Wishing on a shooting star

[MuskieBait]

Michael and I drove many miles chasing after a dream, on an invite that a friend extended to us. Due to the preciousness of these fish and their threatened status across their range, much of the location detail has been withheld . Crossing the US border was rather interesting...luckily we came back in three intact pieces.

This will be relative brief for such an epic catch...

We were fishing for channel catfish over the weekend when my friend Eli caught a surprise Lake Sturgeon at this undisclosed spot.




On the second night...

Eli once again arrived at 8pm. After setting up, we sat around chatting. Eli got up to look into the darkness as I stared skyward admiring the constellations. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bright streak descended and disappeared behind Eli’s head.

“Shooting star!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, a bright one too.” Eli confirmed.

I swiveled my head toward the southern sky to wonder if I could find the origin of this celestial event. I just happened to look in the right direction when a second meteorite (or perhaps space junk) burned up brightly in the atmosphere.

“Another one! You know what I had wished for, right?”

“Haha, I think I had an idea.” Michael chuckled.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the bells on my rod shook with two violent rings and the bite alarm immediately beeped with a furious tone. The fish was already taking line out of the baitrunner on the hit. I grabbed the rod with lightning speed and the rod turned into a full arc. Woah!

I felt three big thumping headshakes as the fish ran off on the first run. Before I could even control the fish, it had already run into Eli’s line to my right. We were both fishing with braid and this turned into the scariest fight I had in a long time. My nerves were a big mess as I tried to play the fish gingerly to avoid any extreme rubbing of our tangled braids. In the dark, it was difficult to determine which line was over and which line was under, especially when the intersecting point was way out far. As if this was not difficult enough, my easing of the fight allowed the fish to run into Michael’s line. Now we had 2 lines of 50lb braid crossed with a 30lb mono. My chance of landing this fish looked more bleak by the second. Fortunately, the gentle hand on the rod helped to bring the fish close to shore rather successfully. With the tangle within headlamp illumination range, Eli and I managed to free our respective line. Michael’s line was still crossed with mine, but at least now I had more control of the fish. We were still wondering if this was a big channel catfish at this point since the fish did not jump and I couldn’t really feel the fight as well with the tangled line. Eli grabbed the net and got ready. He soon sound excited when he had first to glimpse the shark like tail of the sturgeon. With a little bit of tricky maneuvering of two lines, we finally had the sturgeon in the purse.

As soon as the fish was landed, I said to Michael and Eli “After seeing the shooting stars all I said was ‘Lake Sturgeon, Lake Sturgeon’. Unreal!!!”

Truly, I am not a very superstitious person, and wishing upon a star was often done humourously. As if catching a Lake Sturgeon was not spectacular enough, I managed to “wish” up my first sturgeon with double shooting stars. This made the catch even more unbelievable as this magical circumstance was likely once-in-a-lifetime, happily-ever-after fairy tale!





Stardust Sturgeon…my first Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)…species #275 with a story to be told for a lifetime. This was a long time dream come true...ever since DanTheMan and Rocky posted their awesome Lake Sturgeon catches!





Simply, simply unbelievable…speechless…jaw dropped…





Yeah, we also caught a lot of channel catfish, a few nice silver redhorse, a couple of walleye and even a couple of burbot!












But for me the Lake Sturgeon takes the cake!

And new species from Michael!!!

Silver Redhorse (It's okay Michael, the background is generic enough )





Walleye





Yellow Bullhead





Burbot





Plus lots of Channel Catfish by him too.

[Giuga10]

Wow!

A truly amazing report. The more fish I see you and Michael catch the more jealous I get I really need to go on a fishing road trip

Congrats on the Sturgeon and Michael A Walleye...... Finally Now it's my turn

Congrats on the fish,
Giuga10

[OldTimer]

Spectacular. I'm jealous. Well done.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[MuskieBait]

In terms of "epicness", I think Lake Sturgeon > Yellow Bullhead > Burbot > Silver Redhorse > Walleye. Yellow Bullhead is quite hard to find in Ontario. It would be very hard to accomplish that locally. Walleye...meh. All fish are equal...but...walleye is way too common here.

Michael did catch a sturgeon as well...he just didn't want to post the picture

Indeed it was spectacular. All first time catches are spectacular!

[Giuga10]

(10-23-2012 08:42 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  In terms of "epicness", I think Lake Sturgeon > Yellow Bullhead > Burbot > Silver Redhorse > Walleye. Yellow Bullhead is quite hard to find in Ontario. Walleye...meh. All fish are equal...but...walleye is way too common.

Michael did catch a sturgeon as well...he just didn't want to post the picture

Indeed it was spectacular. All first time catches are spectacular!

MICHAEL CAUGHT A STURGEON!!??!! Jealousy beyond belief . Why the heck would he not wan to share the pick??? It's a freaking Sturgeon were talking about.

And BTW I totally agree with you with the Yellow Bulhead rarity. I've been fascinated by those guys ever since I thought I caught one (you know what I mean if you remember my post)

Congrats again to you and Michael,
Giuga10

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BTW the Silver Redhorse image doesn't seem to be showing. I'd love to see a pic of one of those

Giuga10

[MichaelAngelo]

So the cat is out of the bag, eh? . Mine was just a baby anyways

Ken fixed the silver redhorse picture I see . That one truly was funny because I thought I had snagged a clump of weeds mid-retrieve. Totally a BONUS fish lol .

