught 22 shakers, 6 keeper sized and 2 oversized from that spot. It was just bam, bam bam. The fish were fighting so hard it was a blast:
Here is the 5.5' fish pulling me upriver into the current at 1.6mph. I love the way that Lamiglas cushions the fight.
Here is a crappy picture of the 5.5' fish:
Here is a close up of the 5' fish:
I also had about the strangest sturgeon bite ever. I felt tap, tap tap and then nothing. The tension went out of my line so I started reeling. I could not get the slack out and as I reeled I noticed the line angle getting shallower and shallower. When I got tight on the fish it was right under the surface and did this tail walking kind of jump when I finally got the line tight and the hook in the fish. Totally bizarre!
As the day was winding down the bite never dwindled. I was hoping to get to 40 fish for the day but could not quite get there. It was getting to be close to 4 so I knew I had to leave soon since it was a 1/2 trip back to the ramp in the kayak. I said last cast to myself and lobbed the anchovy chunk into the muddy water. A few seconds later I feel the tap, tap, tap and when I tighten up to set the circle hook I knew I had another big fish. Unfortunately, after a 20 minute battle my line snapped. I definitely should have retied with so many fish rolling up my line! Hard to do it though when the bite is so hot.
Well, it was getting late and I hate to end on that kind of note so I quickly re-tied for one last cast. I was rewarded with this big keeper to end the day:
So the moral of the story is two-fold. First, don't try and short cut on Santa. Second, always listen to the tadpole of wisdom
_________________
Fish tremble when they hear my name
A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928
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