I was told by a Rainy River Resort person last night that Sturgeon do not spawn on water temprature. This person told me that they go on a “time clock”. How much of this is true. Also told me out of the 60 people or so they have had at the resort while fishing Walleye that only a handful have caught a sturgeon this spring.
I have no idea about sturgeon spawning, but I do know that most of the sturgeon caught by walleye fishermen are snagged, not hooked in the mouth. Some will bite, but a very small percentage compared to the number that is snagged.
Well I”m far from a Sturgeon Biologist…but that doesn’t sound right Chap.
Keeping in mind that I’ve been told that “sturgeon should be killed (on LOTW’s) because they eat walleye eggs”.
I didn’t want to post with out any back up to support my thought so, here you go.
Quote:
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Water temps dropped almost 6 degrees F from a peak of 62 F last Thursday in the New London area (the day the fish came in strong on the Sturgeon Trail spawning site) down to 56 F yesterday (Saturday). The sunshine and moderately warm day today brought the temps back up a couple of degrees, but I expect all of this increase to be lost over the next 36 hours as a short cold front works its way through the area. After Monday with the forecasted high in the upper 40s, the highs the rest of the week are supposed to be in the upper 50s and low 60s. This should/could be enough to bring the sturgeon on to the rest of the spawning sites that have not seen activity yet, including Shawano.
The timing of when the rest of the spawning sites see activity is more difficult to predict as we are in un-charted territory this year. The smart money says that since the fish have already “stewed” in quite warm water in the mid to upper 50s all up and down the river system, that the fish that have not spawned yet should come on when the water temps begin to consistently rise again sometime this week and approach 59-60 F, but – it is also entirely possible that they may come on even when water temps are dropping since they have already spent so much time in warm water. We’ll keep a close watch on things to see what happens; and keep you informed.
Although this doesn’t “say” temps are not followed, they wouldn’t be talking about water temps if they didn’t follow them. Right?
Quote:
I have no idea about sturgeon spawning, but I do know that most of the sturgeon caught by walleye fishermen are snagged, not hooked in the mouth. Some will bite, but a very small percentage compared to the number that is snagged.
Cal, I happen to disagree with you here. I think most are biters. Of the few that I have caught, I have felt the thump almost every time. Also, I do believe that most are caught because the fisherman is fishing too slow.
Btw, my favorite bait on the Rainy for sturgeon is fatheads an rainbows.
Quote:
Quote:
I have no idea about sturgeon spawning, but I do know that most of the sturgeon caught by walleye fishermen are snagged, not hooked in the mouth. Some will bite, but a very small percentage compared to the number that is snagged.
Cal, I happen to disagree with you here. I think most are biters. Of the few that I have caught, I have felt the thump almost every time. Also, I do believe that most are caught because the fisherman is fishing too slow.
Btw, my favorite bait on the Rainy for sturgeon is fatheads an rainbows.
You feel the “thump” of a bite or the “thump” as you lift your jig? I know they don’t like to bite plastics or salted minnows, but when vertical jigging or pitching baits we will accidently snag a sturgeon as we feel the “thump” only to find out during the short battle (we usually cut line or put so much pressure on the line that it breaks) we feel the power of these fish. Usually strong tail whips indicate that the fish is infact snagged in the tail or somewhere close.
I personally have not seen our group catch a sturgeon in the mouth on the Rainy River walleye fishing, several are accidently snagged each day. Maybe we fish too fast???
Certainly fine to disagree with me, as we all have different fishing techniques, just reporting what I have seen and expierenced. Good luck if you head back up, are you???
The thump is always on the fall or after it hits the bottom.
Funniest thing happened last week to me as well. I caught one on plastic and had another on. The first I happened to set my rod down for a sec and and when I picked it up there was a sturgeon on. I had to unhoot the jig from INSIDE it’s mouth. When I fish the Rainy I am usually pitching jigs rather than dragging. This is probably why I don’t hook many. I also almost always try to drag across the current.
I really think that the sturgeon is a much more active feeding fish than most think. I believe that they will chase a bait down if needed.
When I was at 4 mile bay last weekend, I saw more sturgeon fights going on than I saw walleyes caught. Thats no exaggeration!
Overall sturgeon fishing would have been much better without all the inconsiderate walleye fisherman. I think that some intentionally disrupt people sturgeon fishing.
We were a lone boat fishing the pool 2 confluence. This guy and his buddy decide to cut across about 15 yards from our boat on the down stream side where our lines were, despite having plenty of room upstream and downstream.
My 2nd biggest pet peeve while fishing is inconsiderate boaters that come too close. My biggest pet peeve would be boaters that come too close on purpose.
Not sure if these guys were walleye guys, but the one guy did yawn and the smell of dead possum hit us downwind.
I’ve never fished for walleyes on the Rainy, but I can say 4 years ago I was up 3 days before the Excursion. I caught many sturgeon with bright, shiny new walleye type hooks in their lips. If I recall, the one day I had collected 10 hooks.
‘course I don’t know how they were fished, just that they were embedded in their lips.
I have to say that the majority of sturgeon that I have caught were foul hooked accidentally either in the face or the tail in some manner while vertical jigging a leadhead or a bladebait, however, the last two, absolutely ate a Phelps floater and minnow on a Lindy rig.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
