Anyone catch a keeper Sturgeon on the river this season

[JasonG]

This was brought up a couple of weeks ago but I was wondering now that the season has begun if anyone has caught a keeper sturgeon this year. If this has been disscussed I missed it because I was out of town last week. So lets hear some Sturgeon stories

[IT pimp 2002]

There is a guy I think from Canada (Sturge is his name here) that has caught a few and swears they are good to eat. I couldnt bring myself to eat one, as they are old fish and IMO full of toxins due to age and feeding habits. I also think they are too rare a fish to take. Kinda like a muskie.

[justjigging]

This is slightly off topic as none of these sturgon seemed big enough to be keepers but, I have fished off the pier at Bishop Park about 6 times this year and 3 of thoes times a sturgon had been caught right off the pier by people fishing for White Bass. The last one I saw (the only one I got a real good look at) was about 35" and had a red plastic tag on it. I fish at Bishop Park a few times every year (when I cant find anyone with a boat to fish with) and untill this year I have never seen anyone catch a sturgon there. I wonder if that means the sturgon are making a comeback?

[JoeC]

Sirs,

I did not land it, but two sundays ago I hooked one near Peche island jigging fo wallleyes. The fish stayed on the bottom slowly taking drag. This lasted 4 or 5 minutes. At first I thought is was a large musky. Then all of a sudden it slowly began to head torward the surface (slowly, not as fast as a musky). To my great surprise, the fish exploded out of the water. I saw nearly 2/3 of its' body about 20 feet from the boat. It was a big fish! I landed and weighed a 38LB steurgan two years ago just about in the same spot. This fish, which I got a great look at appeared to be quite a bit larger the the 38LBer. When it broke the surface, it unfortunately spit my jig. My hands were shaking fo about 15 minutes afterward!

JoeC

[ice fishin nut]

I'm still trying!!!!, Gonna give it a shot again on the boardwalk tonight if the wife will let me out!!!

[Sturge]

IFN, have you checked with anybody at the Leggas dock? I wonder if the Pro caught any after we saw him last week. I didn't get a chance to go this week and won't until next week. I will give you a shout.
Has anyone made a decision on the 8th outing? I am up for it, boating or from shore.
Have a good weekend!
Tom

[ice fishin nut]

Was there yesterday morning,,, nobody heard anything. Might try to head that way tonight if your up for it???? I am positivly up for the outing, and plan on you being in my boat. Even if it falls through, I still plan on going out that night. Let me know when you want to go for "our" boat ride to do the mapping..... Does your cell phone work???? same number????

[Gone Fishing]

Sturge, there is a thread in the outings forum about the Sturgeon trip next Saturday. I plan to make it for sure. Will probably start in the no wake area by Deckers. Might do some scouting for holes/troughs this weekend. I'm not sure yet if I will have room on my boat. It may be hard to run many lines without the current bringing them together. How many rods do you guys normally run and do you have any problem keeping them spaced? Also, do you use any type of slip sinker or slider set-up or do you have your sinker rigid to the main-line?

[Sturge]

Gone Fishing, I use a slip rig with 8oz up a pound of weight to keep them from walking too much. You can use the drop back method to walk the rigs back through the hole by lifting and letting out more line and dropping it back. As far a number of rods I think a number of factors will determine how many.
1. How wide is the boat
2. how much scope of ancor line is out ( moving back and forth)
3. Use longer rods out to the side and short ones off the stern.
4. Always set your outside lines first throw them around 15' to 20' out to the sides, then drop your stern lines straight back.
5. Only pull one rod at a time to check them as tangles suck.

You can get quite a bit of coverage on any given hole by moving your anchor line from dead center to right or left chock then resetting your lines.
I look forward to meeting with you, see if you can hook up with INF and we can check the runs before the outing.
Tom