Saw a Sturgeon in Vermilion Early September

[tarpon6]

Might seem like a strange first post but..  I saw the sturgeon thought it was cool, confirmed there are sturgeon in MN lakes and didn't think much of it until I started thinking about coming back to Vermilion this September.  I thought it might be cool to catch a sturgeon if there was a population worth targeting.  I did a search and didn't find much, except for a thread here from 2011 saying it is very doubtful there any sturgeon left in Vermilion.   I'm from Florida, have fished all over the country, Bahamas, Mexico,  and know my fish pretty well.

I was fishing a rocky point coming out of 30 feet of water.  As I drifted along I went over the point where the water came up to about 6 -7 feet.  It was very calm and the water was fairly clear.  I looked down to see if I could see any fish holding on the point and spotted a very large fish on the bottom.  My first though was musky! and started to drop a lure but as I got almost on top of the fish my next thought was... shark... and then I realized I wasn't in Florida anymore and there aren't any sharks in a Northern Minnesota lake.  At this point the fish started to slowly move off into deeper water and I thought it has to be a sturgeon but I didn't know if there were any in Minnesota lakes.  The fish had a good size head with large pectoral fins, and a body that was wide and tapered off towards a large sweeping tail.  I know fish look bigger in the water and taking that into consideration I'd say the fish was about 7 feet long.  It was too big and too wide to be a musky.   It was very shark like.  

I wonder if anyone else has ever spotted a sturgeon in Vermilion?   

[JTeeth]

Had a client get one a few years ago, 24" or so.  With a 7 footer out there I suppose we are going to start smelling  the  sun cured balls of burger out there now...fantastic 

[JBMasterAngler]

At 7 feet long, that sturgeon could very well be old enough to have gotten into vermilion before the dam was built. Rainy, kabetogama, and namakan have sturgeon, so it’s conceivable that some may have been able to get into vermilion back in the day.

 

But if you want to catch one, go to the Rainy River.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Amazing luck to have spotted a sturgeon in Vermilion!

I have never seen one there and have never heard of anyone else that has either.

Cliff

[Kato_Man]

When I was a young boy 6 or 7 my sister was working at a resort on the west end and some one caught a Sturgeon.

Everyone went to take a look, I guess it was 7' to 8' they had it hanging from its tail, I remember the big scales.

Must have about 1962-63.

 

Kato_Man

[tarpon6]

Certainly doesn't sound there are numbers that make them worth targeting.  There are plenty of other species to keep me occupied.  Already day dreaming about getting back up there.  I am going to try the very end of September this year.  The smallmouth fishing was incredible last year.  Had a nice muskie follow and the fish was starting to go for it when I started the figure 8  but the lure balled up (wrapped around the hook) and it took off.   

[jkrash]

I find it hard to believe sturgeon are swimming in Vermilion, I would think if there were sturgeon they would make a mess out of the nets at the hatchery during the spring spawn, surly the DNR would notice them. A seven foot fish would definitely be a new state record.

20160420_100302_001.mp4

[tarpon6]

Maybe it was a 5.5 or 6 ft fish and it just looked bigger under water.. but it had to be a sturgeon.  I can't think of another fish with that profile that could be in the lake.