The One That Got Away

We spent two days fishing, my husband being the best fish guide I've ever had in my life. He almost always finds a place to catch fish. I love that about him, but who wouldn't  like to have a guide that produces fish?  We were on the hunt for the ever elusive "river monster", the monstrosity of all monstrosity's, aka Lake Sturgeon.  These beauty's are prehistoric fish they were around with the dinosaurs, they are amazing!  They can grow to 6.5 feet, but have been found larger. The males can live to be 55 years old, while the females can live to be 150 years old. Lake Sturgeon put up a fight that can leave your arm muscles sore, and you find yourself winded IF you can manage to get one of these fighters in the boat! They have tough skin so it is hard to penetrate it with a hook when they do finally find your hook. 
Now that you have their facts, I'll tell you my story.
 My first fish was Friday night after sunset, and pretty dark.  I waited 3 hours for this one to find my hook.  I set the hook pretty good too, I fought him for about 5 min. before he decided to go down river.  My hubby pulled anchor and the chase was on!  My hubby really wanted me to get him turned around because we were headed towards the rapids and that's too dangerous to be playing with a fish in the dark.  I was having a hard time doing as requested, my fish had a mind of its own.  My husband was starting to get a little nervous about the rapids and decided to head for a bay about 20 ft in front of the boat.  He hit the gas and my line snapped abruptly!  I looked at my hubby with wild eyes.  Hung my head and had a small cry back up river. That sucked even he can tell you, that sucked.  Rule #1 you can not get bucky with these fish, they know how to break a line. These are by no means a "stupid fish".  They haven't lived to be that old because they were stupid.  My second fish was Saturday morning just after dawn, I set the hook pulled her up to the boat where she took a look at us, decided she didn't want any part of us and promptly headed downriver taking my line with her like it was a spool of thread.  "OK hon, lets go!" I yell with delight! My honey pulls anchor and nothing happened. I started to get worried my line was half gone, we were stuck on some rocks in the river!  My ever capable hero grabs the oar puts it on the rocks and gives a mights shove.  We were free and headed down river with out a minute to spare because my line being 95% gone.  He fires up the air boat and we follow her down and across stream.  I take back my line as fast as I can keeping tension on the hook.  "Don't get bully" my hubby reminds me. I make a small prayer to God that this fish is the required 60 inches to keep and that I get her in the boat.  We pull up to her, I hold the line taunt, my hubby holds the boat steady, she takes another look at us and still decides she wants no part of us.  Downriver she goes; its like she opened a parachute on the current, my reel screaming as she departs. "Now I know she's big enough", I happily report to my honey! He smiles and nods his head as we follow her, we pass her up, my honey circles her but decides to stay up river.  "Keep her away from the boat, she will use it to cut the line" my hubby advises me. Well that wasn't a problem because she turned around and headed upriver without missing a beat.  That was her fatal flaw, it wasn't long before she tired of that and headed back down. Where I pulled her next to the boat, my hubby gently coasted to the side of the river, banking us.  He grabbed her tail and pulled her in! "She's a fat beast" my hubby proclaims! "Must be 40 to 50lbs, no your last one was 40 and wasn't this fat, must be 50," he decides. We measure her, 59 inches. "Straighten her up" I'm instructed. We get 59.5 outta her.  I look at her, shes majestic, shes fat, shes got scars all over her, proving her rough and tough life style, her skull is cracked and healed over. The DNR put a transmitter in her fin, it was corroded from years in the river.  We decide to quickly get some pics for proof and get her back into the river. I can barely hold this river monster as my hubby takes 3 pics. I set her tail in, gently lower her in, look into her small eyes and told her Id like to see her again next year.  Away she went promising to not return for another visit.


Thank You God and Lenny

God isn't without a sense of humor, this beauty was just under my requested 60 inches.  We went back upriver, I prayed again for my fish.  I caught a snag, I tightened my drag wrapped my arm in the line and pulled to break the line.  As I'm tying the hook on, I'm praying with all my heart,"God please, I want this fish, I have to leave soon I promised to be back to make breakfast for the kids.  I have to leave at 10."  I throw the line in, the clouds are covering the sun.  I look up I knew then that the minute the sun broke the clouds my fish would be on, and my prayers answered.  Sure enough the sun broke, my fish was on! I brought it up quickly,"I think its a catfish, it's coming to easy" I said.  "No its a sturgeon, look how the line is moving,"stated the experienced fisherman. It surfaced.  It was a huge, at least 6.5 ft Lake Sturgeon! My eyes grew as I stared at this fish. I cry out, "Oh God Thank you!" Then my fish jumped and my line snapped.  We stare at the empty spot in disbelief.  My heart dropped, "this was my fault", I explain, "God gave me what I asked for but I wasn't prepared." I forgot to release the drag after I tightened it to break the line.  I messed up and as my hubby says "You will never forget the one that got away."