i will be fishing pool 3 or 4 this next weekend for the first time. anyone have any suggestions to which pool? i am very familiar with Catfhishing on the MN River but I am curious, are you fishing the holes and snags on the Ole’ Miss? Any suggestions to make it a better outing would be appreciated.
Hey Tim!
The first question is…flatheads or channels?
Evert’s has free launching (and security for your car) at the head of Pool 4 and there is some great channel cat bites going on down there right now.
Flatheads with any size have been a challenge for me on both 3 and 4 at this time.
I usually fish the Channels up to evening them switch to the Flatheads. Should i be holding off until later in the year for the better cattin’? Thanks for the info on parking/landing at Everts which will work great.
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Flatheads with any size have been a challenge for me on both 3 and 4 at this time.
Well… we did get that Turtle bite dialed in though! 
There’s a group of fellas that have been don’t well in the p4 dam area for channels/flats and a sturgeon every now and then.
The flats are there…just getting them on the hook. 
Wait???? “The best time to go fishing…is when you can”.
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There’s a group of fellas that have been don’t well in the p4 dam area for channels/flats and a sturgeon every now and then.
Are the sturgeon coming on cutbait? I’ve seen a few sturgeon lately and would love to hook into one. I’ve also seen a sturgeon (it had to be a sturgeon based on its size and shape) jumping out of the water behind a closing dam in 45 feet of water… What’s up with that? Should I be floating cutbait back there under a big bobber? I’ve never even hooked into a sturgeon that I know of, so I’d sure love to break the ice, so to speak.
Aren’t the sturgeon in the Sip and Sota usually pretty small? We have a 30 foot hole near St. Peter that we can sit and pull sturgeon out of all afternoon, and I don’t think we’ve ever broken the 5lb mark.
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Aren’t the sturgeon in the Sip and Sota usually pretty small?
2 Different Species
The sturgeon you are catching on the MN are Shovelnose Sturgeon, which don’t get very large at all.
The Mississippi has both species I believe, the Shovelnose & Lake Sturgeon. The Lake Sturgeon grow pretty large and I’ve seen Lake Sturgeon in the 50″ range come from the St. Croix River. The Kettle River (trib to the Croix) is where the MN state record Lake Sturgeon was caught from.
Ahh, I stand corrected. Lake sturgeon definitely get to be monsters, even in colder evironments.
Are the shovelnose protected? Do they taste good? 
There’s no open season for either lake or shovelnose sturgeon on inland waters in Minnesota.
On the Wisconsin border:
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LAKE STURGEON
Closed (except as noted below)
Lake sturgeon may be harvested September 2 through October 15 on the
St. Croix River from Taylors Falls Dam downstream to the mouth at Prescott, Wisconsin. The
possession limit is one per season and the minimum size limit is 50″. The season is closed
on all other waters except those along the Ontario-Minnesota border. (see page 45.)
*Sturgeon tag needed.SHOVELNOSE STURGEON
Continuous 10 (No minimum size.)
Downstream from Red Wing Dam only.
On the Canadian border:
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LAKE STURGEON
April 24–May 7 and July 1–Sept. 30
1 per license year (Fish must be 45-50 inches, inclusive, or over 75 inches.) Immediately upon reducing a fish to
possession, you must sign and date your angling license.
Sturgeon tag needed.May 8–May 15 and October 1, 2006–April 23, 2007
Catch-and-release only.
Yup, targeting them now wouldn’t be sportsmanlike…unless you’re planning a trip to LOTW’s….and according to Cathy at Wigwam…they are hungry now!
I wish they would get a camera..or someone that can press a shutter button!
Huge redhorse and white sucker..big enough to cut into 3 and 4 sections…toss out the apple size head and freeze until needed. Walleye and Sturgeon…are on fire…hmm the fw has another week of vacation coming…. 
Ops, sorry Matt! Got a little carried away with my commercial!
Without exageration one bit…I’ve see at least 4 foot sturgeon fly at least 4 feet out of the water around the p4 dam.
The fella’s that were fishing for cats were using 3/0 light wire circle hooks with three night crawlers strung on the hook. They bite light and many times it’s just the line that gives a warning that there’s a fish down there.
On the Croix C15 and I used cut sucker (strips) which worked well. If I recall, we picked up a bonus channel cat too.
In a month or two we’ll have the details of the ’07 Sturgeon Excursion out. Hope you can make it this year!
The act of jumping out of the water is called “breaching” if I recall correctly…and it’s believe to help clear their gills.
There’s another fish that is big, odd looking and a blast to (try) and catch!
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