12 Month C&R Sturgeon Season(?)

It was a long time ago it seems when I started pestering Kevin Stauffer of the Lake City DNR office about including Pool 4 in a (at least) catch and release Lake Sturgeon season. “Will we see one in our life time?” I would kid with him. When he told me they were working on a State wide C&R season that would be open pretty much all year I was taken back a bit.

Many problems went through my mind as these fish are just coming back from a very very poor population and they take a persons life time or more for nature to restock them. After walking through each issue I came up with, I was left with two problems that could hurt the Sturgeon population in my mind.

1. Fishing Lake Sturgeon during the spawn.
Personally I don’t know enough about their spawning habits to know if this is going to be a problem or not. The rules that would be going into effect this coming March seem to have a clause to protect the fish during spawn if needed.

2. Handling Sturgeon before the release.
It’s unfortunate for the sturgeon to have those two nice handles called gill plates. They make it very easy for a large fish to be held by them and this increases the likelihood their gills could be damaged.

2 a.) This brings up a sub question. Does holding a sturgeon by it’s gill plates kill the fish?
I don’t have the answer to that but keeping our hands away from the lungs of a fish certainly makes sense to me.

Looking at photos of sturgeon with gill plates being bent to a horizontal position always makes me cringe.

If in fact the holding of fish in this manner doesn’t effect them, then it is more about taking a photo that’s eye pleasing to me.

If these holds do hurt the fish, how do we go about getting the word out to anglers new to the sport? From past experience calling people out on line doesn’t work. Well it may or may not. Those people end up being embarrassed and never post a photo again. Private messaging them seems to be the best answer for the forums, but what about all the other anglers that don’t visit fishing web sites? I’ve seen gill hold photos in most every publication as well.

Of course if a person is going to harvest a fish how it’s held really doesn’t matter I guess. But people see those photo’s and that’s how they will be holding them in the future.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

A page in the DNR booklet on proper handling – like front cover, would be nice.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/baudette/sturgeon_advice.pdf

Hey all,

I was beaten to the punch, but the link above and attached below was a document that I helped put together while working on the Rainy River/LOTW sturgeon population as it became more common to catch large fish. The principles listed in the pdf apply just as well to fisheries in other parts of the state including the St. Croix and a future Mississippi River fishery. There are two main reasons that we encourage people to hold their sturgeon horizontally as shown in the pictures in the pdf.

1) holding the fish by the gill plates can cause damage to the tissues in that area including the gills through abrasion or the strain of supporting a heavy fish by a body part never intended for that kind of load and,

2) Sturgeon don’t have a backbone. Rather they have a collection of cartilage surrounding a notochord. When you remove the sturgeon from the water it loses the support the water provides it and holding it in a vertical position can cause the sections of the spinal column to separate potentially damaging the notochord.

As for the spawning season concern that Brian brought up, the proposed CR season would include a closure during the spring to protect spawning sturgeon. I would be interested to hear from any IDO folks that are aware of or observe sturgeon spawning behavior either in the Mississippi River or in its immediate tributaries. The spawning locations of our Mississippi population are not particularly well known and provide an excellent opportunity for us to apply a large number of tags in an efficient way to adult fish. If folks do know about a spawning location, please contact me directly using my DNR contact information to prevent any harassment of spawning populations.

Thanks, and good luck fishing this fall,

Nick

Nick Schlesser
Large Lake Specialist (Lake Pepin)
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
1801 S. Oak Street
Lake City, MN 55041
651-345-3365 x235
[email protected]

Couldn’t ask for any better replies!

So do we have no data on Mississippi fish? Is it possible they are not spawning and just migratory fish that find their way into the system? We know the fish move up into shallow rocky tribs in every other major system so wouldn’t that hold true here as well? Are they trapped between locks with nowhere to go? Vermilion seems plausible for spawning, but not many others.

As far as handling goes, understanding that these fish will continue to grow, I wonder if we will get to a point in our life when the size structure gets to where we shouldn’t be taking the fish out of the water at all like they do in other places? Unless you are completely prepared, dealing with a 100 pound fish (or more) is not an easy task. Personally, I kind of would hate to see such tight restrictions but understand the thinking and why we wouldn’t want to be levering in a 7ft fish over the gunnel and flopping it into the boat while it destroys everything in sight with a few tails swipes and probably injuring itself in the process.

I think there are a lot of things to be concerned about, but hopefully we will be able to fish for them in the spring around here. Even though the popularity has grown exponentially the number of angler hours targeting sturgeon is still miniscule

Awesome Nick.

I was hoping this year round C&R would open up the door for information to flow into the DNR so we can better manage the Dino’s.

Here’s Last night’s properly held stugeon. He did the ol’ sturgeon squirm and that’s why you wear clothes you don’t mind sliming up. To keep them from banging on the ground – Give em a hug Don’t gill them!!

