Just got my Sturgeon tag!

Gonna head to the river in the morning, saw a picture from a friend who’s brother was holding a 68″/ 68# fish and thought- that looks like fun! This fish was caught downtown Eau Claire, also saw a picture of a guy at work who caught a 45″ musky from the river also, this looks like fun too!!! I have been hitting the city shops but my results have been mixed at best, a few smallys a few crappies a few walters, nothing special. I’m going to move up to the dam targeting walleye and sturgeon tommorrow. I hope to have a good report soon after, fall fishing is upon us, guys are heading back to the woods, other guys are putting there ski boats, pontoons, jet skis etc. away. The best time for the purest is upon us, The other Opening day is here! Its time!

Fishing at the dam was ok, set up on a current break and did very well for walleye for the first 45 min (should of gotten up a little earlier) I didnt hook any sturgeon, but some guys I talked to caught 5, also another gentleman I talked to was doing very well for catfish in pocket next to the dam. Lots of schools of shad cruising uo there, will have to hit it again soon…..

Good Job bigpike. I’m going to pick up a tag this weekend and hopefully be able to get out one of these days. Did you catch any large walleye’s?
Steve

Thank you, yes I caught a few keepers, funny thing is I caught the bigger ones on my sturgeon rod rigged with crawlers, tried ringies, k-grubs and paddle-tails but had no luck. I really want to hook a big sturgeon, I have a 1 man pontoon boat and I think it would be a hoot to have one of those monsters drag me up and down the river for awhile. Not sure if I would keep it or not, though they are very good to eat, they are a pretty special species of fish….

What side of dam do you try? Go on the side with the gates, not the generators. The water doesnt move but its deep there. Ive had very good luck with sturgeon there.

Just a quick report, still havent hooked any sturgeon, but the walleye fishing was pretty good this morning from about dawn for an hour and a half. The water is up a good 9″ with all the rain and it helped the flow considerably. caught quite a few right at the 15″ limit and returned these to grow a little bigger, kept a few 16″ for lunch. Minnows were the ticket, did catch one on a paddletail, couldnt keep my sturgeon rod in the water when the eye bite started, they like pecking at that crawler. I do fish on the current break under the generators, I’ve gone over by the spillway area but I couldnt find much water over a few feet deep, I’ll have to bring my LX3 one of these times and do some sounding.

Went again last night and this morning, last night I hooked my first sturgeon (not very big). The walleyes had shut down and were hitting the crawler rig again instead of minnows. This morning there was a good bite again for walleyes but they wanted the minnow just sitting there, no jigging, no action, just sitting or very a slow drag. The walleyes I’m catching are decent size, today I had tons of action but the fish were picking up the minnow but not the jig, I must have donated 3 dozen minnows, I will have to add a few stingers to the mini tackle box for the next time. I would say the sturgeon fishing has shut down, I havent seen or heard of anyone catching them, maybe a good cold spell will put them back on the war path….

Were you fishing right up next to the dam? I’m gonna try to get out in the morning if it isn’t raining and try my luck at some eyes and see how that works.

I’ve been moving up and down the break depending on the bite, they move around. Yesterday I found them to be about 100′ down from the gate. Also they are catching them further down so you have lots of nice options. Once the sun comes over the ridge its pretty much done. Good Luck! P.S. Dont be afraid to tie off the dam. Its back to work for me till next week otherwise I’d come and join you…