April 20th, 2007 - Sturgeon Excursion

[harvey lee]

I would watch this post and see if anyone has room for you and your son in thier boat. It might work out for you.

[suick100]

Thanks Harvey. I will definitely keep a close eye. Guess I would need lodging too. We would be driving from the Forest Lake area, so if anyone would want to carpool or looking for a rideshare to help pay for the gas and etc.. on the trip, let me know and thanks again to all.

[Tyler Holm]

I just booked a room and sealed the deal. I'm IN!!!!!!!

[eyepatrol]

Hi Suick. Sorry I didn't see this earlier. As of right now, our cabin and boat are full. If something comes up though, I'll let you know.

By the way...what your parent's last name? I've lived here since 1973!

[suick100]

Hi Basscatcher, Sorry, you don't have any room in your boat or cabin, keep me posted if someone cancells or if anyone else you know, has available space, as I would love to do this fishing trip. My parents last name is Flantz. German name all the way. Tightlines to ya!!

[harvey lee]

Related to Josh or Renee?

[suick100]

Neither, Dad's name is Elroy and still lives in town, although he is 90 yrs. old, tough German too!

[eyepatrol]

The name doesn't sound too familiar, except I thought there was a Flantz girl that was one year younger than me. Would have graduated in '92 I think. Maggie Flantz perhaps? It's been a while.

[marine_man]

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keep me posted if someone cancells or if anyone else you know, has available space, as I would love to do this fishing trip.

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Suick,

iffwalleyes posted on page 3 that he probably has some room in his cabin...

His e-mail address is:

[email protected]

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

As of now I have room for some people. I booked the smallest cabin the had left at the time and that was a 7 person cabin. I should have room for 4 or 5 I would think. $20 bucks a night per person darn tough to find lodging better than that.

[suick100]

Hi Iffwalleyes, You have mail...

[iffwalleyes]

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Hi Iffwalleyes, You have mail...

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back at you suick100.

[Tyler Holm]

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As of now I have room for some people. I booked the smallest cabin the had left at the time and that was a 7 person cabin. I should have room for 4 or 5 I would think. $20 bucks a night per person darn tough to find lodging better than that.

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I'm in the exact same boat as you Iff. I got a 7 person cabin and we currently have 4-5 beds filled. Anybody is welcome to call Schuesters and reserve a bed in my cabin. I don't plan to spend a ton of time in the cabin, as I will be on the water chassin Sturgs.

[huntnfishsd]

hey tyler-

i am juiced to fish with ya again at the sturgeon excursion! if it's anything like brainerd, it will be a great time! hopefully we will hook into something a little bigger this time though...

[Tyler Holm]

Nick,

Your going to love Sturgeon Fishing. I'm looking forward to that weekend. Last year, it was the highlight trip of the season, even 1 step above the Brainerd Bash.

[Random guy]

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Looks like this trip is getting spendy.

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You are not kidding, last years trip ended up costing me 70k. This year I have a issue to take up with these fish. Just maybe, and I say maybe one boat will contain the entire Petrowske clan.

[Wiskers]

Not Sure on the showing of the Wiskers this year.. No boat and it does not look good for a floater by the time of the gathering.. or at all this summer... All I have now is a 14 foot Almuicraft with a 9.9 Merc.

[aanderud]

OK, new to sturgeon fishing plus I've never been on this body of water. So here's a few questions.

Wondering what kind of gear I'll need. I got the "heavy action rod/reel", but what about lures? Oh yeah, and if someone with big gear experience can recommend a decent cheap rod/reel, please do. I don't fish muskies but might wet my toes on the catfish this summer if there's time. Does one simply throw some random dead stuff or night crawlers or something that stinks on a circle hook with a 2 ounce flat sinker? How big of a hook? I'm guessing big. Do ya just anchor and hold on? How much current in the river? I've never had my boat on a river. I have a 28 lb 'navy anchor'. Will that hold or is this mach 5 current? How deep is it, I want to have enough rope...hate to get up there and 'surprise, it's 90 feet deep here'.

