Catfish guys Sturgeon trip

Last Fri and Sat night 3 IDO cat-fisherman tried their luck for Sturgeon on the Wi. River. Skunk Boy Ken Miller brother Jerry Ho and myself Dave Ho.
We launched the boat,in the dark on a stretch of river that none of us had ever been on.Thanks for the full moon that helped us find our way.
First night boated 15 sturgeon 2 were 50in one 48in. It is amazing what a strong fight they they give. Second night 19 sturgeon biggest was 45in. We also had a bonus of two flatheads 10 and 4lbs. All of the fish were caught on night crawlers.
Our catfish rods and reels with 80 lb power pro worked fine. Jerry and I used 4/0 circle hooks and Skunk boy used a octopus J hook. All fish were released in good shape.
Thanks to IDO for getting us interested enough to try sturgeon and sharing info on equipment and methods.
Dave

Looks like a blast! congrats!

Congrats as well

Did any of them clear out of the water for you guys?

agree, their strenght, speed and endruance sure does make for a great fight.

Sounds like a couple great nights to me!!

Nice work. I’ve been wanting to chase them but it never seems to work out.

Yes many of them jumped and danced completely out of the water when first hooked.When you got them close to the boat
they would hug the bottom and go on several drag screaming runs before giving up to the net.We could here sturgeon surface and splash throughout the night.

First off, thanks for posting Dave.

to answer the question…yes, quite a few did jump. Dave caught a 45″ that jumped after it had swam under the boat…we didn’t actually get to see it jump as we were all facing the other way. Jerry had one jump right in front of him. There were a couple of them that jumped on the bite. That was pretty neat in the moon light.

I was a great time and I plan to do it again next year as well. Maybe a coupld of times. I doubt I’ll ever buy a tag though. Since I’m out of state, $50 is pretty steep.

Thanks for the invite Jerry and the three of us will certainly do it again.

L8R…Ken

BTW, those shad I brought along didn’t even get a sniff.

Looks like you guys kicked butt!

It really was a great time. Thanks for posting the report and pictures Dave. I’ll be looking forward to September sturgeon fishing just like I look forward to November deer hunting from now on. They put up a great fight and how exciting to have a big fish jump and tail dance like that. Here are a couple more pictures:

That last picture is the three of us enjoying a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy at my house after our first night of sturgeon fishing.

It’s interesting that the fish above is built more like the fish we see on LOTW’s. The others appear to be much more skinny even thinner then the St Croix that are know to be thinner then LOTWs.

I’m wondering if they spawned this last summer and build up bulk with the 4-5 year egg building cycle(?)

I was quite surprised at the lack of girth on these fish as well. Caught a couple that looked right , but most seemed to have a concave belly. I’d imagine most would add a few pounds to the scale if they were fattened up some. Although we did not weigh a single fish, only got a length.

L8R…Ken

so the key is biscuits for breakfast u say eh?