Sturgeon report

I am taking off Friday and want to chase down some sturgeon. I don’t want to go all the way up to Rainy and looking for something a little closer. Open to all suggestions. Thank you.

The St Croix bite has been good. There isn’t a ton of info out there, but most use the public boom site launch north of Stillwater and then head south and fish around the new bridge and power plants. Stay inside the marked channel up by the boom site launch.

Thank you Cody. I have tried that spot a couple of times with out getting anything. I am willing to try it again though.

I’d try to find the bottom edge of a vertical break, keep your bait fresh, and put bells on your rods. As soon as the bells jingle reel down.

They take a bait very lightly. You’ll see boats on the west shore from the power plant to the bridge. It’s a community spot but is normally good for some action.

It has been a great year so far! I’ve done 19 trips with 15 fish over 50 and 4 over 60 including a giant 68.5.

Get away from other boats, anchor tightly and watch those lines like a ninja…

This guy knows how to catch sturgeon….I’d listen to him.

I’ve been out twice and the bite has been solid. Biggest 58″ so far and like others have mentioned, the key is deep edge near holes…stay away from the crowds and hold your rod when possible as the bite has been extremely light. Bells are a must for the rods not in hands.

3Rivers wrote:

It has been a great year so far! I’ve done 19 trips with 15 fish over 50 and 4 over 60 including a giant 68.5.

Get away from other boats, anchor tightly and watch those lines like a ninja…

Nice work!

Maybe you could take rodwork out and teach em a few things.

Good night out there tonight, I’d go give it a try.

Hope you got out on Friday it was a big fish night for sure! A couple more 60’s found their way into the boat this weekend. It’s so much fun watching these fish just get bigger and bigger every year.

I got out Friday and we got some fish but no sturgeon. When it comes to sturgeon I just don’t know what I am doing. I am glad to hear 3river you put some more in the boat. Nice job.

OP, sorry to hi-jack your thread.

Darren, curious to pick your brain. We had a good night for numbers, but didn’t catch any fish over 41-42. We caught 14 fish in one spot, but they were all in the 30-40″ range. When you see that do you move to find bigger fish, or just keep reeling them in assuming that it’s a good spot and the big one will come?

Your story is not uncommon. When I start getting multiples of smaller fish, yes I will move to find bigger fish if that is the desired result. Most people are happy catching 40’s all night and I don’t blame them. But I’ve had several nights when we happen to set up on a “nursery” and that’s all we catch.

I think like all fish they do tend to group up in similar size structure. Obviously the bigger the fish, the smaller the group is and numbers you catch. If I catch a couple over 50, I tend to stay put the rest of the night.

That makes sense, it’s not unlike fishing for any other species then really. The same logic applies.

I appreciate the insight.

Cody Meyers wrote:

OP, sorry to hi-jack your thread.

No worries.

One of my problems is I might be putting myself in the wrong spot. What do you guys look for when picking your spot and setting up?

Rodwork wrote:

What do you guys look for when picking your spot and setting up?

BIG marks.

Look up an old IDO thread called: BOATING BIG STURGEON

Are you guys strictly night fishing them this time of year, or is it an “anytime” bite?

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Look up an old IDO thread called: BOATING BIG STURGEON

That is a great writeup you did. Wish I would have known about that before I went out. Thank you.

My 2 favorite spots to fish are neck down areas right in the middle of the channel and the inside turn of any underwater points. 25-40 feet of water.

However we caught a big fish in 12ft of water on Sat just trying to get out of the wind.

Sturgeon are no different than grazing deer. They aren’t chasing anything and are comfortable in all depths and they are continuously digging and eating and moving. The hardest thing to do is to sit in a random spot all night, but if you do, there’s a good chance they will find you.

I see so many guys going by staring at their sonar looking for fish and moving multiple times a night, back and forth, back and forth. If you aren’t soaking a bait you aren’t catching fish. Heck, I didn’t even use sonar or gps for a couple of trips this year. I think 3 hours is a good time period to wait, but even then I give them the 15 min warning and sometimes that’s all it takes to catch a fish and then we end up there the rest of the night.

You HAVE TO watch your line like a hawk. They pick it up and drop it all the time. A lot of times they just keep moving on if you aren’t paying attention to those first few taps, especially on finicky nights.

Rodwork wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:</div>
Look up an old IDO thread called: BOATING BIG STURGEON

That is a great writeup you did. Wish I would have known about that before I went out. Thank you.

Thanks, the exception i didn’t talk about on that page was shallow water; i rely solely on SI to find those fish, anchor in front, and cast to.

3Rivers, like myself, have built up a resume of spots that can and do hold fish. So like he said, using a depth finder isn’t necessary – but also not foolish either.

Shallow water in winter weather can be very good. My friends and I have caught plenty of 60+ fish late into November and even December in less than twelve feet. Fish open water hard until you can’t anymore!

Any updates recently? I’m planning on heading out tomorrow night, guessing we will have water temps around 40 degrees or so. I’ll post back if nobody gets an update by then.

Water temp was 37-39 last Sat! I bet it’s down a couple of degrees since then.

We caught 5 or 6 over 50 on Sat, but dang it was a cold one…

The forecast for next week looks wonderful:)

If anyone has an open spot on their boat and willing to do some teaching, please PM me.

I saw water temps from 37 to 39 last night. We only caught 3 fish, but all of them were over 40″ so it was an ok night. Beautiful night to be out so I’m calling it a win.

I found it very odd that the water temps are so different down near Prescott vs Bayport. I had 44 on Friday down there. Caught 6 with a few over 50 and a couple of super fat channel cats too.

The warmup has been nice and should extend the season a bit for us I think. We’ve pushed it into Dec a few times. It’s going to be close this year I think. We boated several 50+ again this weekend including a TANK 65 x 26 (73lbs).

3Rivers wrote:

I found it very odd that the water temps are so different down near Prescott vs Bayport. I had 44 on Friday down there. Caught 6 with a few over 50 and a couple of super fat channel cats too.

Soooooo much more water and deeper. It’s always behind p3 and upper st croix in temp changes.

3Rivers wrote:

The warmup has been nice and should extend the season a bit for us I think. We’ve pushed it into Dec a few times. It’s going to be close this year I think. We boated several 50+ again this weekend including a TANK 65 x 26 (73lbs).

Nice fish!

December 19, 2015 was the latest I’ve fished them. That morning the lower croix locked up, my daughter flew in to visit, we fished at the bridge and she caught her first.
Scratch that, it opened back up the next day, and we caught some at kinni. Then we were out of town for Christmas.

But y’all lock up earlier up there that’s for sure.

The ice around Bayport really made it tough this weekend. I was able to make it out there on Thurs, but even with the 40 degrees daytime temps, we started getting skim after 10pm. With 32.9 water temps I knew it was only a night or two of calm winds and that area could be toast. Because of that I didn’t go out Sat but a friend did and he broke 1/2″ of ice to get out and a few hours later, his path was already frozen on the way back in. I think the Bayport area is pretty much done for the year.

Having said that, Thursday’s bite was fantastic with 7 over 50!