Can You Top This? Monster Sturgeon Caught and Released!

[Hemlock]

Below is an article from the Lake of the Woods Enterprise Newspaper (Kenora, Ontario) Quite the story, quite the fish. Picture proceeds the article.

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Angler recounts two-hour battle to land giant sturgeon

MNR biologists estimate big fish at between 170-180 pounds

By Dan Gauthier

for The Enterprise

Saturday June 25, 2005

Winnipeg resident Cam Coleman now has the fishing story of a lifetime to tell, but he’ll have no need to exaggerate how big this “monster” was.

While fishing for walleyes on Black Sturgeon Lake June 10, Coleman caught and released an 85-inch – that’s over seven feet long – lake sturgeon, with a girth of 35 inches.

Coleman said it was a two-hour battle with the massive fish – MNR biologists have estimated it at between 170-180 pounds – before he got it into shore with the help of a passing boater.

“There was no way we were going to land this in the boat,” said Coleman, who owns a cottage on Black Sturgeon.

Even when they got to shore and out of the boat to handle the sturgeon, Coleman said the big fish still had a mind of its own.

“We wanted to take it to the left, the fish wanted to go to the right,” said Coleman. “So we were scrambling through logs and trees. It was a nightmare.”

Measuring the fish once they got control of it also proved difficult as the largest tape measure he had was only five feet long. A rope had to be used to measure the length, while the tape was large enough to measure its girth.

“It was awesome man, it was almost like wrestling a croc,” said Coleman of handling the big fish. “I figured he was between 150 and 200 pounds because when we lifted him, he was heavy.”

Coleman said he was out that afternoon jigging for walleyes when he noticed a large fish near the surface that he thought might be a large muskie. He took 10-12 casts near the big fish before it took the bait – a jig with a minnow – on his light rod with only eight-pound test line.

“All of sudden I felt a hit and I set the hook,” said Coleman.

Once the fish started to move he noticed that it didn’t “run” like a muskie. Coleman said it was about 10 minutes later before it surfaced and he realized it was a lake sturgeon.

“I didn’t realize how big it was at that point until we had tired it out and got it right up beside the boat,” said Coleman.

Coleman said he is checking to see if it was a line-class record and a provincial or world record, although the fish was caught out of season. The season is closed from May 16 to June 29.

He said it’s the first sturgeon he has ever caught and the first one he has ever heard of being caught on the lake.

“Nobody ever fishes for them or catches them (on Black Sturgeon Lake),” said Coleman. “It’s just a fluke to catch one.”

Tom Mosindy, biologist and supervisor of the MNR’s Lake of the Woods Fisheries Assessment Unit, said sturgeon must have been on Black Sturgeon historically, but it is unusual to catch one now.

“I think it’s just a lone individual of a remnant population,” said Mosindy.

MNR biologist Scott McAughey found a dead sturgeon on the Winnipeg River in 2004 that was six-foot, seven-inches long and an estimated 160 pounds.

Mosindy estimated that the big sturgeon would be over 100 years old, possibly 150-200 years of age.

“I think that is the most amazing thing,” said Mosindy adding that it’s possibly one of the oldest animals recorded in the area – including human. “It certainly was a phenomenal catch.”