Having a 100 pound, 7 foot fish next to the boat would truly be a success story on the lower rivers!

Taking photos of it on the front end of a pontoon, not so much.

There’s a couple places on the St. Croix known for spawning. I’m not aware of any on the Mississippi but the have to be there some place…I would guess.

I don’t believe they are locked in the pools. There’s been a number of tagged fish caught going down stream. One that made the trip from Taylors Falls to La Cross area and the one that Ryan and I (caught twice) that was tagged in the Kinni narrows and we recaptured on Pool 4. There was some question about that one spawning as it lost about 10 pounds between recaptures.

Back to handling sturgeon.
It’s been talked about on all the forums for at least 10 years but we still see photos of gill holds.

I like the idea of the regulation book highlighting how to hold a fish on the cover with more detail inside.

Let’s look a the St Croix right now. Let’s say all the fish caught in a decent night/day of fishing were held by the gills and 1/2 of them died…or 1/4 of them.

You guys know I’m all for the guy that wants to keep a fish, but these aren’t walleyes and I would hate to see our season close down because of improper handling.

General Guidelines:
–
Use tackle strong enough to land fish relatively quickly, to minimize stress on the fish
–
Use an appropriately sized landing net to aid in catching the fish
–
Avoid removing fish from the water for very long
–
Some fish are just too big to safely bring into your boat. Release them without bringing them into the boat when possible
–
Consider placing a measuring device on the side (outside) of your boat to get a quick measurement before releasing the fish so you do not have to remove it from the water.

Guidelines for handling fish for photos:
–
Always support the fish horizontally.
Do Not hold sturgeon in a vertical position by their head,
gills, or tails, even for taking pictures
–
Before you bring a big fish into your boat, make sure fishing rods, tackle boxes, and other loose objects are out of the way
–
Never touch their eyes or gills
–
Minimize their time out of the water
–
And remember, some fish are just too big to safely bring into your boat.

**********************

Recommended Equipment:
All anglers:
–
Tackle
that is suitable for landing a fish that weighs 100 pounds
or more
–
A boat anchor that will hold your boat in strong river currents
–
Camera
–
Large landing net
–
Gloves, especially for handling small sturgeon that have razor sharp projections (scutes)
–
Pliers to remove hooks from fish. Sturgeon are almost always hooked in the mouth.
–
Device to accurately measure the length of a long fish. We see fish over 80 inches long.
–
Device, such as a seamstress tape, to measure maximum girth
used to estimate weight of fish
–
A pen or pencil and a pad of paper to record numbers from tagged fish that you catch
.
Several thousand Rainy River/Lake of the Woods sturgeon have been tagged by the Minnesota DNR. Additional items for anglers that intend to harvest a lake sturgeon:
–
Purchase a harvest tag before going fishing. Make sure to bring the tag with you. (EDIT:if you plan on harvesting a sturgeon)
(EDIT: Know the legal sizes, slots limit and season of harvest dates)
–
Means to validate the harvest tag once you harvest a fish.
–
Means to properly attach the harvest tag to the fish. A plastic “zip tie” works well to attach the tag. The tag must be attached to the narrow part of the body, in front of the tail fin.
–
Cooler (with ice) large enough to hold a legal sized sturgeon
. Lake sturgeon must be transported intact (gills and internal organs may be removed).
–
A pen to record information needed to fill out your sturgeon registration slip. You will receive your registration slip when you purchase a harvest tag (it is printed along with your tag).
–
Stamped envelope in which to mail your sturgeon registration slip
to the Minnesota DNR.

Measuring a lake sturgeon
In Minnesota, the accepted method to measure fish is to its
“maximum total length.” Practically speaking, this is the longest length you can attain when measuring the fish on a flat surface.

We do have data on the Mississippi population, and that data seems to indicate an increasing population with more juvenile fish less than say age-5 being seen in recent years than we have historically seen, but the tagging program which provides much of the information we have about a population that is as long lived and mobile as Lake Sturgeon in a major river system is much smaller than those on the St. Croix or Rainy systems. Partly this is because the system is so much larger and crosses so many jurisdictions, and it is also likely due to the incredible diversity of fish in the Mississippi which directs less attention to any one species.

We have been trying to ramp up tagging efforts on the Mississippi population for the last several years but water levels during our preferred sample time has limited success.

We do know from our tagging that we have both incoming fish (immigration) and outgoing fish (emigration) from the Mississippi population.

We see fish coming down out of the St. Croix and have found our Mississipi tagged fish from as far away as Granite Falls, MN on the Minnesota River, and I would not be surprised if we see fish from recently restored populations in Missouri at some point in the future.

As far as handling recommendations the comments above are correct. The pdf document linked above clearly states that you need to know your own limits. Some fish are just too big to bring into a boat. A safe shore landing or release boat side is the best way to proceed in these situations. Remember too, that this concept may be relative, a 40-50″ Lake Sturgeon may be fine for your fishing boat but totally unsafe for you or the fish if you attempt to bring it into a canoe. A little common sense will help protect the safety of you, the fish, and your equipment.

