Wondering about Sturgeon...

[feverpetal]

I see that the shovelnose sturgeon season South of the Red wing **** is continuous. Has anyone ever fished for them? Is it similiar to Lake Sturgeon? They must be smaller, or produce much faster, than Lake Sturgeon. Any help would be cool.

fp

Those four *'s up there WERE "dam"... lol!

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"Cast riiiiight....there."

[This message has been edited by feverpetal (edited 11-03-2003).]

[feverpetal]

Nobody has ever caught a shovelnose sturgeon? No one knows anything about them?

fp

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"Cast riiiiight....there."

[Bodyman]

Feverpetal, Shovelnose are the smallest sturgeon in the Mississippi system. A 20" fish is a common sized adult about 5 pounds. They spend most of their time in the main channel and prefer the higher current flow. They feed on the bottom, larve, worms are their mainstay. As far as fishing for them I haven't done any, but I have fished the Mississippi for 40+ years and have never caught one on hook and line.I did work a couple summers with commercial fisherman, setting and pulling gillnets. Only one time did we get shovelnose in the nets, one net of the five we had set. That net was set as close as we could legally set to the dam at Dresbach. The current flow was very low allowing us to set the nets there. It was June I think and the net had nothing but shovelnose in it, about 40 of them. Not being a legal fish to take commercially we released them all. My Dad used to bring them home on occasion and would smoke them, very good eats. If your thinking about fishing for them I would concentrate on sandy or gravel bottom with strong current flow. I hope this helps you out some.

Fishing is Life.

[This message has been edited by Bodyman (edited 11-05-2003).]

[feverpetal]

How do yuo figure out if it's sand/gravel on the bottom. Both of the electronics in the boat are older, nothing like todays "and it gets HBO!" widescreen full color monsters. I just figure it would be a good fight. Thanks for the reply!

fp

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"Cast riiiiight....there."

[eyeballs]

I use to fish them on the Missouri River when I lived in Kansas. We didn't intentionally fish for them, but in the spring thet would run up behind the rocky penninsulas that ran out into the river. Those areas tended to be very shallow and muddy. I would have to assume they were there to spawn. Believe me when they move in that's all you catch for the rest of the day. I got bored with them really fast because they fight so little that you could mistake them for a stick.