Our anchor touched down in 23 fow and our baits ended up in 30 to 50 fow depending on how far back we cast. My Favorite Wife and I were using crawlers, sucker slices, fat head minnow or combination of all of the above.
The targeted fish today:
Channel Cats, Shovelnose Sturgeon and anything else that tugged on the line. We weren’t to fussy as both of us were just happy to be out together enjoying a small slice of the summer of ’09.
It didn’t take too long before Deb was playing tug-o-war with a plump 10 pound channel cat that picked up the squished sucker head.
Never under estimate the power of a stepped on or otherwise squashed head!
The first sturgeon that came to the boat was a little tagged Lake Sturgeon. She was all of 25 inches. The tag number, length and location will be sent to the DNR office in Lake City to be added to their data base. Hopefully some day in my life time we’ll see a catch and release season on the Mississippi for these incredible fish.
As with all tagged fish, please leave the tag in the fish if your your releasing them. The tags keep on giving information each time they are caught and the info turned in.
The Shovelnose wouldn’t disappoint us. It seemed like 4 or 5 fatheads on the 4/0 circle hook was the bait of choice for these fish some call the ugliest fish in North American. I use my channel cat/Lake Sturgeon set up. A Garcia 6500 spooled with 80 pound PowerPro, mounted on a St. Croix TRC70MHF.
I could get away with a much lighter set up however there’s a very good chance of hooking into a trophy channel cat, a monster flathead or even and acrobatic Lake sturgeon.
Also known as Hackleback or Sand Sturgeon, shovels are a hoot to catch.
The shovelnose sturgeon, roam the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. One of the smallest of the sturgeon, with the WI State record being caught out of Everts Fishing Resort just a couple years ago at 5 pounds 9 oz. This is a record that will fall over the next few years. One client of mine caught what would have been a new state record by at least two ounces, but released it just last year.
Males reach sexual maturity around 5 years, females around 7 years. Like the Lake sturgeon, they don’t spawn every year.
Areas to target the guys will have sandy or gravel bottoms with moderate to heavy current. Most articales will say they mainly feed on aquatic invertebrates. Slices of sucker, fatheads as mentioned before and worms have work very well for me.
Shovelnose sturgeon are classified as a sport fish in about half of 24 states where it’s found. There’s a number of states that allow commercial harvest. Shovels are another fish that’s under fished in our area.
I’ll admit it, I was a bit nervous when the Favorite Wife wanted to go fishing Sunday morning instead of Friday or Saturday evening. Many questions went through my mind…will I be able to fish the spots I want to fish? Will I be over run with boats? Do I have enough sun block?
It turns out I had little to worry about. Fishing the upper most end of Pool 4 is pretty darn quiet this time of year. Couple tuna boats camping on the sand bar, couple guys fishing to the right of us for an hour or so, a pontoon checking out different areas looking for a bite. We met Trumar and partner fishing down by the Y on our way in. That’s about it.
I was kind of nice fishing without having to have the lights turned on. I didn’t have to worry about losing a $7. crank bait… just anchor and spend quality time watching the eagles and catching up on life with the wife.
See you on the river!
Today’s tally:
4 Flatheads Largest 9 pounds
1 Channel 10 pounds
2 Lake Sturgeon Largest 26 inches
4 Shovels No Length or weights taken
and of course
1 Sheepshead