SteveM

They is jumpy li'l buggers, ain't they??? Nice!

Blimey, Monger! Those are slabs! Nice!!!

Sure is beautiful down there... Even the suckers are pretty! I took this sunrise pic on the way east Saturday morning...

Up.

Yeah, it's beautiful down there; like another world. Two of Dale's buddies camped down there from Tues-Friday. I watched one of 'em relocate a pretty big bull snake out of their camp; plenty of rattlers down that way, too.

Yeah, it was a blast. I watched my buddy land that 52"er last fall, so I knew they fought hard, but it doesn't really sink in 'til you hook a good one yourself. I can't imagine what an 80lber would feel like on the end of the line! Later in the summer the goldeye will move into the area we fish & start feeding actively; I'll definitely bring along the fly rod & have a bit of fun...

We were hunting these guys... Finally, I had one of those "moments" that Rickr talks about. I had a very subtle bite & set the hook, expecting another sucker or small sturgeon. Wrong. As I reeled down, my rod tip kept getting closer to the water, but the fish was NOT coming up! In a "moment", I knew I was hooked into the biggest fish of my life! I was using 50lb braid + 40lb leader & cranked that fish 'til I was worried about breaking my rod, and it still took 15 minutes to get him to the boat. Man, these fish are powerful!!! What a blast! Eventually, I got him to where Dale could tail him & hoist him into the boat...(you can probably tell from his grin just how much Dale enjoys helping a friend land the biggest fish of his life; he is a class act!) My 4 foot sturgeon... ...and, back you go... End of a fun day with a couple great guys; heading back up to the boat launch... I know it ain't fly fishing, but it sure was fun catching such a big, strong fish. I would have thought that a fish that size would have been fairly easy to land on such heavy tackle; not so much- these dinosaurs fight HARD! Going back for more on Saturday...

Sturgeon update: on Wednesday(May 9th), I joined my buddy, Dale, for another day of chasing these magnificent fish on the South Saskatchewan River near Medicine Hat. Another friend(Bill) joined us for the day. We landed a couple walleye, a whole bunch of suckers(I landed 2 at once at one point) and 11 sturgeon between 3 of us. Here are some pics from the day... Bill landed his first ever sturgeon... They have some cool, intricate patterns when you look close... Gotta handle the little ones carefully, or you'll get poked fulla holes... The suckers down there are much prettier than the ones we see on the Bow, and they aren't covered in that snotty, nasty, slime... Well, I guess they're only "pretty" from the gills down... Some of 'em get pretty big... ...but, we weren't hunting suckers...(continued...)

Don, if you're fishing directly below the water treatment plant when this occurs- you have been Poo-holed!!!

Pretty kewl. That's some nice looking 'bows; well done!

I thought you did the majority of your communication with just one finger?

Nicely done, fellas; looking forward to more vids from y'all.

Dayum, son! Very nice! That bull is gorgeous; fantastic colors. The video is well done, although the music right at the start made me consider turning off the sound; thankfully, it got better.

I pray to God you're talking about driving a vehicle...

Looks awesome, Peter. I'll bet it was even cooler than it looks; thanks for sharing!

BTW, Nate, I see you use Imageshack to upload your pics. Did you know you have a list of resize options? I pick "640x480(for message boards)" for pics I will post to forums. With your pics, it takes quite a while for them to load, 'cuz the files are so big; they have to be reduced to 14% to view on here. Wasn't sure if you were aware of the resizing option.

Great pics, Steven, as per usual. looks like you got a couple good 'uns! Nice!

Poor little malnourished fishies! Looks like a productive day, Nate; good on ya for braving the crap weather.

It's been a great couple weeks! Had fun fishing with Rickr, Robert & Derrick; thanks, guys!

More pics from the last couple weeks:

I netted this 22" brown for Rickr 3 weeks ago... Met up with him again on Friday when he ate my Ice Cream Cone Chronny on the swing... Lighting is different, but no mistaking the spot patterns. Maybe we'll meet again, someday... Rick's release... My release... He's still out there; maybe we'll meet again, someday...

Mouse. How was the fishing?

Just for the record, Ryan, we cycle in a new jack@ss or two every couple months... Sorry to hear about you getting the itch again; it's probably just from sweating a lot in your waders- have you tried Gold Bond powder?