sturgeon migration and movements throughout the year

[jason1lane]

I wanted to start a thread about the movement of sturgeon on the raney river .

i was under the impression that the fish start out at the lake just befor ice out in the spring

than run up the river to spawn and after spaw stay in the river till freeze up i know some stay in the river or lake all year but most do seasonal migration pattern. id like to hear anybody elses ideas on the topic. i will find out more when i get my letter or email from the dnr on my tagged fish i released last week thankyou

[fishuhalik]

There's a lot of theory on this one. My cousin studied sturg in the border water system for the Canadian dnr for five years & his conclusion was, well, inconclusive. As best as he could figure out, some switch back and forth, staying in the lake some years & staying in the river other years, some stay in the lake & spawn in the lake, some are river fish full time. He just couldn't narrow down a perfect reason why. Theories varied from water temp & levels, food availability & even lamprey populations were considered.

[DTro]

Everything you ever wanted to know about LOW/Rainy Sturgeon and their seasonal movements:

http://limnology.wisc.edu/personnel/rusak/rusak_pdfs/rusak_1997_cjz.pdf

[jason1lane]

Thanks for the info i also got my tagged fish report back from dnr

the fish was tagged at the dam and also caught and released there in the spring months i caught it aby the luttlefork in late july so its very intersting i hope i catch more tagged ones to report for my own study