Fished the St. Croix for a short time yesterday and witnessed many small to monster size sturgeon jumping all the way out of the water. I’ve never seen this before…Is it a common practice for these prehistoric weirdos?
We see sturgeon jump quite a bit on Wissota, but why? 
Please no one say, “Because they can” 
Sully
There’s two thoughts as to why…but they don’t really know for sure.
The most popular reason is to clear their gills.
The other reason is to bust off the lampreys.
It’s a cool fish that can weight in excess of 50 pounds, be 30 feet deep and in the time it takes to pick up your rod it’s air borne….then by the time it take for you to pick up your jaw…it’s at 30 feet deep and pulling drag.
I’m getting itchy!!!
I was just going to add that we must have seen 20 full-scale sturgeon belly flops today in the Chippewa River above Lake Wissota. Quite the sight to see!
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I’m getting itchy!!!
Your not the only one 
Seen quite a few of them in four mile bay during the sturgeon excursion (some huge ones too!)
I was going to ask the same thing , on the St Louis river here in duluth they jump all the time, i was wondering if it was to get the Zebra muscles off them?? 
Its something to see
BrianK you need to get over to Lake Wissota for those sturgeon. They are everywhere and big!
Interesting thing with the Sturgeon species is jumping seams to be something they all do, wherever they live. I’m not going to attempt to guess as to why, maybe they are just having fun! 
Few weeks ago, the gulf sturgeon in Florida were on the news for jumping. The river these fish were in is starting to see more use by recreational fisherman and boaters and the sturgeon are becoming a hazard. Image that… humans moving into a new area and complaining about the wildlife that have always been there. Anyway, these sturgeon were big, couple hundred pounds, and clearing the water by 5-6′. Jetskis were running into them.
Sturgeon in MN tend to surface more than jump. Shovelnose do it, as well as the Lake Sturgeon on the Rainy River and St Croix. During the Sturgeon Excursion this year, sturgeon were surfacing all over the place on 4 mile bay. I’ve honestly never seen that many surface before.
My experience says that a decent bite is usually found in conjunction with these surfacing and leaping sturgeon. Now if you can find 20lb channel cats breaching on the Red River, hold on tight!!
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Image that… humans moving into a new area and complaining about the wildlife that have always been there. Anyway, these sturgeon were big,…………. Jetskis were running into them.
Sweet! Those prehistoric fish are evolving right now by learning to take out the jet skis! Smart fish they are!
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