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Sturgeon Fishing


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A buddy and I were thinkin about heading up to the rainy to try our luck at some sturgeon fishing tommorrow. Both of us have fished for them before but never on the rainy. Just looking for some general advice on depths, bait, any other advice would be greatly appreciated. And any info on possible boat launch locations would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

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Have seen several hooked but haven't hung around to see them landed. Don't seem to catch them much anymore since I learned to kep my jig from laying on the bottom. Did have a 27" eye today that did a nice sturgeon immitation for a while.

Birchdale & Frontier are open for big boats and some bigger boats were going over a bit of shore ice at Vidas today. Think I'll wait a day or 2 for Vidas myself.

Try a wad of crawlers (Lucky Bait east of Baudette) and a smashed minnow. Add a spritser of crawdad oil if you got some.

Hang on!

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We landed 18 this past friday and saturday morning and also lost 3 more. Biggest was 56" with 4 more over 50" and multiple others in the upper 40's. We fished "holes" that dropped a bit deeper than all other areas around. Used nightcrawlers with minnows. Hope this helps.

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Mostly holes are what's producing right now for us. Spots seem to be pretty specific. My friends were catching them, but we couldn't get them ourselves anywhere around them. And vice versa. Today we were hot, and they couldn't get much.

Scout your holes. Try to set up at the head of the hole, and cast to the upstream deepest part, or to the middle. Three ounces of weight is keeping us down. Very short leader under the weight help to keep it more stationery. We did the best with about an 8" leader and circle hook. We did well in about 20 feet, but that's relative to where you are in the river.

With two boats we landed approximately 70 sturgies in the past three days. 4 or 5 in the sixties and some girthy ones too.

Good luck!

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does anyone have any luck fishing sturgeon out of the i falls access??? depth? area? just curious ive never caught one before and the boy had one on for about 25 minuites and lost it...so now hes got the fever and wants to catch some...any help would be great!!!

it was weird taking the muskie poles out and taking the leader off and putting on a plan hook and a huge weight...

thanks to anyone that has some good tips!

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From what I've heard, I would say take the trip over to the baudette area where it dumps into the lake once the bay opens up. Right now I'd just say find a hole around the Frontier access, we saw plenty of sturgeon caught in that area on Saturday.

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Could any of you sturgeon hunters tell me approximately how much a 61" stergeon might weigh? Was able to land it and the DNR was of course right there. They were great and let us measure it and a photo or two, but we didn't get a chance to weigh it. Any guesses??

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Could any of you sturgeon hunters tell me approximately how much a 61" stergeon might weigh? Was able to land it and the DNR was of course right there. They were great and let us measure it and a photo or two, but we didn't get a chance to weigh it. Any guesses??

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/baudette/lksweight.pdf

Looks like the average is 56 pounds

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The weights can vary alot on fish over 50 inches is seems. The biggest factor would be the girth of that fish. I caught one last year that was 62.5" and had a 30" girth, according to the chart it was right around 85lbs or so.

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That is what I'm finding out. Once we let it go we looked at eachother and both said we should have got the girth then of course the DNR made contact being all rods were in. Still a blast, I can see how people want to fish'em. Thanks for your info.

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So "what if" the tributaries like the little fork let loose sometime next weekend during the Sturgeon Excursion. How much trouble are we in??

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The way the Forks look I don't think you have to worry. If they do break loose it's usually two days for any debri to reach the lake and then I don't think they would have as much influence on four mile bay as say upstream.

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Tyler it'll usually make for a tough bite man. Lotsa debris, ice chunks and such comes rolling out of there and it's a chore to keep the stuff from balling up on your line, water usually muds up pretty good too. As silver scale mentions it does lessen a bit as you move downstream and into the bay but still does a number on the bite out there on the bay too. Basically shuts the river bite down though you can still pick fish up if you can keep your line clean long enough for the Sturgeonfish to find it.

Most locals say to heck with it and wait a few days till it clears out. Just another one of those variables of spring conditions we get to deal with.

I can remember doing the bay some years back as the trib debris was rolling thru and the Burbot were going nuts, I got like 30 of them buggers in one afternoon!! A bright side for some maybe!!!

The Rainy's tribs all run thru heavily wooded forest and bogs for the most part and there is alot of snow in the woods yet even with the warm spells on account of all that shade.

Tyler don't worry they won't bust loose till a couple of days or the weekend after "The Original Sturgeon Excursion" coming up next weekend.

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Hey there Fisky!

I had a question, I have been watchin the Sportsmans webcam and the river is opening up down that away. Do you think a person would be able to launch a boat a the wheelers access this Friday? I know yo udont have a crystal ball, and we wont base our trip on the answer. I dont know if it is out of the question or not.

Thanks

Brian

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Hey Brian longtime.. You're all set to make the run on up eh?

I would seriously doubt a guy can launch anything big down thatta way by the weekend. I'd guess there will still be shore ice and ice at bottom of ramp. Skidding a small boat? Probably.

Now I have'nt seen it so hopefully Steve at Log Cabin Bait will see this and give you the real skinny as he's right out there. Iffin he don't fill us in I'll ring him later.

Seems we may be thinking alike!! Shhhhhh!!! LOL, not many springs can we fish in a boat down thatta way before seasons closure eh.

You gonna be sporting some new prototype this spring?

Good Luck bud, hook them hawgs!

Regards....Norm

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Hey Norm,

Been awhile for sure, no new prototype this spring. Still running a 2010 like I had at the get-together, still need to make it back up for one of those. I was thinkin about callin Steve, but I dont know him all that well, and I am sure he gets afew calls a day, so I dont need to bother him. Did you get out fishing with Mercman in the beginning of March? I met him at a Ice Team event in Battle Lake, good guy. Guess if we do make it up we may have to launch in town and work our way up that way.

Thanks

Brian

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6 sturgeon in the boat, 7 hooked up, in about 90 minutes. First time trying it....what a blast. Nothing huge, 48" being the biggest but still a hoot when the walleye are being so .....stubborn... if you want to call it that. Just found a couple of holes between Pinewood and Frontier

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Is Vidas landing open for biggger boats. We will be up there the 17th. Will we need to head east to put in?

Duck

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Fished Tuesday and Wednesday, caught 21 sturgeon everywhere from 30 to 53 and two big ones a 58 by 26 and a 62 by 27. Average fish seemed to be around 47 inches. Some holes produced much better than others. We had two holes really going good for us, one had smaller fish but much higher numbers and the other had fewer fish but we never got one under 50 in it.

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Tyler, Talked to a guy yesterday and he told me someone was out with a chainsaw working on getting the ice and stuff cleared away from the ramps. I bet by the time you get there it will be good to go. See you up there bud. Sorry to see Dtro, Harvey Lee and Papa Grump can't make it but there is always next year. I'll be sure to tip a brew to the sturgeon GODS for you guys.

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