Sturgeon Excursion 2008......Stories and Photos

[Ralph Wiggum]

ST, we had tagged 63" and 67" fish. The 63" was upstream over 15 miles from where it was tagged and grew 3" in 3 years. The 67" was upstream over 15 miles from where it was tagged and grew 3" in 4 years. Interesting stuff!

[Surface Tension]

Ralph that is interesting. I corrected my length, when tagged it was 39.8. Didn't get the girth but it was skinny.

[huntnfishsd]

Hey guys, glad to hear everyone had some good luck this year!! I had some great luck myself with three over 50". The really awesome thing was that each was tagged! I sent the information in the mail as soon as I got back, so hopefully within the next week or so I will get information back about each fish. When I do, I will let you all know about my sturgeons' history! I can't wait!!

Surface Tension, how did you hear back so quickly? Did you shoot them an e-mail?

[Surface Tension]

You can do it on-line Here

They'll send you back a pdf. file with the data. Got mine back the same day!

[huntnfishsd]

Thank you sir, I will give it a try!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yeah, I got mine within 24 hours.

[Bassboy1645]

WOW LOOKS LIKE ALOT OF FUN!!!! I never fished sturgeon before...thats all rainy river and the river mouth on LOW?? what kind of tackle bait does a guy use? rods reels line hooks?? does a guy need to use leaders?? Those 60 inch fish were pretty big...Is that the size they get or are they bigger?? just curious how you guys fish these things...

[crazyice]

Fish'em the same as you would channel cats. Crawlers, cut shiner or sucker, and wait for the ride of your life! They do get bigger than the 60 inchers mentioned.

[fisherking01]

Got a couple pics as well, never really got into the photo taking gig this year as there were many cameras with. The best video of a 65 incher was taken with the lens cover yet on the camera!!! Had a great time, best fun is watching the kids crank em in!!

[Big Country]

I am a little behind on this post but I would like to thank Surface Tension and Reefraker for inviting me to go on this trip. WOW! What an incredible time we had. It sure was great to meet a lot of F/M'ers on the Rainy. Rick, Joe, Eric, and Tom, thanks for fishing with us. I have some cool pictures of you all that somehow will go your way. Frank and I are seriously thinking about bringing our young sons with us next year so they can have a trip of a lifetime. It really is an awesome fishery. Being it was our first ever trip there, rest assured we will be back again If you have never done this before I highly reccomend it. I used my Lake Superior rods and reels and they worked perfectly (although my Penn 209 got a little tired after my 55 incher smoked the reel pretty good). What a way to make memories. Thank you to all that were involved. BC

[Eric Wettschreck]

BC, I have some totally cool pics of yous guys. My e-mail is in my profile. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll send them to you.

Once again, what a rush!!!

[huntnfishsd]

I just got my tag info back on the 3 tagged sturgeon I caught a couple weekends ago! I will share some info on each:

#1: Tagged: 4/4/98 36.5"

Recovered: 4/18/08 50.5"

This fish grew 14" in just over 10 years!

#2: Tagged: 4/24/98 51.6"

Recovered: 4/15/04 55.1"

Recovered: 4/19/08 57.0"

Recovered: 4/19/08 56.0"

This fish is very interesting. It was tagged at 28 years old and was recovered in 4 Mile Bay every time. Also, it was caught and reported twice on the same day!! How weird is that?? The even weirder thing is that there was an inch difference in the measurement of the fish this year! Our boat measured it at 56". The other angler measured it at 57". Anyone catch this fish too and have a different measurement than us??

#3: Tagged: 5/25/04 49"

Recovered: 4/20/08 51.5"

In just under 4 years this fish grew 2.5" and was tagged at Inside Channel and caught in 4 Mile Bay.

I found this information very interesting and hope you all do as well!!

[Sandmannd]

That is some cool information huntnfishsd. Cool to see how th fish change. Thank you for sharing the info you got.

