Posted 4/20/2009 8:22 PM (#373212) Subject: Sturgeon To Start The Season
A group of us from the Fargo-Moorhead area go on a yearly Sturgeon trip to begin the fishing season. It kind of gets you into the feel of battling big fish earlier, as the Muskie season doesn't open until June here.
I must have seen about 100 boats on the Rainy River this past weekend, and I have to believe some of the guys posting here were there. Anyone care to share how you did, and/or post some pictures? I saw tons of 50 inch fish being caught, and at least 3 guys in our group had 62 inch fish. I didn't hear of many bigger than that being caught, but there must have been. Anyone get a real tank?
Posted 4/20/2009 9:39 PM (#373246 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Posts: 335
Location: Minnesota
What about you? How did you do? I was thinking about heading up there sometime this week possibly.
Derrys
Posted 4/20/2009 10:00 PM (#373248 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Kevin, I saw your rod while you were fighting that fish. It looked more like a bow for shooting arrows than a fishing rod. Personally, I thought it was hillarious. I did hear that you did land that fish, so my hat's off to you. Our boat caught 25 fish, with around 5 of those over 50 inches. My brother lost what may have been a true giant in our friend's anchor rope. It was too bad, and we never even got to see it. I couldn't believe how many ill-equiped anglers we saw. I suppose those same guys must go deer hunting with bb guns. What are they thinking? My brother also had to use his foot to push a guy's boat away from ours or he would have ran into us while trying to anchor. There were some very classless dudes on the water. I can't wait until next year.
Posted 4/20/2009 10:59 PM (#373261 - in reply to #373248) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Posts: 374
Location: Bemidji
I saw people fishing for sturgeon with walleye gear and they were actually targeting them. They were using 5oz of weight with crawlers. We saw people fighting fish for the better part of an hour because they thought their gear would work. Then once the sturgeon were near the boat they would get out a walleye net and act like they were going to net them.
My boat and Jerry's boat sat and watched a guy fight an anchor rope for almost an hour! He didn't know when to quit.
Edited by kevin cochran 4/20/2009 11:00 PM
Derrys
Posted 4/22/2009 8:37 PM (#373729 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Here is a link to a YouTube video I put together of the photos I took.
Posted 4/23/2009 4:03 PM (#373859 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Posts: 79
Like the others have said......
There was a lot of very ill equipped people fishing for them. I also had the privelage of watching a guy fight an anchor for 10 minutes before he was let on that he had an anchor.
I saw one photo session that likely pushed the 10 minute mark. Good thing these are hardy fish.
Reinforces why we occasionally find muskies floating mid-week on some of our muskie lakes.
Derrys
Posted 4/23/2009 6:26 PM (#373882 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
All of these fish had to be released. I believe the meat-hunters can keep fish starting this Saturday and if I'm correct, they are allowed one fish per year which needs to be between 48-54 inches, or something to that effect. We go every year, and have no intention of ever keeping one. You get one heck of a fight, and I simply use my best muskie rod to fish for them. I used between 3-8 ounces of weight with 4 or 5 night crawlers on a nice wide-gap hook. It's not rocket science to catch them, but if you're ill-equiped you will have problems. I watched a guy catch a 64 incher with walleye gear, which took quite a while, then watched as almost everone in that boat had their picture taken with that fish. They actually took more pictures of that fish with a guy who didn't catch it than they did with the guy who fought it for an hour. It's a fun time. Kevin Cochran should tell the story of his rod. It's hillarious.
Posted 4/23/2009 7:30 PM (#373893 - in reply to #373882) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Posts: 13
hey brad we ended up with 19 for the weekend with 8 of those going over 50 and 3 of those were 60 and over with the largest going 64. i think kevin should tell that little story about the rod i was in the boat right next to him and it was a pretty interesting fight. shawn earley
Posted 4/23/2009 8:29 PM (#373907 - in reply to #373893) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
Posts: 374
Location: Bemidji
Alright....so i have a bunch of Cabela's E-Glass 8ft Med/Hvy rods that I use for trolling. They are cheap rods that come from Cabelas with single-foot guides which are easy to break. I love the rods so I had a local baitshop in Bemidji put double foot guides on all of them.
Now to last Saturday....One of the E-Glass rods went off and i picked it up ready to set the hook. The clicker was screaming and I set the hook. When I did all of the guides popped off of the rod. The thread on every guide ripped sending the guides down the line and into the levelwind. I was stuck fighting the fish with the rod tip and the reel. I had to keep the guides from going into the levelwind and at the same time try to fight this fish and get it into the net. The rod looked like a bow. I let the reel fight the fish and about 10 minutes of reeling the fish was in the net. It measured 61 inches.
It was crazy, never heard of guides ripping off.
Derrys
Posted 4/23/2009 9:16 PM (#373916 - in reply to #373212) Subject: Re: Sturgeon To Start The Season
I love that story.
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