What’s not working…

Sturgeon fishing was a bust for us yesterday. I met a couple of friends at the launch around 3:00 yesterday for a blustery and frustrating day of fishing. Water was 66 degrees. We fished until 8:30 and had three small sheephead, a small sturgeon, and some windburn to show for our efforts. We used shad, cut sucker, and cut sheephead for bait. There were a couple of other boats in the area, and we only saw a couple of small sturgeon boated.

I’m willing to blame it on the massive cold front that rolled through the area Monday night.

The one positive is that the weather kept cruiser traffic to a bare minimum .

It may have had something to do with any area inlets… I have noticed when the inlets are cooler, the fish tend to scatter, or become more reluctant to cooperate at least for the 1st day of the cold front. The bite tends to pick up once the weather stabilizes for a day or 2. If the weather remains unstable, there are usually a few good bite windows and lots of lull times.

I’m heading to the Croix in about an hour, I’ll let you know if anything improved.

Hopefully the weather will remain stable the rest of the week.

I was out Monday night right after the storm, and the bite was incredible, I had my first fish in the boat within 5 minutes of anchoring (a 49″ wild sturgeon) and it was non-stop action for two hours with sturgeon and cats, then at 10 pm the wind picked up slightly and it shut off. Hope it has stabilized by tonight.
Here are some pics from Friday, the 49″ and my first DOUBLE!
Good luck out there!

STCROIXER

Looks like you are giving those cats a big thank you bear hug before the release. Nice sturgeon!

Over the years we’ve noticed slowdowns after a cold front. We also noticed they bite well in the rain. We were out Monday during and after the storm. We pounded them on Monday. We had a triple and several doubles. We quit at 10 with a double. Last week we fished in the rain and also did well. Last year our best night was in the rain and two years ago we had our best night ever also in the rain.

We didnt do too terrible yesterday, but slower than previous days and most fish were small. We ended up with about 15(not counting sheephead like those other guys )

The action was strange, you could go 45 minutes without a bite and all of a sudden 2 lines would go at the same time, and a 3rd bite would happen while landing fish… then you waited again.

Who counts sheepshead? You can’t count bait.

Did ya count the Eel bud?
Funny how i always say i’m gonna keep one, but never do. LOL!

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Did ya count the Eel bud?
Funny how i always say i’m gonna keep one, but never do. LOL!

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Nope.. the eel didnt count! You stated before on how you were going to cook one up.. cant say I didnt offer.. it was fresh and lively, and lived to bite again another day

Wed night on the St. Croix. We got 6 or 7 small sturgeon, 1 flat, and 1 nice channel during the rain. No drum! The flat was caught on a sucker, the rest on crawlers, and nothing on cut sucker. (I forgot the shad).

I wish I knew what works now. What do you do if you are catching all small ones? Is there a big one roaming around with them?

Hayward… to reduce the number of small fish, use a larger bait offering. I have caught a few nice ones in the croix on crawlers.. but those little guys get to the bait 99% of the time. Dont forget the shad at home next time! Fillets of suckers will work too, and people have been doing pretty good on fatheads this year too.. but the little guys seem to like those too.