St. Croix Suprise!!!!!!

I thought that snag felt funny. It shouldn’t be taking out line. I can see why the walleyes weren’t biting in that spot. I thought this had to be a 50″ sturgeon, boy was I suprised. I’ve caught a 50″ sturgeon before but this was way cool!!! Does anyone have a guess on how much it weighed? It went about 46″.

On to lesser news, we caught 4 walleyes and about a dozen whities. One walleye went about 22″. I’d have taken a picture of it but why??? I’d rather catch another flathead!!!

I want to say thanks to the other boat that helped me land it. My net wasn’t big enough.

no guess on the weight but nice catch!

Nice surprise…..I mean fish, that had to be fun

Hopefully gonna get me one of those tonight

That excitement is shared by many. Put a hand under her belly next time, to be nice to her.

WOW!! Beautiful Flathead. You didn’t happen to get a girth measurement did you? The flathead Weight conversion Table for a 46 inch length gives you a pretty good spread –

46″ X 24″ = about 40 lbs

46″ X 30″ = about 50 lbs

I would expect you are closer to that high side than the lower side. That is a beauty – I spend all summer chasing flats so I appreciate a beauty like that one. Congrats.

I’m with Steve. My eyeball scales comes in at 45 to 50 lbs.

A true trophy!

Thanks boys. I didn’t get a girth. I wanter to get her back in the water. I wasn’t sure how much handling she could take.

I hope you guys don’t mind, but you may have a little more company out there chasing cats after battling this one

Just curious, How often do you see fish of this size??? I caught this one north of Stillwater, are they common up ther or are they more of a slow water fish?

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Just curious, How often do you see fish of this size??? I caught this one north of Stillwater, are they common up ther or are they more of a slow water fish?

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How often do you see one of that size? Not often enough – they are like big muskies, it takes a lot of hours and a lot of hunting to get them on a consistent basis. You don’t even want to know how many skunks I will put up with during a normal year just to hopefully catch one or two fish of that size. The big flats are spread throughout the river system. You can catch big cats of this size on the St Croix, Minnesota River and the Mississippi River from Pool 1 on downriver.

I’m curious, what did you catch this one on? Were you walleye fishing with live bait?

You are in trouble now though. After catching one fish like that everything else you catch will seem like bait. I expect to bump into you late at night this summer. Welcome to the Dark Side.

For me it’s been 12 (45 to 59 pounds) in 4 years and with 3 of those years I was out 6 nights per week for 2 months.

Again like Steve said, once you get some cat slime in your veins…

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I’m curious, what did you catch this one on? Were you walleye fishing with live bait?

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Gold jig and a tiny little fathead (Fsihing walleyes ). When I jig fish, I use a very active retrieve. I was shocked a fish with that big of a mouth would even bother. Just knowing those fish are down there has got me excited. I started sturgeon fishing last year with some great success, and now I have another feather in my cap.

I may have to change my avatar from the walleye pic to one of my flathead pics. Then I’ll officially be on the dark side.

Thanks for all the help

FYI~ There hasn’t been a 12 step program designed yet.