Sturgeon

[DTro]

According to charts I've seen, that 65” fish is most likely around 70-75lbs. Even a massive abnormal girth of 30” it would still be about 85lbs. You need to hit 70” to hit that magic 100 number and even at 70 it has to be a fatter than average fish

[DTro]

Are you saying you've caught sturgeon on a fly rod? I wanna see film evidence!!

Not a conventional fly rod setup you would imagine. We had a spinning reel rigged to it. I don’t know what weight it was, but it was about 10ft long. It was super windy and basically we just set it up in a rod holder parallel to the water and dropped the line straight down. The limber tip absorbed all the boat waves. You just had to watch the cadence/rhythm of the tip and any time there was a break in that rhythm, you knew you had a bite.

[aanderud]

65" and around 95-105lbs.

Nice fish! Looks like a fun weekend, saw your other pics in the Yellow report section too. Seems like we NEVER get enough days in late sept to fish in shorts and tshirts, and a bonus is catching huge fish too!

Here's a MN DNR length/girth/weight chart that you might find interesting. Granted, these are baudette fisheries numbers for Rainy sturgeon, but the pics I've seen of Yellow and Rainy sturgeon look pretty similar. I'd say it's a good place to start if throwing weights out there off the cuff.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/baudette/lksweight.pdf

[Luke_M]

That sounds like a good idea. I wish I had thought about that for this weekend. The boat wake was terrible from all the yachts cruising around.

[FshBloodRiverMud]

I weighed my 58.5" by 25" sturgeon on rainy this spring to be 54#, weight of wet weigh sling included...So probably 50#

[DTro]

A couple nice fish found my bait on Sat.

64.5 x 26 and 61 x 22

[fiskyknut]

Nice ones Darren.

[aanderud]

Nice ones Darren.

Yeah right. If you like that sort of thing. Who here likes 50-70 lb fish tugging at the line?

[DTro]

Yeah, not much fun at all.

[Sturg]

Nice, a couple of real beauties!

[FshBloodRiverMud]

Biggest of the fall season for me.

[mainbutter]

Nice job this season everybody! Are all these fish from the croix, or do people make a fall trip to the rainy like in the spring?

[Stick500]

so is that weird sucker mouth actually way back there behind their eye and not anywhere up there by the barbels and nose?

I've never seen one of these fish alive and up close- are there any other fish with a mouth that odd and in that position on the body?

they are an ancient deal after all, right up with gars and paddle fish

[aanderud]

Nice job this season everybody! Are all these fish from the croix, or do people make a fall trip to the rainy like in the spring?

These are mostly St Croix fish, but some folks do make a fall trip up to the Rainy.

I know fisuhalik has done late summer and fall rainy trips, and some other folks too -- Alagnak and Dtro maybe?

[fishuhalik]

Never done fall on the Rainy. I think the latest I went was Sept but a bud of mine used to go quite a bit in Oct/Nov until his felony got expunged & he could duck hunt again. Late fall was good, the weathers just too unpredictable/cold. Thats why we quit going in the spring. Why go all the way up there & risk snow/wind/flooding/forks busting loose/dirty water (need I go on?) when the fishing is just as good in the warmest months of the year? Our best months were usually July-mid-Sept. Best month he ever had was August of 2010 I think. If I remember right he had around 3 dozen between 60"-73" in his boat that season. Think they went up about 15? times

[fishuhalik]

Short version:

You can always catch sturgeon on the Rainy. Always wanted to try targeting them through the ice but now that I live in Texas, I doubt it'll ever happen. Maybe one of you guys can give it a try for me I was thinking a big lake trout jigging rod with a similar setup to a summer rig, on the bottom with a clump of fatheads. DTRO, you game?

[DTro]

I'll probably be game once they finally change the law to year round catch and release season. A lot of people "catfish" through the ice out on the Croix. As it is now I can catch several cats out there when the sturgeon season ends, but through the ice the (wink wink) is more exaggerated.

I'm so glad they are making the change, there is no better place to be then out on the river chasing Sturgeon right now.

[FshBloodRiverMud]

Pretty decent year for me.

Here's a few from the season.

THink i caught a strugeon in every Inch increment from 24" to 61" this fall.

No complaints here. Over 250 hours in the boat in the last 5 weekends

[fiskyknut]

Ya man good going guys some beasts.

Future Sturgeon excursions gonna be down there maybe !!