Epic Sturgeon Trip!

[DTro]

I've been heading up to the Rainy for the past 7 years. Some years a little better than others, but this year completely blew the rest right out of the water.

We had planned on heading up last weekend, but decided to postpone a week due to the weather forecast (had planned prior on timing the weather if possible).

We decided that even though the Wheelers Pt access had just opened up, that we would try and head up river a ways. Less than an hour with baits in the water and it turns out our biggest fish of the entire trip was being hoisted into the boat. A fatty 67x28!

did that just happen? LOL

After that there was a bit of a lull during the midday, but as soon as that sun hit the horizon...BAM literally one after another until we decided we had enough for the night. It was absolutely amazing and easily 30-40 total fish with 20 over 50". We took some pics when we could but it was total chaos for most of the night.

The rest of the trip was pretty much identical to that first day. A few spread out over the entire day, sun goes down and mayhem ensues. It got to the point we were trying to shake off anything under 60 and didn't even bring them in the boat.

Each morning I awoke with new bruises on my hip from the butt of the rod and feeling like I just had rotator cuff surgery on my shoulder. It was a good pain though.

Fathead/Crawler combo was our bait of choice.

I can't tell you how many fish we caught because we completely lost track, (I would estimate around 80) but I CAN remember that the total over 60 was 7. It's pretty cool when everyone in the boat said they got a 60 for the trip, but even cooler when you can say everyone got multiple 60's.

I suspect the fishing will be good for a while yet, if you can get up there DO IT! And.... I would highly suggest doing the opposite of everyone else. In other words find your own area away from people and sleep during the day and fish all night.

My theory is that the river is so low, slow, and clear, that the bright sunny days really shut them off. To be honest we put in a TON of hours and the daytime bite really sucked. But waiting paid off.

Still witnessed a A LOT of poorly handled fish during our trip. Sometimes guys spending as much as 15 minutes hoisting, hanging, gilling, dropping, measuring, high fiving, phoning, etc ect BEFORE releasing the fish. As tough as these fish are, you still have to remember they are a fish, and will die if kept out of the water and banged around in the boat. A little preperation and a large net go a long way.

(Okay....off my soapbox)

Once again, the highlight of my year!

[Surface Tension]

WOW!

[TruthWalleyes]

Dang boys! That's a trip! Congrats on the monsters!

[maxpower117]

Great Trip. Thanks for sharing.

Quote:

Still witnessed a A LOT of poorly handled fish during our trip. Sometimes guys spending as much as 15 minutes hoisting, hanging, gilling, dropping, measuring, high fiving, phoning, etc ect BEFORE releasing the fish. As tough as these fish are, you still have to remember they are a fish, and will die if kept out of the water and banged around in the boat. A little preperation and a large net go a long way.

(Okay....off my soapbox)

Please don't hesitate to keep reminding everyone. You always give great info and do it as tastefully as possible. The Facebook post a while back drew some negative feedback, but at least it drew attention to the problem.

I also appreciate that you don't even bring the smaller fish in the boat. I do the same.

Do you also pinch the barbs off your circle hooks? make unhooking sooooooo muhc easier and there is virtually no risk of losing a fish. I don't even know whey they put barbs on them anyway.

[fishuhalik]

Darn good trip Darren!! What depths did you find them at this time in relation to the pool you were fishing?

[Sackett]

What time frame did you fish from after the sun went down?...... its been noticeable to me the bite picks up late afternoon on through the evening normally but I've never fished after dark.

[DTro]

Here's a video of our trip.

It sounds like the river is settling down a bit up there and clearing up which should help the bite for a short window of some C&R fishing before the season closes for a while.

If I was heading up there soon I would be heading East toward the forks.