Sturgeon Tip of the Day: Try some Fatheads

I just got in and had a slow night. Picked up 4 sturgeon from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. It was a cool evening and it sounds like the rest of the sturgeon season could have some cool nights. Water temp was 56 degrees. I was playing around with bait choices and fished one rod with cut sucker and the other rod with fatheads. Of the 4 fish I caught, 3 were caught on fatheads.I just saw that pic of the big sturgeon caught on a fathead and it confirmed they will take them readily.

I was putting 4 fatheads on a 5/0 circle hook. The first two I put on whole and the last two I pinched in half to get the juices flowing. I’ll post a picture of how I hooked the fatheads. The bite on the fatheads seemed a little more aggressive than the cut bait bite.

I did have one problem with this setup. I was using a 1 1/2 oz No-Roll sinker and a short 12″ leader with the 5/0 circle hook. For some reason the setup was getting tangled fairly frequently. The hook kept getting tangled above the sinker. I’m not sure why. It bothered me because I wasn’t confident the bait was laying out right on the bottom.

I thought I would post this to give you all some other bait options for the rest of the season. Jimmy’s had some nice big fatheads that worked good for this setup.

C15 could you add alittle weight near the hook to make sure the bait doesn’t swing too much?

Just a thought.

Hey Chriss – I’m thinking the 2 live fatheads move the leader around enough to tangle it up. I might just pinch off all the fatheads – that should put more juices in the water and take away their movement. I’m going out again this evening and will experiment a little.

great tip thanks for sharing

I dont think the fatheads swimming have anything to do with your tangles. I think your tangles are due to a much lighter, more aerodynamic bait sinking into the depths behind the same weight you usually use for bait that is 5 times the mass, and at least that for water resistence on the way down.

Go as light as you possibly can for the weight, lose the super line if neccessary, or close/engage the spool when you cast out(farther from boat is better) and keep the line tight as it drops.

Im not telling you to change the way you fish, but trying a couple of these things might pinpoint your problem in the matter of minutes and let you alter your tecnique to be most effective. Weight type may be the answer also.

I think you are right, Dave. I was out last night (It was a blustery evening! Brrr!) and I didn’t have any problem if I kept a tight line on the drop. The fathead rig worked just fine. I fished from 7:30pm to 9:00pm. I got 4 sturgeon, one nice channel and a big carp. I got 2 sturgeon and the carp on fatheads and the rest on cut sucker. Strong southwest wind last night made fishing tough – hope Saturday’s wind isn’t from the south.

Steve! Dave hit it right on the head. I use fathead just like you show them there but usually I hook most by the tail. Fatheads seem to work better earlier in the season by far over cut bait. And we caught a few walleyes also witch solved the dinner issues for the night too

But like dave said you need to keep tention on the line while its dropping and once the bait hits bottom I usually drag it a couple feet to free the minnows away from the sinker. I try to toss the rig about twice the distance from where I want the bait to lay so you dont have to worry about that tangling problem.