Mark with his first shovelnose!
It started out a cool, foggy, humid day, as the three of us headed out into
the flooded boat launch. After driving through eight inches of water to finally
arrive at the boat launch we get our day started. The great river with all its
power and might had in many places overcome the weak banks and sandbars
that day. Being only the second boat at the launch, we knew it might be a
challenge to catch fish, but never the less a challenge we were ready for.
Jeff's first Sturgeon also
After fighting our way through the heavy current we made our first stop at a
sandbar. Much of the natural vegetation was submersed due to the extremely
high water. We pulled up on shore and began fishing the eddy the swift current
produced on the back side of the island. Within a few minutes we had our first
fish on, a nice legal sized walleye, and after 45 minutes we caught several nice
game fish. After deciding to keep one fish for a shore lunch, we began our
voyage upstream.
Brian with a striper, and my first shovelnose
We motored about 2 miles upstream, to the next surviving sandbar. This
island also had a beautiful eddy behind it, which turned out to be very plentiful
with fish. We started gathering wood to cook our recent catch, when we had
our first fish on. It was a shovelnose sturgeon, measuring about 30 inches,
while Brian caught a striped bass. The first fish was caught, and the fire going,
getting ever closer to lunch, and an unexpected storm, the fishing picked up.
Within the hour we caught 5 sturgeon total, and a few other less desired river
inhabitants. Once the rain picked up, so did we, deciding to head back several
miles to the boat launch.
Brian and myself with two more shovelnose
