This was caught on the MN this summer, the round nose looks like a small laker, but the guy claims it was a shovel. MN DNR found single specimens of lakers as far um stream as Montivideo in recent years.What do you guys think?
The more I look at this fish, the more I am convinced it is not a shovelnose.
Here is the current record:
Notice how it still retains characteristics of shovelnose in the snout and tail.
Also:
It would certainly be nice if they started re-colonizing the MN in numbers!
Don’t fish for sturgies but have caught my share (5-6 a year) while fishing for eyes on the croix both hard water and open water. Looks like the ones I catch and those are lake sturgeon. Just my .02 though
Looks to be a lake sturgy 
Seeing that the rumor has it this was caught upstream of Mankato, this is really good news!
It’s a laker. I’ve told this before on IDO, but I did find a 30″+ laker floating by the docks of Harriet Island about 4 years ago or so. The chances of seeing one floating would be pretty rare if there wasn’t a decent breeding population upstream of there. Hopefully these sights are less indicative of rare sightings of a low population and more a sign that they are re-establishing themselves. I wouldn’t doubt it because from what I have heard, the clean up of the Minnesota is quite the success story and the water quality has greatly improved.
I’m soooooo stoked to see evidence of lakers in my neighborhood! Now I just have to wait another 20 years for them to grow up. This one was in the Mankato/New Ulm stretch of the MN. I don’t worry about posting the picture since it ran in the local paper a couple weeks ago. I heard about the monster shovel caught, but didn’t have a chance to look at the pict up close till this morning.
Unless those littler ones swam up the river from their place of birth, you might not have to wait 20 years, you might just have to be patient when you fish for them.
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Unless those littler ones swam up the river from their place of birth, you might not have to wait 20 years, you might just have to be patient when you fish for them.
Note to self, bring crawlers and circle hooks along for when the cat bite gets slow. I was telling Joe (Swollen Goat) that now every time we break off on a monster, we can just tell people we KNOW it was a 30lb laker. 
Clearly a Laker.
Doug, I think there’s a new Shovel record for MN that was caught this spring. I saw an article in Outdoor News, but haven’t had time to follow up on it. The fish caught on P 4 broke the 6 pound mark and was looking pretty fat in the belly.
That’s a fantastic catch Goat! Congrats!
Yeah, I thought I heard it was broken, but wanted to use the Everts pic for reference to a larger shovelnose.
BTW – SG did not catch this fish, it was an article in the Mankato Free Press.
I just checked the MN records and it still shows the young lady’s 5.x fish as the record. Then I came across the Mankato Oppsy.
BK – can you shed any light on how Nelia got the record with that fish, what with shovelnose being protected and all? Does Evert’s have a certified scale? If so, isn’t the fish ‘reduced to possession’ by taking it off the water, and thus illegal? There’s probably some explanation 
She mut have caught it below the Red Wing Dam where you can posses up to 10.
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She mut have caught it below the Red Wing Dam where you can posses up to 10.
What Pug said.
Shovel season is open all year with a possession limit of 10. (I’m not going to post my opinions here).
A fella from IA brought up a few smoked “baseball bats” as I call them. I thought it was great eating. But then I love smoked fish.
Huh, I was not aware of that line.
The more I know!
Question – should we consider lake sturgeon to be ‘closed’ year round on the Minnesota? Would the DNR have to do studies of the population to determine if they were included in the fall season or C & R only? Just thought of this. 
My 02 cents.
I’ve been talking with the Lake City DNR over the last 5 years to allow C&R Lake Sturgeon fishing (at least) in the fall with the St Croix season on Pool 4. In my opinion there are more or at least just as many lakers there as shovelnose and there’s a harvest season on shovels. (which by the way I’m not fond of the 10 per day limit…but that’s another story).
Once I get my mitts on the DNR’s tagging studies I feel the data will back my claims.
There is talk, but that’s about it at this time.
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should we consider lake sturgeon to be ‘closed’ year round on the Minnesota?
To answer that question directly, yes.
I would have to believe with all the work the DNR has done on the MN, they should have enough data to back up some type of season already…or not.
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I just checked the MN records and it still shows the young lady’s 5.x fish as the record. Then I came across the Mankato Oppsy.
The article states: “While a spot in the DNR’s official big fish record book may have eluded Waugh, he still can claim a bit of finny fame as a Master Angler in the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame (www.minnesotafishinghalloffame.com) that includes a catch-and-release category as well as one for fish harvested.”
I’m guessing the MN Fishing Hall of Fame would notice the obvious oopsy, even if the paper didn’t bother to do any fact checking or species ID after looking at the picture.
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Question – should we consider lake sturgeon to be ‘closed’ year round on the Minnesota? Would the DNR have to do studies of the population to determine if they were included in the fall season or C & R only? Just thought of this.
Yes, lake sturgeon is closed on the Minnesota River. I’m not aware of any talk about opening it either. There are a fair number of shovelnose in the MN River, but lake sturgeon are pretty rare. The West Metro office would have the best information, but I don’t think they have much data on them.
I’ve been working on Pool 2 quite a bit since 2008 and have yet to see a single lake sturgeon, or shovelnose for that matter. Before any seasons would be opened in new waters, we would have to know something about the population, if they are resident or transient.
I have seen a few shovelnose in the St Croix, and that was noteworthy. They are pretty rare in the Croix for some reason.
Joel
Thanks for the update Joel. Is there any plan for doing a sampling on the MN to see what we have up there?
That is a question better answered by the West Metro crew in Shakopee. I don’t think they have plans at the moment, but maybe once they are fully staffed. They have been running with a small crew in that office so they haven’t had the resources to do much outside of core activities.
I hope we start seeing more surveys again with the fee increase. I wish we could convince the public to do less stocking, smarter stocking and more habitat restoration and actual management of lakes.
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I hope we start seeing more surveys again with the fee increase. I wish we could convince the public to do less stocking, smarter stocking and more habitat restoration and actual management of lakes.
You are lobbying for DNR Commissioner aren’t you?
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I hope we start seeing more surveys again with the fee increase. I wish we could convince the public to do less stocking, smarter stocking and more habitat restoration and actual management of lakes.
You are lobbying for DNR Commissioner aren’t you?
Does web development and procrastination qualify me? I can take on those walleye guys and their stocking. I’ll use a little reverse psychology jedi mind trick.
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