[hanson]

One thing I've learned about measuring a sturgeon's length is everyone does it differently, shoot... that goes for all species of fish. One guys 15" crappie might be another guys 13 1/2" crappie.

With Sturgeon, the DNR doesn't "pinch" the tail like you would with the rest of our fish species. This "pinch" alone on a sturgeon could provide 1-4" of length variation depending on how big the fish really is.

I had caught a sturgeon last year on the Rainy which was tagged, gave the length and girth measurement my best college try and was nearly 2" longer than what the DNR had last measured the fish at. Problem was it was recently tagged less than a month ago. Doh! I was informed that kind of growth rate wasn't possible and that it was probably an error in my measurement.

I think my example is a pretty good indication as to why you are seeing big variations in growth rates.

Basically, how much the fish has grown between reported catches depends on how consistantly the 2 anglers measured the fish. If one pinched the tail and one didn't, you could be off 2-4 inches. Which would cause an apparent fast growth rate or a slow growth rate, depending on how the numbers sorted out.

Regardless... the info is very cool! Thanks for sharing! And as I've said many, many times before; a testament to the true catch and release sportfishery these fish provide. They can be caught, and recaught, and can provide many anglers enjoyment of catching the same BIG fish!! These types of reports (your fish #2) clearly show that!

[huntnfishsd]

Wow, very interesting info hanson on the measurement! I never knew the DNR doesn't "pinch" the tail. Thank you for sharing that!

I also agree whole-heartedly about C&R and how much fun it creates for all anglers!

Another point our boat made on the trip was to make sure each and every fish (no matter how big or small) was completely revived before releasing, so to give that fish a chance! My fish #2 (56") was caught twice in one day, so it makes it that much more important that the sturgeon was revived completely before letting it go!

[Mark Christianson]

Well, all I can say is that if I wanted to catch fish and have fun, I should have gone on the official Sturgeon Excursion weekend.

BUT, our group went this past weekend, and I must say, it was the worst of times and it was the best of times.

We had 23 guys and there were 10 fish total caught.(I will add that the boats were on shore much more than they were in the water)

You look at the pics of guys in T shirts the weekend before and then what we had to deal with. The memories of our trip are etched forever!

You lucky dogs that went the weekend before! The vids were being played in Schusters, and there was plenty of drooling over the fish. But how many can say they got to do what we did? LOL

[crazyice]

All I can say is WOW! I would have given up way before you guys got a boat in the water.

[huntnfishsd]

Agreed! Way to get those boats out there and give it the honest try! After all, isn't that why you made the trip? Hopefully it works out for you next year!

[LEECH21]

Incredible!

Thats one trip you'll never forget!

[troyfideldy]

BigLakebass, you guys are hardcore, crazy, nuts and missing something upstairs. I live in Grand Rapids and was planning on heading up fishing on the rainy last weekend. When we woke up early saturday morning we went back to bed. It was not worth the effort to fight that storm and risk wrecking a boat and truck. I understand why you guys went out but honestly what were you thinking. One good thing if you went missing the rescue team would have waited till the weather cleared to go look for you guys. Guess the fish have to eat too. Another bonus is the Tournament got cancelled. The video just proves who you really are.

[Mark Christianson]

Come on man. Grow some kahonies.

PS - we stayed up there, so the driving thing wasnt a big deal. If I had been in Grand Rapids that morning, we would have stopped over for Bloodys.

[DTro]

That's what it's all about right there!

Nice video.

Goes to show that catching fish aint everything.

[Iambjm]

I haven't laughed so hard in years!

[Black_Bay]

That would have been a day for staying back playing poker all day and drinking beer. I was supposed to be at the deer shack that day and just stayed home warm and dry.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Here's a shot that Big Country took of us. It's Rick, myself, Harvey Lee battling the big one, and Joe aka Jammie.

Harvey Lee's pole is bent in half, and we're just hanging out. This is going to take a while.

It pretty much summs up the weekend for me. Good pals in a boat catching fish. It doesn't get much better that that.

This shot was also in todays local paper.