Yellow bullhead was very exciting and I also never expected a burbot. Ken was telling me he had only caught 1 so far and we know how hard Ken fishes .

[MuskieBait]

The one I'm holding is also a Silver Redhorse. Grey tail, convex dorsal fin and tall body profile = Silver Redhorse.

Michael was worried that he'll attract too much attention and people will start asking him information about where to catch these Lake Sturgeon. Being a helpful guy he is, maybe he feels he'll have a hard time saying "no" to people.

Honestly, we can tell you...but only after we've put fast acting poison in your water first. We'll tell you as we lower your dead body into the ground Eli shared with us his treasured location. We don't share it with anyone else. It's only respectful to Eli and the hard work he has put in to find and fish the location over the year. Plus, like I said, these fish are too vulnerable to "spread the word". Not everyone has the same fishing ethics and respect and care in handling for these majestic creatures.

He's also worried that by showing a Lake Sturgeon on his website, it may mislead people that it is okay to fish for sturgeon locally. However, for much of Southern Ontario the season is closed all year for Lake Sturgeon (ie, no targeting of sturgeon...people do catch them incidentally). Only in pockets of Northern Ontario are there areas with an open season for catch and release sturgeon fishing. Either that...or you travel to the US or Quebec where sturgeon fishing is allowed in some areas.

[MichaelAngelo]

MuskieBait Wrote:On the second night...

Eli once again arrived at 8pm. After setting up, we sat around chatting. Eli got up to look into the darkness as I stared skyward admiring the constellations. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bright streak descended and disappeared behind Eli’s head.

“Shooting star!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, a bright one too.” Eli confirmed.

I swiveled my head toward the southern sky to wonder if I could find the origin of this celestial event. I just happened to look in the right direction when a second meteorite (or perhaps space junk) burned up brightly in the atmosphere.

“Another one! You know what I had wished for, right?”

“Haha, I think I had an idea.” Michael chuckled.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the bells on my rod shook with two violent rings and the bite alarm immediately beeped with a furious tone. The fish was already taking line out of the baitrunner on the hit. I grabbed the rod with lightning speed and the rod turned into a full arc. Woah!

Make sure you guys get a load of that. Unbelievable fairy tale to Ken's first sturgeon. I was swearing in excitement, awe and disbelieve for like 10 minutes after that! It'll get me for years to come.

[Giuga10]

(10-23-2012 09:11 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  The one I'm holding is also a Silver Redhorse. Grey tail, convex dorsal fin and tall body profile = Silver Redhorse.

Michael was worried that he'll attract too much attention and people will start asking him information about where to catch these Lake Sturgeon. Being a helpful guy he is, maybe he feels he'll have a hard time saying "no" to people.

Honestly, we can tell you...but only after we've put fast acting poison in your water first. We'll tell you as we lower your dead body into the ground Eli shared with us his treasured location. We don't share it with anyone else. It's only respectful to Eli and the hard work he has put in to find and fish the location over the year. Plus, like I said, these fish are too vulnerable to "spread the word". Not everyone has the same fishing ethics and respect and care in handling for these majestic creatures.

He's also worried that by showing a Lake Sturgeon on his website, it may mislead people that it is okay to fish for sturgeon locally. However, for much of Southern Ontario the season is closed all year for Lake Sturgeon (ie, no targeting of sturgeon...people do catch them incidentally). Only in pockets of Northern Ontario are there areas with an open season for catch and release sturgeon fishing. Either that...or you travel to the US or Quebec where sturgeon fishing is allowed in some areas.

Don't worry I completely understand what you mean. I cherish my spots too .

Giuga10

[MuskieBait]

(10-23-2012 09:07 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  So the cat is out of the bag, eh? . Mine was just a baby anyways

Ken fixed the silver redhorse picture I see . That one truly was funny because I thought I had snagged a clump of weeds mid-retrieve. Totally a BONUS fish lol .

Yellow bullhead was very exciting and I also never expected a burbot. Ken was telling me he had only caught 1 so far and we know how hard Ken fishes .

Come on, it's so epic! You shouldn't hide the picture...be proud of it! Only a very few people can say they caught a Lake Sturgeon. And baby or not, it is a Lake Sturgeon. Rule #1 of lifelist fishing - it doesn't matter how big or small...all specimens count! Juveniles are just as good as an adult.

Yeah, the Silver was funny. I was very surprised that it didn't fight much. But then again, my own Silver did not fight much either. Weird...because they fought so hard in the spring time!

Yeah, and you caught TWO on one trip!!! I was going to kick your rod into the water...but then I remember you inherited my treasured Jigmaster and I just don't have the heart

I have been invited to a winter ling fling...so I'll update you can we'll see if we can catch some bigger burbot! I was told it is going to be an arm wrecking good time if we hit the right time.

Yeah, I do fish hard, eh? So many stories...like pulling buckets of salt and sand for 2km through the rolling Haliburton highlands just to get Kazu's Jeep out of a snowy ditch

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Ah, I see. The shooting stars are Orionids! That's awesome!!!