Ed Kandow lands trophy sturgeon on Black Lake
Ed Kandow of Posen managed to single-handedly spear and land a super-sized sturgeon that was bigger than himself Monday afternoon. He almost didn’t get the chance to catch his fish because he was not aware that his name had been drawn in the lottery.
“I didn’t know I was drawn until Monday morning, they had called me Saturday but it was on my recorder and I was gone. My draw was for Monday,” he said. According to the rules, if fishermen don’t claim their tags by 10 a.m. on the day of their draw, a second draw is conducted among the people on hand. People show up every morning just for that reason.
“IF I HADN’T been there at 10 o’clock, I would have lost my tag and I just made it! So, as soon as I found out, I had to get a shanty but I couldn’t get ahold of Gil Archambo because he was working. I always fish in a shanty I rent from Gil. I’ve fished around there off and on for years,” Kandow explained.
“It took us a while to find the shanty. We kept circling around out there for more than an hour. The fog was terrible, you couldn’t see anything, everything was white. It plays tricks on your mind out there,” he said. “We were almost on top of the shanty before we knew what it was. Normally it’s not that bad, but they said it was the worst fog they had ever seen on the lake,” he declared.
Kandow finally got into the shanty around noon. He was only on the ice about two hours when the behemoth swam into view. “I could see the bottom pretty decent, there was only 16 feet of water under me and there was plenty of light. I could see really well,” he said. “I hadn’t fished that same exact spot before but I fished the lake in the past. About 20 years ago, I got one that was 46 pounds and about 52 inches.
“When I saw this one, I didn’t have time to think, it was pure instinct, I just grabbed the spear and let ‘er rip. The spear was probably 18 inches wide with seven tines and weighed about 35-40 pounds.
“I FOUGHT FOR 15-20 minutes. Once the dirt settled and everything, I could see I stuck him pretty good. Until then I wasn’t sure, because I couldn’t see though all the mud he stirred up so I was treating him real delicately because I didn’t want him to shake off. “Once it cleared up and I could see I had him and I fought to tire him out. After he tired I started bringing him up to the surface but every time he came near the top he headed for the bottom again.
“Finally he started to tire but I had to get him turned around to face the opening because he kept going in the opposite direction. “That’s when it got really rough. I got the spear stuck. I had him part way out of the water when the spear got jammed between the roof of the shanty and the lip of the opening in the floor.
“THE SPEAR WAS jammed tight and I couldn’t move it one way or the other. I had him out and the spear was through him but one tine on the side got jammed into the floor while the handle was wedged into the ceiling.
“Now, I thought, what am I going to do? I had to pull the spear out of the floor and push it away from me all the while worrying this monster was going to slip back into the water. “Once I got the spear free I just scooped him up real hard and heaved him onto the floor. Then I carried him out to the truck and headed for shore.
Kandow drove over to the DNR weigh station. There were some other anglers around including Bob Gardner from Michigan Outdoors who was fishing the same day.