Feigning to fish! Sturgeon?

Started school last week and haven’t been out in a while. Assuming I don’t get crammed with homework might try some fishing. So cats are phasing out and sturgeon are in. How do you fish for them? Day/Night, bait, set up?

-Mallory

Your question might as well read “how do you skin a cat?”

So here’s one way.

Same rod/reel set up as you have now for cats.

Change your hook to a 3/0 or 4/0 Gamakatsu and close your bail, no line out alarm. This is the same way I’ll fish for channels which is an added plus when the stray cat happens along.

Bait?

3″ shad works very well
Sliver of sucker fillet (about 1 to 2 inches long)
3 or 4 crawlers (seem to work better in the spring for me)
and
4 or so fathead minnows on the hook. Some live some pinched off (watch for walleye or sauger pickups)

What did I miss?

Edit….3/0 or 4/0 Gamakatsu CIRCLE HOOKS

For shad are you talking frozen?

When you say sucker filets is that different than just choping them into cut bait?

Thanks for the tips Brian

Fresh anything is most always better, but trying to find it is the difficult part.

When I say sucker fillets, Steve DeMars showed me this little trick. Fillet your sucker as if it were a walleye then you might have to shorten up the fillets depending on how large your suckers are. Don’t forget to crush the head before you send it out to the bottom of the river!

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What did I miss?

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dont slam the rod back on a hook set start reeling or a nice steady sweep

They bite day or night.In day light they will be deeper most often but not always. If you can, tie a jug to your anchor rope and have it so you can untie quick and easy, in case you get a monster that you need to chase aeound.
I like fatheads on a circle hook best but always have a few differnt baits along.

Watch that rod tip closely. I slight peck of what could be mistaken as bait fish or tiny channels nipping, might actually be a big fish. With cruisers and the waves, bite detection will become more difficult.

Quote:

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Your question might as well read “how do you skin a cat?”

So here’s one way.

Same rod/reel set up as you have now for cats.

Change your hook to a 3/0 or 4/0 Gamakatsu and close your bail, no line out alarm. This is the same way I’ll fish for channels which is an added plus when the stray cat happens along.

Bait?

3″ shad works very well
Sliver of sucker fillet (about 1 to 2 inches long)
3 or 4 crawlers (seem to work better in the spring for me)
and
4 or so fathead minnows on the hook. Some live some pinched off (watch for walleye or sauger pickups)

What did I miss?

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i am heading to yellow lake in webster WI for the weekend, will this same criteria/baits work on a lake?
should i tie a mono leader to my braid?

thanks

Just curious, could you use strips of sheepshead instead???

Al

Quote:

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They bite day or night.In day light they will be deeper most often but not always. If you can, tie a jug to your anchor rope and have it so you can untie quick and easy, in case you get a monster that you need to chase aeound.
I like fatheads on a circle hook best but always have a few differnt baits along.

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This is where the jingle bells come into play!

Well Mike works all weekend and I work Sunday night until 10 so now if we go out it would be Monday. But just in case I got one more question, are there certain spots to watch for or water depth? Thanks much

-Mal