Nick

Very informative. Thanks Bk and all contributors!

Do you have any studies or information your willing to pass on Nick?

Does anyone else find it odd that in the “Advice On Handling Large Lake Sturgeon” poster it states to “Minimize their time out of the water” but yet the photo shows a person properly holding a large sturgeon but the boat is on a trailer? They must be really fast at loading the boat onto the trailer or else maybe they just backed down to the edge of the water without actually launching the boat and fished from there.

I’m guessing it was taken out of a tank for a photo shoot for the poster.

It’s almost as odd as a fall tv show about st croix sturgeon with ice bergs floating by.

Kinda stood out like a lamprey eh? LOL!

Glad you watched it. I chuckled over a few things but that’s another topic.

Yeah it was fun to watch! I didn’t know Matt carried flathead minnows either.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

2. Handling Sturgeon before the release.
It’s unfortunate for the sturgeon to have those two nice handles called gill plates. They make it very easy for a large fish to be held by them and this increases the likelihood their gills could be damaged.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

FYI,
Here’s the photo on the bottom of the IDO page Brian…..
Perty sure dat’s a sturgeon, gill held, on this website –

Do you have a blushing emocon?

We don’t really have any formal reports on the sturgeon in the Mississippi River. I report some of the information about the Pool 4/Lake Pepin fish in my annual Large Lake report which is certainly available upon request, but is not really written with anglers as the target audience.

I can share a distribution map showing the locations where tagged sturgeon have been caught since the tagging program began (most of our fish have been tagged below LD3 due to convenience for testing methods etc). The map shows the big picture, clustered returns sit on top of one another and even though there are over 100 recaps you would never guess it from the map.

Also you are correct the correct handling picture in the pamphlet was one of 30 fish that we had in a holding trailer for annual disease testing as part of the Red River Basin reintroduction project that purchases eggs from the Rainy River.

Nick

Nick did a great job in answering my 2a) question. So that brings me back to Question #2…

If these holds do hurt the fish, how do we go about getting the word out to anglers new to the sport? From past experience calling people out on line doesn’t work. Well it may or may not. Those people end up being embarrassed and never post a photo again. Private messaging them seems to be the best answer for the forums, but what about all the other anglers that don’t visit fishing web sites? I’ve seen gill hold photos in most every publication as well.

Of course if a person is going to harvest a fish how it’s held really doesn’t matter I guess. But people see those photo’s and that’s how they will be holding them in the future.

Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

Should all gill held fish be banned from websites?
That’s a pretty Gestapo way of handling it.

Maybe I’m making too big of deal out of this?

Throw tomatoes at them!

Personally, i think a few pages in the DNR Booklet showing how to hold each (Large) species couldn’t be a bad thing. But maybe they could use pictures better than the previous flier i attached.

Red X over the gill holds on multiple species should grab people’s attention.

HOnestly though – people still think carp must be thrown on shore – which has been absent from the rule books for over 20 years. Dogfish get thrown on shore, which was never in the rule books; people are dumb and are going to do what they want, and more and more choose to remain ignorant!

Wizz’n in the wind here

It forever will be an ongoing process.

if ever a picture is posted with a gill hold or poor handling simply link to the DNR explanation. To me that is all that is needed.

should the pictures be banned? I don’t know that’s a tough call. social media is a lot different than it was 10 years ago. I can see why people get upset when others jump down their throat or shout “nice gill hold jackwagon”. I think that that’s just uncalled for, but nothing wrong with a simple suggestion or educating for the future. most level headed fisherman would appreciate it and understand. if not then they are just the kind of person who doesn’t give a rip and you will never change their mind.

+1

I come from a family of catch an keep. Some of my family still are that way “then they wonder why they don’t fish w me” lol
Growing up I didn’t know any better either and how to handle fish properly

But quite a few has learned and have followed my lead and have passed it on to others.

Education is the key. Sum peeps just don’t know any better and Darren’s right sum just don’t care

mr-special wrote:

+1

I come from a family of catch an keep. Some of my family still are that way “then they wonder why they don’t fish w me” lol

Same here.
Here’s a quote from my mom in regards to my 50# flat i caught sunday:

“Showed Grandma the photo yesterday and she was impressed, although she still doesn’t get that you catch and release and don’t just eat fish all the time.”

Just tell her you don’t want the cookie jar to run dry.

Youngsters have asked me about C&R and I’ve found trying to explain the reasoning might be above their heads.

So I came up with something they can relate to.

If you keep taking cookies out of the cookie jar, some day there won’t be anymore cookies left. By putting some cookies back that you really don’t need, then next time you want a cookie there will be one waiting for you.

Seems to work for the kids I’ve talked with. Doubt it will work for the catch and keepers.