A lot of changes take place in the big rivers this time of year. Large schools of baitfish such as shiners, shad, and sheepshead are very plentiful. Some of these fish come out of smaller rivers and tributaries like the Kinny and the Croix, and the Vermillion and North Lake on the Mississippi. The forage base tends to school and congregate around areas where these waters join. Gulls can be found pounding the water with regularity. White bass and walleye are usually close by where this is taking place, as well as some large crappie. As the temps change, fishing can become tricky at best. The walleye bite on Pool 3 and the Croix are slow, and very well scattered. This should continue to improve as it does every fall. Until then, off to pursue other game…
The year of 2005 for me was a year to throttle back on tournaments, and concentrate more on species that I find intriguing, and challenging. Flatheads, channels, and now sturgeon fit the bill nicely! With the catfish bite cooling down with the river temps, sturgeon are now showing up with more regularity. The season on the Croix runs through September, and early October. The size limit on these fish if a person was to keep one is 50". You must immediately sign the back of your MN license at the time you keep one. Your limit is one per calender year. Fishing for them is relatively easy. Conventional catfish gear and hooks can be used effectively. I prefer #5 Gamakatzu Big Game hooks, and circle hooks. Prefered bait would be a combo of "Filet of Sucker" and night crawler. Don’t expect to see this sandwich at Mickey D’s anytime soon!
This night, Colin Williams of Rochester joined catfish/sturgeon zealot Tim Deiman and myself for a go at the freshwater shark in the Croix. It was a pretty uneventful evening until just before sundown when one of the aft rods started jerking and clicking wildly! I grabbed the 6500 and St. Croix rod out of the holder, and leaned into the fish. I could tell it was not the large prehistoric creature we were hoping for, but it was nice to connect with one of it’s offspring. A 10 pound toddler.
Just after dark, Colin answers the call on the same rod. We were not all that surprised to see a feisty channel cat on the end of the line. He was cited for "Attempted feeding on a sturgeon bait" and released. It is not uncommon to run into channels while fishing for sturgeon. Both fish are scavengers, and are often found plying the same waters.
While we are on the subject of cats, pictured here is Brad Dirkman of Fergus Falls MN with a 20 pound class flatty caught while prefishing for the FLW League Championship in Winnona. According to Brad, he thought he was hooked into a stump, when the stump started to move! How many times has that happened to walleye guys? Nice fish Brad!
Great report Tuck! I have never fished intentionally for the prehistoric brutes, but have occasionally hooked them while walleye jigging. Some so large my walleye tackle was helpless to move them from the bottom!
I’d love to learn more about their habits and habitats, maybe target them as well!
Thanks!
Nice report Chris!
That spot…the one with the channel cat? It looks framilar…just can’t quite place it.
Seems like the cruiser hatch is lightening up a bit too. That always helps the bite on the Croix.
Good Report Chris, thanks
Is the “cruiser hatch repellent”, similar to the “snake repellant”?
dave
Thanks for the report Tuck. Too many times people get caught up in I have to be walleye fishing or I have to be bass fishing and forget about how great it felt when they first started fishing and catching different kinds of fish was fun too. Sometimes even much more fun as its more laid back, relaxing, and gives a person a different prospective on fishing too. Fishings alot of fun no matter what fish we fish for/catch as you just showed us.
Thanks, Bill
In Late Sept. and Oct. a lot of sturgeon are caught below Dam 3 and also these darn mud puppies. Everybody seems to be confused on weather the sturgeon can be kept. We put them back with the understanding nothing is legal below Prescott, is that the case? Anybody know what Minn and WI. DNR state about sturgeon. I know I’ll get the answer here.
In Wisconsin waters, at least the “lake sturgeon” is the species which is primarily protected with the short season and one yearly bag over 50 inches.
Most of the fish coming out of the Flambeau and Wisconsin River systems are “lake sturgeon”. I remember fishing ’em around the Dells in ’62 or ’63 when barely a teenager.
Uncle Bud caught one about 30 inches which seemed HUGE at the time. But what I remember most was cousin Jimmy jumping in the back seat of that old Chevy in a pouring rain and getting hooked in the back…and me puking up A & W rootbeer and hamburgers all over both beds on my first adventure in man-land after the giddy realization that there are now restrictions on consumption when you’re in manland.
Forty years later I still fish ’em at the Dells–just a couple crawlers using a pyramid sinker rigged Lindy style to hold in the sand–and a liberal dose of ANISE scent.
According to the DNR sturgeon reach sexual maturity at about 15 years of age. Females are about 50 inches by this point. After sexual maturity growth rates are individual—you could catch a 60 incher that is 20…or 80 years old.
A few years ago I did a story on a whopping big sturgeon. It was wallowing and dying in one of those kids plastic wading pools when I showed up to take a foto of the lucky angler. Wis. DNR biologist Gene VanDyck took a scale sample from one of those bony plates.
When he called later and said this fish was swimming in the Wisconsin River when Chief Blackhawk was roaming around you could have knocked me over with a feather!
Since then it has been a policy to never kill anything older than I am. 12 year-old scotch is still okay…but no more lake sturgeon.
Ah….but there are “sand sturgeon” swimming in the Mississippi on which there are essentially no restrictions!
I believe the limit is six per day.
Don’t know about further upstream, but on pool 9 where i guide probably the best place to catch ’em is on the Wisconsin side of the River right below the dam.
Nothing is better than smoked sturgeon…and Engh’s fish market in Genoa used to take six sturgeon and give you back three smoked ones on the spot.
Sand sturgeon don’t typically grow as big as lake sturgeon. There are three ways to tell the species apart. Because lake sturgeon grow to be such old men and there is such a profound pecuniary boot in the cajones for killing a lake sturgeon you are going to have to go to the book and discover the identifying characteristics for yourself. HOpe this helps!