Wow a bit windy today!

The white caps were in full force today, along with thoughtless “cruisers”.
Very productive day. Over 60 sturgeon boated. Biggest one was 48″
It was very interesting. There were times when we would get no fish on shad, only crawlers, and other times just the opposite. I’m convinced that these fish move in schools of like size. When the smaller ones come through they are hitting the crawlers, and the bigger ones cruising through prefer the shad.

I know for a fact that the bite happens in flurries.

Good day on the water.

60 sturgeon for the year??? Or in a day? Sounds like a blast! Last time I caught 60 fish in a weekend, I was bass fishing. (that was before I knew any better)

Hey, those ‘cruisers’ are not completly thoughtless…They ‘think’ it helps to slow down a bit when passing by, but they actually make a bigger wake at slower speeds.

Dtro, day or night seem to make a difference?

Sounds like you had a blast! I spent the day with the family and faught off a flu bug.

Now to figure out if that was any better than 30+ mph winds and cruiser wakes all day

Is it going to be windy today? I might have to go refresh my memory!

Hey dtro,
Sounds like you had a productive day. Just a thought about the cruisers: I dislike the wake these guys make as much as you but I was wondering if their prop chops some of them shad up in the area we are fishing in, thus making the area an attractive feeding grounds for these sturgeon to hang out in???? Not sure if they help us or just frustrate us.

I believe the dnr states that they travel in loose “pods”.

Last Thursday night we got into a lot of fish…but they were much smaller than I’ve seen all year…in fact, the smallest fish was caught that night.

This photo of a cruiser was taken as he was going away..I had to get the camera out and turn it on. There is at least a 1/4 mile on either side of me…

…and Castandblast? I prefer to chop up my own shad!

Here’s Ryan the Sportsman’s Warehouse Fishing Dept Manager with the smallest fish of the year…for my boat anyway.

Isn’t he cute? The sturgeon I mean!

Ryan? would it make it better if I told everyone you were 10 foot tall and had hands the size of basketball…hoops???

To make up for that little guy, Ryan hauled in this 16 lbs channle cat…what a pig!

That is one dinky sturgeon! I’m impressed! Did you measure it? My smallest was 22″, but that one looks smaller. Great looking channel cat, though!

Guy the Shipping and Recieving Manager (the fella you’ll never see at Sportsmans Warehouse) ended up with the largest sturgeon of the night.

We sure had action but lacked in size…but those 40 inchers still liked to pull the rods into the water!

We didn’t measure it Ryan. I’m guessing it was closer to 12 inches than 22. Darn near aquarium size!

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Just a thought about the cruisers: I dislike the wake these guys make as much as you but I was wondering if their prop chops some of them shad up in the area we are fishing in, thus making the area an attractive feeding grounds for these sturgeon to hang out in????

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That would be my guess as well.

Guys down south fish cats beneath the power dams because the shad & other baitfish are getting sucked through the turbines and chopped up, disoriented, whatever. The cats wait and pick off these easy meals. I’ve heard that the fishing is usually “off” when the dams aren’t running.

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Sorry to hear about the flu Dave.
I bet a good cure is fighting another 60″ fish

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The flu is gone!

Those 60″+ fish just pull to darn hard… I’d rather catch the 36″-48″ fish(not that they dont fight) with regularity.. and throw a big one in here and there.

I’ll have the big gear out this saturday for the contest to do my duty of landing a really big fish! After that, I’ll be content with smaller fish the rest of the day!

Those big fish are a blast, but man can they wear a person out for days if you get into a few of them!

Brian,

I stopped in to Sportsmans Warehouse and talked to Ryan on Friday evening. He set me up with a 8′ medium heavy Berkley Glowstick and a Abu 6600C4 spooled with 175 yards of 80 lb Power Pro. I fished the St. Croix Saturday morning but didn’t catch anything. I started under the bridges at Prescott around 6:15 and then moved north of the Kinny. I used cut creek chubs and crawlers. I marked a ton of fish north of the Kinny and there were big fish that kept surfacing but wouldn’t come all the way out of the water so I couldn’t get a good look at them. I don’t know what they were but there sure were a lot of them.

On the topic of the cruisers killing shad, I suspect it happens or at least stuns them. Have you ever noticed all sea gulls that follow the big cruisers or barges about this time of year on the Mississippi? They just follow behind them and dive down feeding on the churned up bait fish. This Mississippi is a lot shallower than the St. Croix but I’d suspect the same thing happens on the Croix.

I’m hoping to give it another try tomorrow evening. I think I’m on the steep part of the sturgeon fishing learning curve but hopefully I can luck into one.

Boone

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Brian,

On the topic of the cruisers killing shad, I suspect it happens or at least stuns them. Have you ever noticed all sea gulls that follow the big cruisers or barges about this time of year on the Mississippi? They just follow behind them and dive down feeding on the churned up bait fish. This Mississippi is a lot shallower than the St. Croix but I’d suspect the same thing happens on the Croix.

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Boone That is what got castand blast and I thinking about the shad getting cut up. Everytime a cruiser went by the seagulls were thick there and we saw them with shad in their beaks.

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…and Castandblast? I prefer to chop up my own shad!

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Hey Briank, I agree with you. What is it with these people driving these things?

I’m starting to think they just want to see what color my carpeting is!

Good luck Boone! The kinni is a very good area…but anchoring right in the boat lane of traffic is not recommended by the US Surgeon General.

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I’m starting to think they just want to see what color my carpeting is!

Good luck Boone! The kinni is a very good area…but anchoring right in the boat lane of traffic is not recommended by the US Surgeon General.

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Surgeon General…or Sturgeon General???

Started with the coffee earlier this morning, huh Ralf?

Good one!