Strange Looking Musky

[fishboch]

So here's a funny little story to share with all of you ...

Went out fishing on the Ottawa last Wednesday night with Nacho in his new ride. Sweet little setup he has... makes me very jealous. He will have to post some pics of it on here.

Anyways, we headed out for our first musky hunt of the season together.
We had high hopes since we had perfect conditions, thunderstorms all around us and an approaching cold front. Figured the fish would be jumping in the boat. Not the case of course.

We trolled shallow, trolled deep, casted shallow, casted deep just couldn't get anything to hit or follow. Water was very high, the current was very strong and then the wind started to get very strong too.

Headed further downstream to try and get out of some of the current and started trolling again. We were getting tossed around pretty good but Nacho's new boat handle it like a champ, we were quite comfortable.

Finally around 10:00 pm my bait clicker starts to sing. Grab the rod to see if I hooked bottom. Nope, it's a fish and a good one. After a short battle I get him to the back of the boat. I get my headlamp on him and get a look at him and say to Nacho, "What the heck is that ?"

It had two big flippers at one end and was pointed at the other. We thought Gar ?, Bowfish ? Finally we were able to get it in the net and get a better look at it. Turns out to be a Sturgeon, with no tail. I had somehow hooked him by the back end so I brought him in backwards.

We took a few pictures but didn't measure him or weigh because we didn't want to hurt him and just wanted to get him back in the water.
We estimate that he was at least 48 inches long (and even longer if he had a tail ) and somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds.

Awesome looking fish but can't figure how I hooked him since they are bottom feeders. We figure with the high current and no tail he wasn't able to stay on bottom very well.

He wasn't the musky we were looking for but he's my PB and most likely only sturgeon I will ever catch so I was pretty happy.

As Nacho said you could tell by my sh*t eating grin.


http://s342.photobucket.com/albums/o407 ... isc079.jpg

http://s342.photobucket.com/albums/o407 ... isc081.jpg

[joco]

this is cool....wow.

man that sturegons is a one tuff fish..imagine swiming no tail..2 thumbs up for him..mabe got into accident wen youger,,tail cut by a boat prop or something helse.

thanks for sharing.

great report storys and pictures.

joco

[FishingIsHealing]

Very nice!

lucky to catch that prehistoric fish! haha

Someday i will catch one for myself!

Thanks for the pictures and great story!

Take Care!

==Tom==

[Nacho]

Great post Fishboch!

I'm just glad we happened to be rigged for musky that night, lucky thing because:

You were able to bring him in without overplaying, thanks to the heavy gear.

We had a big enough net to rest the fish for a while.

The knipex cutters were handy and we didn't have to do any soft tissue damage to set it free.

Lesson learned- be ready for anything, cause anything can happen...
What a night! Feel like I've seen my white buffalo for this season..

BTW, I'm still not talking to you..

Stay tuned for following posts from Fishboch this season- the way things are going for him, the next catch will be a unicorn that pee pee single malt whisky...
Nacho

[SALMON]

nice