Honestly I’ve seen sturgeon caught on all kinds of rods. The key is to have a little bit of give in the tip to visually detect the bites. Line choice can become crutial where superbraids are always better for bite detection, especially on long cast. When the fish are aggressively feeding it doesn’t matter and a broomstick will do just fine, if nothing else you will realize you have a fish when you reel in to check your bait. Other days the bites are very finicky and they don’t hold it long, so you nearly need to hold the rod with any set up. In all honesty the waves are often more of a factor in bite detection as most fish in the windswept areas. Anchoring is crucial and you want as minimal boat sway as possible or your in for a frustrating day.
Sturgeon fishing is honestly pretty easy, the tough part is getting a system down and keeping on active fish, and keeping your boat under control to detect the finicky bites. Keep your bait fresh and do a little leg work and it shouldn’t be long before your hooking into fish.
Terminal tackle goes by preference, I prefer and swear by 3/0 gamakatsu circles on the Croix, my hookup rate is excellent and ive never had a swallowed hook. If you use a mono leader, I recommend checking it often, the small fish are sharp and tend to damage them. A mono leader also reduces line twist on the fall in deep water reducing tangles.. for this same reason leave the no-rolls at home, they spin like helicopters if your line isn’t piano wire dropping 30 feet.
I really don’t recommend using gear too light for these fish, especially the big fish. Sure you can land one on an ultralight, but its really hard on the fish. I recommend at least 20# mono, or 40# power pro and a rod suitable to handle it with some backbone.
