SturgFest 2010

A couple of thursdays ago, after work I raced home to see my beautiful boat hooked up to my dads truck awaiting my arrival.  I hurried up and threw all my stuff in his truck and we were off to Seans to pick him up, then when the other boat showed up, we were northbound!!

Our destination was Baudette, MN to fish the Rainy River for the massive, super strong sturgeon!!  It was our third year on this expedition and let me tell you that each and every year has been completely different!!  Our first year we had slow currents, cold water temps and MANY MANY FISH!!  Last year we had very cold air temperature, high water, extremely fast currents and tons of debris and ice flowing down the river, along with not as many fish, but many very large ones.  Well this year we were welcomed with 30 mph wind the first day, then no wind the next 2 days and upper 60 degree air temps and upper 50 degree water temps.  Which is almost unheard of for this early!  The currents was even slower than the first year and the fish were everywhere.  50 to 60 inchers were surfacing all over, the graph was constantly full of huge arcs!  But they had a severe case of lock jaw all weekend!!  We caught fish, but for the amount of big ones we were seeing swimming around the boat, it was obviously they had other things on their mind other than eating.  Was it the high water temps, the lack of any wind most of the trip, the mini cold front that came through the day before we arrived???  We will probably never know, and that is sometimes the largest mystery of fishing, WHY WON"T THEY EAT???

Well the first morning started out very slow! It was almost noon before our first fish was in the boat, just a little one.  But we received a call from the other boat and they also caught there first fish, a 30 inch walleye grabbed on to their ball of crawlers!  Finally we started hoisting a few more fish, but the size just wasn't there.  Day 2 provided a pretty good morning with over a dozen before 11, but then the wind died and boy did it ever die down!!  We sat, baking in the sun, shirtless with our pants rolled up floating around on the massive mirror of 4 mile bay!!  Not even a ripple for the rest of the day and the fish followed the wind and died at the same time!!

Day 3 we were just planning on fishing the morning and then heading back to good ol' Waconia.  I started out the day with 5 fish in the first few hours, while Sean and my dad were still at zero.  Sean finally picked one up and we were on our way to the access and called it a year.  We still managed about 30 to 40 sturgeon for Sean, My dad, and I over the 2 and a half days, but the size just wasn't there this year.  I had a few over 40 inches and so did Sean.  Our boat didn't have a fish over 50, but Brian from the other boat managed a fat 57 incher.  Along with his walleye, he won both bets for largest sturgeon and largest "nonsturgeon fish." 

As with any fishing trip, I still had a blast and everyone else did too.  We laughed ourselves crazy each and every day and night!  Just being out on the water with friends and family is more than enough for me, the fish are just a bonus!  But I like the bonuses a lot!! Haha!!  I can't wait until SturgFest 2011 for probably another completely different trip that is successful in its own different way!  Thanks everyone for enjoying the outdoors as much as me!!  Until next time, Keep Livin' Your Dream!!