Sturgeon fishing on the St. Croix

[croixflats]

How about some tips for fishing sturgeon on the Croix.

For starters the set up: A medium heavy to action rod I use a Berkly medium heavy musky rod. You will want a rod with good sensitivity to it to feel the light bites.

For line I use #40 power Pro Some like to go heavier but I Feel #40 is sufficient.

The reel you will want one that can handle the line and have torque behind it. I use a Abu Garcia 6600

The Hook #5 gamakatsu octopus or circle hook

Weight/Sinker 1oz to 1 1/2 sliding sinker

You will want a swivel and a 3 ft leader for the hook

Pretty much a catfishing set up. Fleet farm or any other store sells inexpensive catfishing set ups that are work well.

As for bait I primarily use fatheads 3 0r 4 on the hook sometimes I will gob on night crawlers. Just cast out and let it sit on the bottom and let them come to you.

Location: Lets see, places like where it funnels down like by channels and look for where a basin of deep water is at. Also look for Basins where a channel or faster current goes through it a contour map should help finding these.

Fish in 35 to 60 ft of water. I like to fish up river from the hole and cast into it.

This time of year they are colonizing and stacking up in these holes. Early in the season they also can be found in shallower water close to those basins. I have caught them in 20 ft of water.

For the bite: Be alert these guys can strip your hook of bait with out you knowing he was there. When they are biting this light it gets frustating the good kind of frustration as your adrenalin gets pumped up. When they do bite aggessively be prepaired to catch one almost one after another. Not uncomman for 2 or 3 fish at one time.

Thats a start for now I guess and I'm sure more tips on the way.

[DTro]

Good list CF!

Pretty much matches everything I do.

I also like to fish directly beneath the boat (most of the time) and hold my rod to feel the light biters.

[Shack]

Good stuff CF.

I just use my channel gear

Crawler, fathead, crawler Is that legal on the Croix?

[croixflats]

It depends on what side of the river you fish. Wisconsin side its

flathead/ crawler /flathead. .

I have been known to go into the grey area and go

crawler/ flathead/ flathead.

I did see one guy go flathead/flathead/crawler not for long though he was so busy looking out for authorities he missed to many fish