Finally, the ice has melted enough to allow for some great kayak fishing on the lower Kennebecasis River, so what better way to break in the Spring with some great sturgeon fishing! There is still lots of ice in the river, and several blocks floating around, but nothing to pose too much of a danger, assuming of course you don't fall in!
After getting the Old Town Predator PDL to the shore and loaded up I was finally ready to take off! I headed up past the mouth of the Hammond looking on my Humminbird Fish Finder for some sign of sturgeon. While I didn't see any right at the mouth of the Hammond today, it wasn't much further that the first school made an appearance. Time to fish!
I was able to put in and spend about 5 hours on the water today, and in that time I was able to land an impressive 17, (or was it 18?) sturgeon and lost a few more at the water's surface. Overall the size was impressive with many in the 36 - 42 inch range, and the largest being about 46". I didn't bother to measure any but am pretty confident the biggest one would have been a little short of four feet.
The highlight of the day was when both my rods bent over, each with an impressive sturgeon on the other end. The number one thing to do in this situation is to not let the fish tangle up in each other or the anchor rope, which isn't always easy! Fortunately, I was able to boat the smaller of the two (about 36 - 40 inches long), before then bringing the larger one, my largest on the day aboard.
Here is a video showing several of the great fish that I was able to land today. It was a real struggle to get both of the big sturgeon from the double header to line up for a nice pic, and you can probably tell how tired I was after all that! Of course all sturgeon went unharmed back into the water ready to be landed again perhaps next weekend! The Spring season won't last long, if you want to get out on a guided kayak fishing adventure and catch some of these great fish, be sure to let me know soon!
wow, congratulations! your sturgeon is beautiful! I am wondering which fishing reels you are using for this fishing trip. I searched on google for that, and found some fishing reels review which may be useful, any suggestion?
ReplyDeleteThank you. I tend to use low profile baitcasters, typically Abu Garcia brands. I find when using two rods at a time as I do, low profile baitcasters are easiest to manage, and it is easy to use your thumb to provide additional drag where needed.
DeleteThe biggest thing is the strength of line. For those bigger sturgeon which can get up to around 30 lbs or more, you need line that can handle the weight. I use 40 - 50 spiderwire braid with 40 - 50 lb mono leaders.
With reels set in this way, I typically do not use them for anything other than sturgeon fishing.
Tides are extremely important in targeting the species of fish that I prey upon especially in the environments that I locally zone. Whole feeding chains in my local ecosystems are based on the tidal movement. I live in the California Delta and plan all of my local fishing trips around tidal movement.
ReplyDeletegoldenslot