How far is the sturgeon fishing from the resort? Does everyone basically just truck out to "the big sturgeon bowl" and anchor up or are the fish spread up/down the river in secret spots? As I said, I've never fished on a river so I wouldn't know what parts of it would attract fish. Hopefully for sturgeon you don't need to know what you're doing.

Are there navigation hazards like tree stumps and wing dams and whatnot in the river? I live basically right next to the MN river. Last year was my first summer here and I have to say that upstream of Chaska is NOT a good spot for many boats other than river pros, from what I've seen. Logs everywhere, and low water with sand dunes and who knows how deep between those, at least near Carver. I'm assuming the rainy is bigger and more navigable???

Is there a marina at the resort? Is a boat slip included with the room? Do they have gas or do ya yank it out and pull down the road to super america?

OK that's all for now, I'm sure I'll have more Q's later. Thanks guys!

[fisherking01]

Fishing fom shore if you want. Boats from directly in front of resort to 3 miles to infinity! Circle hooks in 00 or 1-0 , flat sinkers 2-4 oz, 3oz fine. 50 lb power pro+

any heavy line actually. Anchor , bait with night crawler gob, wait for tug-tug, set hook and hang on. Great fight. It's as simple as that. You can try different baits if you want to experiment, but crawlers are as good as any.

Current is strong enough to expect to need 2 river anchors with min 60 ft ropes. average +- 20 ft. current depends on how high the river is at the time. river is predominantly clear of obstructions. Brent

[aanderud]

Thanks for the tips. I re-read some posts from last year. Looks like I need a much bigger net! Holy moly. Ordered up some flat sinkers from some dude on ebay.

[wall_eye_assasin]

Very good advice and ty for your knowledge. But 1/0 hooks is that what you meant. I was told 6/0, 8/0 or 10/0 hooks. I found the no roll sinkers on ebay also and will bring plenty with me. I will be in basscatchers boat. This is gonna be a blast. See you all soon.

[hanson]

For hooks... I highly recommend 4/0-5/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hooks. Anything larger than that is overkill, big time overkill. Over the last couple years, I've done a fair amount of sturgeon fishing and have had great success with these hooks.

[fiskyknut]

aanderud.....My 2 cents on hooks......Bring size 1 thru 2/0 regular old baitholder type hooks.

Most folks who come up all seem to head for the "bay hole", a mile or so out from the ramp. There are quite a few good Sturgeon spots upstream that hardly see a crawler drowning so don't think you have to fish the bay with everyone else.

Floating or stuck deadheads you have to watch for but not much else for hazards. Depending on how the iceout goes some years you got to watch out for large chunks of ice coming at you when your anchored. Not good to have one come down onto your anchor rode especially if it's the size of a house eh! Back in the mid 90's I was'nt paying attention and had one nearly sink the bow of the boat as it came onto the rope, had to cut the line or we would've gone down!!! This was in early May too, but ice out was late that year.

Plain and easy simple straight foreward bait fishing. Crawlers usually rule, and get yourself some Crawdad scent and soak some of your crawlers in that stuff, sometimes makes a difference.

fiskyknut

[wall_eye_assasin]

TYVM for the information, I am sure alot more information for us rookie sturgeon fisherman will be coming. Again thanks for your time.

[Tyler Holm]

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For hooks... I highly recommend 4/0-5/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hooks. Anything larger than that is overkill, big time overkill. Over the last couple years, I've done a fair amount of sturgeon fishing and have had great success with these hooks.

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I got them ordered from Cabela's. A couple packages of each. I'm set.

[marine_man]

Well... I finally got things worked out so I can make this trip...

April 20th can't come soon enough!

marine_man

[eyepatrol]

Good for you MM! Will be nice to finally meet you, along with many others!

[harvey lee]

1 month baby. One can hit the river and it wont be quite the wait. Eyes and channels.

[iffwalleyes]

I am so glad Marine_Man got the deck cleared so he can make the trip with me and our other buddy. Hopefully trouble won't find the 3 of us . It will be a great weekend hopefully the weather will be as nice as it was last year. It is going to be a long month.

[Random guy]

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1 month baby.

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Ha! I only live 45 minutes away, Fisky and I may already have it cleaned out by time you get there Tom.