St. Croix Sturgeon 2013

[aanderud]

Might as well start a thread for St Croix sturgeon fish this year. Anyone been out? I've heard of a few folks, haven't seen anything on here.

I got out there for the first time this fall last night with my son and Dtro. Got Adam on his first 3 sturgeon ever (two in the high 30s, one that might have hit 40 inches), and a bonus 28 inch channel cat.

Was a great night to be on the river, other than the rain. Somewhat of a slow bite during the daytime period, but it picked up at dark. If the rain would have quit, we might have stayed, but ... Adam's hands started getting cold due to the hot bite that started between 7:45 and 8:15.

Proud of the little guy for gutting it out in the rain with us and for reeling in his first sturgeon. If you haven't been out, I highly suggest it. Even these smaller 38-40 inchers fight harder than 99% of the fish you'll catch in this state.

[DTro]

Fun time for sure! Adam was a trooper in the rain.

Sometimes I'm glad the Croix season is only about a month long. Its a sickness wanting to be out there all the time.

[Roman_K]

Way to go Adam!!! Caught more fish than I did this weekend

[aanderud]

Thanks! Hey, where are the other pics? I know there are people out there fishing, let's share some pics of these giants!

[Roman_K]

No giant by any means but the biggest one from the weekend.

[aanderud]

Nice one Roman.

[Mr Special]

man ur lil guy is a trooper. heck hes tougher then most of my our buds, including myself n john cz we backed out last sat due to rain lol

here's a few from this season and hopefully more tonite =D

52"

47"

[DTro]

Fighting this fish with a large pyrotechnic show directly overhead is something I won't soon forget.

[Mike_Bennewitz]

It's my 2nd year chasing Sturgeon around the Croix, and I would say my 8th or 9th trip since opener this season. Last Sunday around 8:30 I FINALLY got one! Just for the record, I know I may not have properly handled the fish, but I wasn't thinking and at first very STUPIDLY picked it up with my hand. I learned Scutes HURT! lol But she swam away just fine after a picture, now that I got one...its hammer time for them big girls!

-Mike

[DTro]

Nice work Mike, its pretty hard to hold those little guys wrong. Biggest thing to remember on the bigger ones is not to use the gill plates as handles.

[Mike_Bennewitz]

Thanks DTro! I will keep that in mind next time! I might be heading out to the King Plant shore this week and weekend to see if the somewhat deeper water in that area will provide a better shot at a bigger fish.

[TruthWalleyes]

Nice fish guys. I believe we reeled one in during the pyro show too.

[hydro]

Mike,

That looks like a shovelnose sturgeon. Nice catch!

[TruthWalleyes]

Mike,

That looks like a shovelnose sturgeon. Nice catch!

That's not a shovel.

This is not a shovel.

This is a shovel.

[Mike_Bennewitz]

Hydro, I also thought that it was a Shovelnose when I first saw how small it was, but I got a good look at it's beak and saw it wasn't spade shaped like the fish in Truth's picture. I sure would like to get a Shovel soon though!

[DTro]

The tail is always a dead giveaway too. Once you catch a shovelnose you will realize they look totally different.

[TruthWalleyes]

Zactly...I think i've caught over 40 shovels this year. They're THICK on the MN River in spots. THey're so darn tiny but fun on a ML walleye rod.

[JBMasterAngler]

How come they don't have a season for them on the Minnesota River? Not that I would ever keep a shovelnose, but it sure sounds like the population is as healthy as can be. I caught one on the vermillion river once, and they are pretty cool!

[Mike_Bennewitz]

Well, went out for the evening/night again. Got to Boomsite access around 6:30pm and caught once small sucker that ended up in the bait bucket. No action after that besides one really big fish surfacing and momentarily tangling in my line after landing on top of it. Judging by the weight I had for a few seconds, it must have been a catfish or something else huge. Probably going to try the King Plant tomorrow and see if I can finally fish without getting that messy moss weed all over my rig.

[fishuhalik]

Billions of those little buggers in the Missouri River by Williston too! There were times we would get em as fast as we could throw in. Biggest was maybe 24". Still pretty neat though since I'd never caught one before this summer

[ItsaCrappieLife]

Caught a sturgeon on the st. croix last week that had a lamprey attached to it. Has anyone else seen this? Think there is any need to report it to the DNR?

[aanderud]

Caught a sturgeon on the st. croix last week that had a lamprey attached to it. Has anyone else seen this? Think there is any need to report it to the DNR?

Yeah, a lot of those sturgeon have either an eel attached or a red mark where you can see one was recently attached or a scar where one was attached not-so-recently. I don't know that the DNR has any request out for reporting of them, but if someone else knows, please chime in here.

Here's a video we took of one last year after catching it and putting it in a Mt Dew bottle (I took that home to show my 5 year old)....

[TruthWalleyes]

They make good bait huh? Never thought about it before. They always get their heads cut off before re-entering the water from my boat, i might as well toss a chunk on a circle hook and see what happens.

BTW, question about eels...who here has caught an american eel in the st croix? I see they are an extra point int he contest this weekend as well as mudpuppies and turtles. Never seen a mudpuppy caught either. Just curious if there are any tactics or general locations to find each?

[DTro]

Alwsys Caught By Accident Fishing FOr Sturgeon

[TruthWalleyes]

Nice!