I mean, for my last 3 days of fishing

I never fish for Sturgeon this time of yerar, but I had heard about a bunch of them being in the CA Delta, close to my house, so its a good way to save gas.
On the first trip last week I saw several jumpers to 125 lb or so.
Then yesterday, I saw several more jump, also up to about 125 lbs.

So, after 3 days on the water, I finally stuck this one.... only 53" and about 30 lbs.... but I caught it on my micro-light Bluegill rod (on purpose) Had to throw the anchor rope (with a bouy attached) and chase it about 300 yards. 25 minutes later, I had it in the boat

Whoo Hoo !

Now, back today to stick one of those 125 lb'ers. Hope I stick it before 5pm, though, because one of those might take a few hours to land

Peace,
Fish

 

Wow, cool Chris, congrats.

PS-Who takes those pics when you fish/pose?

AND I have been reading some of your stuff/work on DPreview and got to wondering what is your current camera setup you use for like hummingbird shots? I recently bought a sigma 17-70mm lens for my digital rebel...I have along way to go to get to your skill level.

 

Congrats! I finally caught a couple decent channel cats this year already. I know they aren't nearly as big as that, but for around here i'd say they were decent. I caught one 10-12 pounder then another one that was about 8 pounds. Pretty good meat patties came off those fish. I want to hook into a flathead so bad this year, but we use stink bait and not live bait so that'd be almost impossible to do. I'd settle for a big ol blue cat though! But those 2 channel cats were enjoyable reeling in on a hand line. People catch big fish around here but mostly off trot lines, bank poles, limb lines, etc.

 

Lucky guy, Where I live, we have them, and they are illegal to fish for.

 

Wild lookin' fish, nice catch! I've seen those on fishing shows before, very cool.

 

Congrats on the fish, bigger fish are so much fun to catch

 

Holy cow! I gotta get back into fishing...

 

Congratulations! What took you so long? :j

 

and I have to tell you, I left a big ziplock bag of that fish (about 1/4 of it) in the Landlords fridge, soaking in milk overnight (which is a just in case thing... pulls out any possible muddy, or strong fish tastes) and when I got home from fishing today, my Landlord (who is Fiji Indian, and KNOWS how to cook fish) was cooking it up > and I swear, you absolutely could not smell fish whatsoever !
And the spicy cornmeal seasoning she used !!! OMG..... I swear, that was some of the best fish Ive ever eaten ! Comparable to Halibut, which I always say is my favorite.

It's really firm..... like say, tender, boneless Pork Chop... and almost a similar flavor to Pork too.

In fact, I was eating it while I was sitting here reading your replies

Something tells me, the rest of that fish will be gone very shortly

And our Sturgeon regs here in Cali, only allow us to keep 3 a year.... 2 if you want to keep catching and releasing them after that. So, only 1 more for me (for eating, that is). Oh, and they have to be between 46" and 66".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, but about today.... didn't get one. They were not even jumping as much today. Maybe because of this heatwave. But I did see one jump right behind the boat which was at least 125.... but maybe 150 ! ....and I'm sitting there with a Bluegill rod ! Doh !

Just let me stick a hook in one of those big suckers though, and I think I'll land it's *** ! Don't care if it takes 3 hours !

Peace,
Fish

PS, Hey Bayou, with a lot of my fish photos, I take them of myself, by myself, with a tripod and the self timer feature. My fish photo cameras are my Canon A 640, and A 650is. Love those cameras.
But with Sturgeon, (because of the difficulty in handling such a big heavy fish) its usually easier to find somebody in another boat... or at the ramp like I did with that one. That lady did a good job, huh ? I always say, just start clicking them off. No film... no developing... it's digital ! You can take a ton of shots, and it won't cost a penny

I haven't taken any real good Hummingbird photos for a long time, but when I was, I was using my old Fuji S7000. I dinosuar now, but it was one of the best 6 years ago.

 

At least it don't taste like chicken

Along time ago, I went Rock Fishing in the Monterey bay. It was allot of fun and even got tired reeling up 2 Cod at a time. But there was no fight to them at all. It was just allot of cranking the reel. 400 feet down is allot of line to pull up. I gave away over 200 pounds of Cod that day.
The biggest one I got was about 20 pounds maybe. But a guy next to me caught a Cow Cod, that weighed in about 60# maybe.
It was a great day fishing, but my stepson , was sick ALL day

 

A bluegill pole? I have a stupid question. How in the world would that fish not snap your pole in half? I know reeling in those 2 decent channel cats it felt like my pole was about to snap. It was hunched over pretty good. ANd they were a third of the weight and length of those fish! I mean a 125 pound fish on a bluegill pole! Hows that possible? I mean i understand you probably drift to the fish but still.

I bet its a thrill watching a 125 pound fish jump out of the water! We have those asian carp that get fairly big that jump out of the water but nothing like those things!

 

Hey 95'F-150, landing big fish on light gear is actually a very simple concept. You do it by way of a "clutch". That clutch on a fishing reel is called a drag system. It doesn't matter how big a fish is, or how hard it pulls, it can only build up a predetermined amount of pressure, and then the drag slips, and relives pressure, so nothing breaks.

Of course you can only let your drag slip, until you run out of line That's called, "Getting spooled". The way to avoid that, is to simply chase the fish.

You will probably be surprised to learn, that the world record Sail Fish, on > 2 lb test < is 103 lbs !

If you, or anybody here wants to see more about catching big fish, with micro-light gear, here's an article I wrote several years ago for my website: http://www.trophybassonly.com/id139.htm

Peace,
Fish

 

Ya i'mnew to the world of fishing but i tell you what I enjoy myself a lot when i'm out there on the river cat fishin. I've been fishing for 2 years now. I've not caught a "monster" pre say but I've caught several fish in these 2 years. But I'll learn more as i continue to fish.

 

Nothing better than a good fish story with pics. Nice catch Chris!

 

You need to catch one like this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti....html?ITO=1490