There’s something surreal about getting a round of applause from about 50 people after landing a fish.
This was definitely a trip of a lifetime. I decided to head up to Montreal one last time before winter rolled around, and this time I wanted to spend 2 days. I booked my bus tickets, booked a cheap hotel for the night, and set off. My plan was to soak some worms for anything that wanted to bite and do some walleye fishing in between. The first morning started hot as I quickly hooked into 2 channel catfish. One came off halfway into the battle, and one was too big to hoist up the 30 foot wall I was fishing from. After a while I had a few small sturgeon that took the bait. It got cold after a few hours and I decided to switch locations to a spot where I would be more sheltered from the harsh wind. Previously, this spot had been very productive for walleye.
This time it was not, and I spent many hours aimlessly casting my baby whale with no bites, but finally, it happened. I got a huge hit just a few feet out from shore and the fish took off. I had a cheap eagle claw hook and knew that I was in for a battle. The fight was intense, and I thought I had hooked a sturgeon. After the fish pulled me back and forth along the rocky bank, he finally surfaced. It was a huge striped bass! My new official PB coming in at 7lbs! Like expected, this fish bent my hook out. I put some worms out once again after another hour of no bites and quickly hooked into a few small sturgeon before sunset.
The next morning, I hit the road (bike lane) bright and early to meet up with a fellow FishAngler user, Gino Rosauri. He showed me his secret to catching sauger and graciously gifted me some of his successful soft plastics. Sure enough, they worked! It took a while but just as he was leaving I pulled in a little walleye!
I decided to head back to the spot I started the trip at to get another shot at a channel catfish. But the first step was getting some worms which I ran out of the day prior. After 15 miles of biking around the city looking for night crawlers, I came up empty handed. It is far too difficult to find worms in this city… But, I had an idea. I grabbed some powerbait (first time ever doing so) and set out to catch a goby to use for bait. I headed to a spot where I caught some about a month ago and managed to get a few takers. I cut them up, and chucked a piece out into the depths of the Saint Lawrence River.
After a cold 2 hours of no bites, I started to lose hope, until finally I had a bite. It was a big channel catfish. This time, a group of bystanders helped me land this one by holding the rod as I slowly hoisted the beast up the 30 foot wall. I did not get a measurement on this fish, but I suspect it could have been a personal best.
Another hour passed and I had another taker. This time the bites were small, which is characteristic of a sturgeon. I set the hook and… I couldn’t move it. After a couple seconds of pulling on what felt like the bottom of the river, I felt a ginormous head shake. I knew it could only be one thing. It was a long, slow battle, of making ground and losing my progress with each slow run the fish took. After about 10 minutes, the fish finally surfaced. It was a monstrous sturgeon. I knew I was doomed looking down 30 feet at a fish that I thought couldn’t be landed. I remembered that there was a set of stairs that led down to the water level somewhere near by and I started meticulously directing the fish towards it. After a quarter of a mile walk (yes I measured it on Google maps), I came to a halt. I could not drag the fish any closer to she stairs as a dock connected to the wall stood in my way. This was going to take more than one person. A man that had been watching the fiasco seemed interesting in helping me land this fish, so I asked if he could hold the fish in position while I managed my way onto the dock. I coached him and gave him a breakdown on what to do and how to guide the fish towards my hands once I was down there. Once he agreed, I took off, sprinting almost another quarter of a mile to the steps that led to the dock. Once the man came into view, I could see the bend in the rod and knew that he had been successful at keeping the fish in place. He guided the fish to my hands with extreme precision, and I landed the fish of a lifetime. A sturgeon that I believe to be every bit of 40+ pounds. I quickly got my picture and released him back to the depths. This was the fish I had been after every single time I took the trip up to Montreal, and I had finally accomplished my year long goal. After releasing the fish, I was met with a round of applause from about 50 bystanders who had stopped to watch some kid run around like an idiot to land his fish.
(This was a long write up but words can’t describe how epic this trip was. Now onto the lakers!)
