bass
I decided water conditions were pretty good for trying the upper river for sturgeon again. Apparently the sturgeon did get the memo. I got to Rogers Landing around 8am on Sunday. The forecast was for some fairly stiff wind but conditions were not too bad so I was pretty happy. Turns out the happiness was short lived, the area around the ramp was pretty well shielded from the wind, but up by Ash Island it was quite windy and gusty. The wind was blowing pretty much straight upstream and there were small whitecaps everywhere. Wind was stiff enough that it was stronger than the current and blew my kayak upstream around my anchor line.
Even though the wind made things kind of difficult since the kayak was getting tossed around quite a bit. I had to hold the rod to keep the line taut, but not jerking the bait around. After about 5 hours of that with only some pikieminnow bits to show for it. I decided to perhaps call it a day. I headed back down to the launch it was really nice there. I pedaled around looking for any sign of fish in the deep hole down near the plant but I did not mark any fish. Since that area has a bouldery anchor eating kind of a bottom I am always hesitant to anchor up there.
However, since it was calm there I thought that the wind had died down, rather than just being shielded by it. I decided to head back upstream since I assumed it would be calmer there now. About half way up I realized I was wrong but just kept going anyway. I had brought some bass gear and decided to try on the side Northern side channel around Ash Island. However, it was hard to find an area that looked fishy and was not windy. I probably cast for 1/2 hour or so, but I was fishing so inefficiently that I decided to go back and try for sturgeon a bit more.
I anchored up below Ash Island and just got pikieminnow bites. Finally, I was so bored that I reeled in my sturgeon rod and rigged a light spinning rod with a weight and a worm. I have to say I am amazed at how thick the pikieminnows must be below that island right now. Even though with the wind and the waves it was tough to tell it seemed like the worm would hit the bottom and within seconds I would have a bite and usually would reel in a fish. A bunch of times I thought I had not gotten a bite and when I reeled in there was a fish on.
No wonder it is stuff to catch a sturgeon in that area, the bottom must seem like it is paved with food from their point of view. Just crazy how thick the fish were. I thought about hacking one of the pikeminnows and tossing it out on my sturgeon rod, but I was having fun catch fish after fish so I decided I would save that experiment for a day when the wind was not so troublesome.
As I was loading up the kayak and young couple who had been shore fishing walked by and the young man had a nice smallmouth! I think my takeaway from the day is that I was stupid to try and fish in the worst part of the wind. I certainly could not have caught less sturgeon down by the plant (out of the wind) and I would not have felt so beat up by the end of the day. Also, I should have taken some time to do some bass fishing down in that area since I would not have spent the entire time trying to control the kayak rather than fish.
When I was growing up the Pittsburgh Pirates had a radio announcer named Bob Prince, once of his quotes when the Pirates were on a losing streak was "The longer you go on losing the closer you are to winning". That is certainly my motto right now. Some day I will figure out those upper river sturgeon, and with each failed trip just fueling my desire even more that first one is going to be really sweet!
Even though the wind made things kind of difficult since the kayak was getting tossed around quite a bit. I had to hold the rod to keep the line taut, but not jerking the bait around. After about 5 hours of that with only some pikieminnow bits to show for it. I decided to perhaps call it a day. I headed back down to the launch it was really nice there. I pedaled around looking for any sign of fish in the deep hole down near the plant but I did not mark any fish. Since that area has a bouldery anchor eating kind of a bottom I am always hesitant to anchor up there.
However, since it was calm there I thought that the wind had died down, rather than just being shielded by it. I decided to head back upstream since I assumed it would be calmer there now. About half way up I realized I was wrong but just kept going anyway. I had brought some bass gear and decided to try on the side Northern side channel around Ash Island. However, it was hard to find an area that looked fishy and was not windy. I probably cast for 1/2 hour or so, but I was fishing so inefficiently that I decided to go back and try for sturgeon a bit more.
I anchored up below Ash Island and just got pikieminnow bites. Finally, I was so bored that I reeled in my sturgeon rod and rigged a light spinning rod with a weight and a worm. I have to say I am amazed at how thick the pikieminnows must be below that island right now. Even though with the wind and the waves it was tough to tell it seemed like the worm would hit the bottom and within seconds I would have a bite and usually would reel in a fish. A bunch of times I thought I had not gotten a bite and when I reeled in there was a fish on.
No wonder it is stuff to catch a sturgeon in that area, the bottom must seem like it is paved with food from their point of view. Just crazy how thick the fish were. I thought about hacking one of the pikeminnows and tossing it out on my sturgeon rod, but I was having fun catch fish after fish so I decided I would save that experiment for a day when the wind was not so troublesome.
As I was loading up the kayak and young couple who had been shore fishing walked by and the young man had a nice smallmouth! I think my takeaway from the day is that I was stupid to try and fish in the worst part of the wind. I certainly could not have caught less sturgeon down by the plant (out of the wind) and I would not have felt so beat up by the end of the day. Also, I should have taken some time to do some bass fishing down in that area since I would not have spent the entire time trying to control the kayak rather than fish.
When I was growing up the Pittsburgh Pirates had a radio announcer named Bob Prince, once of his quotes when the Pirates were on a losing streak was "The longer you go on losing the closer you are to winning". That is certainly my motto right now. Some day I will figure out those upper river sturgeon, and with each failed trip just fueling my desire even more that first one is going to be really sweet!
