Sturgeon Fishing 2000

Acipenseridae - the lake sturgeon

Well, it was time for our annual sturgeon fishing on the Wisconsin River, this time during a bone chilling stretch during the weekend of October 7- 8. A cold front had moved in during the week, and we were faced with post-frontal conditions of clear skies and low temperatures of 30 - 45 degrees F. Time to bait up the gobs of crawlers.

This time I tried to record the other fish caught as well, as we usually get quite the variety, like our first fish -->

best to start slow, like with this redhorse sucker..

Then around 11:30 AM, FISH ON! Ah, the tell-tale deep bend in the rod meant only one thing-the prehistoric freshwater shark had arrived!

The fish bore deep and never showed itself until much later toward the end of the battle. This was mildly disappointing, as many times the fish rockets through the air, which is quite exciting given the size of these brutes.

This powerful beauty went 54 inches, which would have been a keeper last year. This year they bumped the size limit up to 70 inches from 50. No matter, as we release these fish anyways.

After the long battle, Frank strains to hold her up, but he didn't have to force out that grin. Unfortunately, we don't have a weigh sling, so we never now exactly how heavy these things are.

Here's a mini-walleye, one of a couple

..and another sucker, part of some school that must have been following me around

...no river outing is complete without the ubiquitous freshwater drum or sheepshead. Oddly, this was the only one taken in two days, as usually many show up on the ends of our hooks

The only usual suspects that were missing this time around were the white bass and catfish, usually channel with the rare flathead.

Franklin with a squirmy, slimey and toothsome (little ones) mudpuppy

The little creature looked so appetizing that Frank served it up on the worm-cover and dug right on in - can't display the feast, as it was too gruesome (just kidding)

Though the weather was chilly, the river was quiet with light boat traffic - a perfect chance to catch up on some reading

A crisp fall day, a mess of rods, bucket of nightcrawlers, a couple of chunks of pungent cheese - food never tastes better then when one is outdoors, especially on the river...

Well, I didn't get my sturgeon, but Franklin did, which made it all worthwhile. Looking back, even if he didn't catch one, it still would have been well worth it. Tight lines...

-Jim-

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