Handling Sturgeon a friendly reminder

[JakeJ_Mn]

So far I haven't seen anything in this thread ruining anyones fishing experience. The picture depicts the wrong way to hold a fish period. I'm sure we all have had others "help" us in understanding the proper ways to do things fishing or otherwise.

It's a great fish and whoever caught it will remember the experience forever. I have been in the outdoors all my life and still learn new things.

Time to ease up and relax. Life is way to short to be upset by a friendly reminder. Thanks to DTro for guiding all of us in the right direction. Jake

[LOWFisherman]

I don't see the problem, being the persons face is plastered with a smiley face. IMO it would be a different story if his actual face was plastered all over this site for people to see along with his name, etc.

[DTro]

Again, I do apologize, but unfortunately it takes a big fish like this one to get peoples attention and honestly the picture made a great example.

I got this picture from a Facebook post from both Clam and Vexilar, two of the biggest fishing companies in MN so I assumed at that point it was out there as a public picture.

I did hide the identity of the person in fears that this would happen.

Bottom line is nobody knows the angler from this post and frankly nobody needs to know, its not important whatsoever and on the contrary the "kid" should be proud that his picture might darn well save a few century old fish.

I will say though considering the 20 year old "kid" is quite involved in the outdoor industry I would hope he would understand the intention of this post.

The funny thing is that with Facebook you can really find just about anything you want. As it turns out, this angler and I share several mutual friends.

If it makes him feel better:

DON'T HOLD A CATFISH LIKE THIS!!!

[JeffB]

The only reason that I was upset in the first place is because you ruined this poor kids first experience with a big fish. He was extremely proud and excited of his fish and for him to be portrayed in such a negative way on these forums. I wasn't impressed how this picture was taken off of Facebook then altered and posted in such a negative way. I bet all of you have some real gems as well. I don't know about you, but I don't think you guys would want to see a picture of yourself with your face covered up and being talked about negatively.

Congrats to the guy on a fish of a lifetime. I think the post was done respectfully other than one comment. Two lessons can be learned from this post. 1. How to hold a sturgeon. 2. What ever you put on the internet can be used against you, some people wouldn't have bothered blocking out the face. Its not as if this guy is on the people of walmart youtube video I think he'll get over it. Be proud you caught a great fish and learned something.

[bak2MN]

Dtro what are you thinking!!! How big was that fish?

[cookie129]

I think there,s no harm in learnig the proper way to handle one of these fish. We never stop learning new things. Congrats on the nice fish. I pupped out from going yesterday. My old body could not handle the cold all day.

[JacobG]

You mean ancient body........

this was the first bite we got that day...... would've been yours

[CaptainMusky]

Seriously halftime do you even think about what you are typing? If this entire post had malicious intent dtro wouldn't have covered up the face. As it seems he would have access to the persons name and everything.

Once things are posted on the internet its fair game. You don't own the servers or any right to copyright so use at your own risk.

I have never fished for or caught a sturgeon but it wouldn't even remotely cross my mind that holding a fish like that would be a good idea.

Use common sense people and halftime you are making the whole thing worse by continuing to post and try and justify it. Live learn move on.

Learn from life's lessons. Its not like you get an arm chopped off here for making a mistake. He is now wiser.

[crazyice]

I too fell into the category of not knowing years back. I "gill held" a few big fish. Now, this is how I do it. This fish was about 70lbs.

[meathunter]

Sorry guys here is how i handle them i tighten up my drag until the line breaks or my jig rips out now im after a 32"

[JacobG]

Meathunter, you don't cleat it off like the other "true sportsman" up there??? BTW a guy can get a lot of meat off those 24-28" walleyes. must get even more off that 32"

[meathunter]

jacobg those big walleye are good chowder fish and i goto devils if im on a meatrun no slot out there lol i knew that would get a response i dont think fighting a huge fish on light tackle is very good for them i have seen guys fight them for over a hr which is why i choose to break/horse it off im after a 32" now and have no desire to fish for a bottom feeding rough fish lol just kidding!!!!

[Shack]

Yep Dtro is such a vicious and malicious person LOL.

Good post and thread Dtro!

[SmallieFishin]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/SlimsResort/213472725449560?fref=ts

This is how you kill a sturg.

So Sad... that is a lot of blood.

[Double A]

Hard to look at.

At what weight is it not good to hold a Walleye vertically?

[merkman]

Sturgeon are an INCREDIBLY strong fish. I have seen them survive hours out of water and still swim away as if nothing happened. That does not mean you shouldn't handle them properly though.

Halftime, you make very valid points in your posts, I personally think all involved (those actively a part of these forums and those drug into this discussion without their prior knowledge) could learn from each other if the emotion and egos are stripped back and an honest self-assessment is completed.

I believe the young angler had as much intent of hurting that fish as dtro had intent of hurting others by posting this the way he did. But obviously both were done. The grown up thing to do is both to apologize, learn from the mistakes, don't repeat the bad behavior, and move on.

I refuse to post any more public pictures of fish anywhere for this very reason, and yes this website is the root cause of feelings on that. The truth is once you post pics on the internet, in newspapers, or on the wall at the bait store you open yourself up to others (fellow sportsmen and non-fellow sportsmen) to use those photos for their own devices.

Lots to learn from this thread.

Good luck out there.

-Merk

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