Any Rainy River Sturgeon Tips

Early tomorrow morning I will be making my first trip up to the Lake of the Woods area with a group of guys for a work function. We are staying at Sportmans Lodge and will be walleye fishing with their guides/captains during the days.

I’m going to pull my boat up so that a few of us can go out sturgeon fishing in the evenings after dinner.

Right now I am geared up with medium heavy rods, 80lb braid on 6500C3 reels, a 4oz no roll sinker and a 5/0 circle hook on an 18″ leader. Everyone has their own preferences, but is this a good place to start for sturgeon on the Rainy?

I will need to use my electronics to find holes in the river, but are there any general areas that are close to Sportsman that I can narrow my search down to?

I’m used to using a single anchor on the Mississippi but I’ve read a few Rainy River articles where it mentions double anchoring, is that the preferred method on the Rainy? I have a drift sock so if I could get away with one anchor and the sock to reduce sway then I could do that.

Ryan

Right in front of sportsman and out into the bay is a good area, I have never had trouble with 1 big anchor. Might want an assortment of weights and a few bigger hooks, but you should be good.

Anchor and drift sock is what we use a lot.

You’re looking pretty good. I would add live and dead fatheads or shiners to are bait list for this time of year.

gobs of dead minnows and earthworms seem to the ticket. just shade deeper than 20′ holes and go to town.

Just got back yesterday from that area. We fished up stream by the white church. Hooked two, lost one by the boat the other took us down stream for an hour before the line broke. Night crawlers and minnows were the ticket. Caught 6 smallies to keep it interesting. Biggest 19 1/2. Have fun.

Thanks everyone, dinner ran longer than expected so we only put in a couple hours of after dark fishing. Ended up catching 3 bullheads and a small sturgeon.

Had a great time fishing on our 1/2 day guided walleye/sauger fishing trip. It was my first time using down riggers, fun to learn new techniques!

With walleye/snauger smell on your hands no wonder you were a bullhead magnet!

Might take a week of scrubbing to get that crap off.