Sturgeon Excersion Report's...Share the wealth!

[Desperate Fisherman]

Allright guy's here's the deal. I was not able to make it up this weekend but I have been Waiting for the report's.

On Saturday the 29 I and five other Sturgeon Virgin are headed up that way! I have read every word that I could find on this forum relating to 4-mile and the lower section of the river. I am very excited about this trip because of 4 of the five people I am bringing have never caught a fish of any spiecies over 33"! This is a major chance for them to land the biggest fish of there life! And my biggest fish in Minnesota!

We are Gonna be fishing of my Pontoon with an eclectic collection of salmon rod's, muskie rod's, Trolling rod's, and the remainder will be the stoutest spinning rod's I have!

As captian of the boat I have everthing ready to go and intend to launch at wheeler's and then I am gonna...WELL THAT'S JUST IT! I really don't know where I'm gonna head

I would be eternally greatful if any of ya could help me out.

I was hopping someone would share some of there waypoint's with me. This is a one day trip and they would NEVER be shared or used other than on the 29th of the month.

I know it's a hassle to pull waypoint's off the GPS but I'm willing to make it right with ya if ya share some good spot's.(gift certificates, cash, beer, etc) Name your price and if they produce for me....Well, that would be a small price for me to pay wouldn't it!

Course I know ya wouldnt' want 19 boat's on your hole so if ya are willing to help me ya can Email em to Neumann'[email protected] and don't forget to name your price!

Thank's...John, or ya can call me on my dime at 218 568-6113

[hanson]

You guys should have a blast!

I think you are going to do just fine fishing anywhere in the river channel, either in the river itself or where the channel cuts through 4 mile bay.

Here's a photo from the bay. Everyone was catching fish at some point so they are all over the place.

I'll send you an e-mail tonight.

[Desperate Fisherman]

Thanks Hanson, it would be sincerly appriciated!

I was not afraid to go and drown some crawlers but if I could put my hunting buddies on a higher percentage hole that would be awsome!

As would be any other's input as to good holes..., Hey who say's I gotta fish one hole all day

[barnyard]

Thanks to a poor running motor, we were limited to the river between the landing and Schusters resort.

Saturday we caught 28 fish, 25 were sturgeon and Sunday, we caught 28, 24 were sturgeon.

We caught lots of small fish, our biggest was 41 inches, but there were boats near us that caught 5 inch fish.

Bite detection is key. Sturgeon, even the huge ones, bite very light. Most of the time, they pick up the bait and don't move and if they move, it was not enough to set off the clicker on my reel.

We used 4/0 circle hooks with 2-3 crawlers and every fish we caught was hooked perfectly in the "corner" of the mouth. We lost 2 or 3 fish that were either small or just didn't have the hook in the mouth when we started to reel.

Personally, I think circles are the perfect hook for this kind of fishing and I would not even consider a traditional "j" style hook.

We used 8.5 foot salmon rods with 12 lb test mono. Next year, we will probably use a little heavier line. If we would have hooked a 50 inch fish, we could have been in for a long day.

There are other reports on the other forums, look around for more info.

Tom B

[TSCTSC]

Hey Barnyard,

Thanks for your tips for sturgeon fishing once again. If not for you, I do not think we would have caught any. I had heard from somewhere that sturgeons are easy to catch and that we needed catfish rods and heavy stuff. So I was using salmon rods with 20lb line and expecting easy hookups. Boy, was I wrong. As it turned out, Barnyard was absolutely right on his tips....the sturgeons bite extremely lightly and watching your rod tip the whole time is key to catching them. And we also used circle hooks too. We backed down to a Walleye rod with 12 lb Red Cajun mono and eventually started seeing the bites and catching some, tho not as many as Barnyard, even when we tried the same spot as they did. We also caught some on braided lines.

But we did fish out in 4 mile bay in the channel between the two long islands and we caught our big fish of the trip which was a 51 inch 34 lb sturgeon. As we had a 12lb line on a Walleye rod, it took us nearly 90 min to bring it into the boat. Most of the other fishes we caught were in the 20 inch range and some in the 30 inch range. In my opinion, the 30-40 inchers are the most fun to catch as they do not take that long to bring in, and they jump clear out of the water a few times when they reach the surface, which is quite spectacular. I think the 51 inch do not jump as they are too heavy, I guess. The sturgeon's fight can be described as slow and heavy and resolute as compared to Salmons which are fast, acrobatic, and many changes in direction. All in all, it is very relaxing fishing.

My eventual set up was a 4/0 circle, 2-3 foot leader, ball bearing swivel, and a 1.5 or 3 ounce sliding weight on the main line.

In any case, I wanna thank FM (Rick and Dennis, I believe) for setting this thing up for us. It was a great trip!

BTW, there was snow in the morning of Monday, for those that left on Sunday and the winds were 10-20 mph with gusts to 30mph or more, and white caps everywhere altho it settled down in the afternoon. We had to fish in the mouth of the river where the trees sheltered us and caught some sturgeons in the middle of the river.

Have fun!!

[barnyard]

We enjoyed meeting you and are glad that our tips put some fish in your boat.

Brianna wants to fish with you sometime. Drop me an email and we could try and set up a carp trip on the river for Memorial Day weekend.

Tom B

barnyard @ astound . net (take out the spaces)

[Desperate Fisherman]

OOPS...I just noticed an error in my email, It's supposed to be [email protected]