On Saturday we made a trip for peelers and had a day of fishing you only dream about.

First we hit the "Shad Rack" to get some bait. Between the four of us, we could only fish with two rods most of the time because we were so busy bringing in and netting shad. It was insane!

Once we had bait, we headed down river to fish the edge of the channel near the boat launch. Within five minutes of getting the first rod out, and before we could get the third rod out, BAM!! Fish on!! Then we have the usual fire drill of pulling drift socks, getting lines in, unhooking from the anchor line, and firing up the boat. About twenty or thirty minutes later we release an 8'+ peeler.

So back to the anchor line, get the lines out, and BAM!! Fish on!!

This goes on and on all day! Most of the time we only had two lines in the water because the peelers were hitting before we could re-bait from the last sturgeon! We had to pull all of our lines out of the water to BBQ our lunch!

In all we got 7 peelers to the boat, all over 8', and two well over 10'. Three of the fish breached multiple times. We also had a few shakers and a nice 52" keeper thrown back to pick up six inches before we get him next year.

The sad part of the day occured as we were tying up to the anchor line after releasing our last peeler.

There was a train passing by and we heard a loud collision. I really hoped that it was not what it sounded like. But when we got to shore and saw the train stopped, our fears were confirmed. A truck leaving the Fisheries had been hit.

The train struck an F350 crew cab dead center on the passenger side at 48 mph, and pushed it over 1/2 of a mile down the tracks. Seeing the parts of the truck scattered along the track was very sobering. We arrived at the train engine to see the driver being pulled out of the truck and loaded into a helicoptor. The passenger did not make it.

Please, please, please give any set of tracks all of your respect. Stop, look, and listen before proceeding. Hopefully this tragedy will make us all a little more responsible.

My prayers go out to the family and friends of these fellow fishermen.

Your story is amazing and sad.