Sturgeon Fishing

Just got back from my annual trip to fish sturgeon. Fished with my friends at Muskie Bay Resort (Paul, Chris and Jake Trinkner) www.muskiebayresort.com and Robin Holden who guides in the Nestor Falls area. Boated a lot of really big white suckers and a lot of sturgeon under 30". Robin got the prize though--about a 12" eelpout :-) Actually, Robin really did get the prize with 3 over 60". A skinny 65"x23.5", a football of a 61"x30" and a beast of a 67"x28"!!! I only got a 54", 58" and a 'little' 63"er.

All kidding aside, the bite wasn't fast and furious, but the size made up for it as we had fish of 45", 52", 54", 58", 61", 63", 65" and 67" landed and 3 others giants we never got to see in just a couple days of fishing. It was a great trip and looking forward to next spring--if I don't hit it for a couple of days in July/August before then.

Here is the link to the slideshow of what we caught: http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/u...t=b9ab5f7d.pbw

The fun part is I learned a long time ago that you don't need to gear up for these beasts in the cold waters of spring like most people do. No big fiberglass rods with giant trolling reels and 30# mono or 100# superbraid. We go at them with heavy bass gear. One piece flipping sticks (Thorne Bros Custom G-Loomis 904) with a Shimano Curado 300 spooled with 50# Tufline is generally what I use. Robin really downsized and had a Thorne Bros Custom MBR844IMX G-Loomis blank made into a spinning rod with a Shimano Saros 3000 spooled with 20# Fireline Crystal!!! This 'bass' rod landed 3 fish over 60" with on being over 85#!!!

Please release these dinosaurs. They are slow growing, need to be big before they can spawn for their first time and only spawn once every 4+ years after that. We need to protect these incredible fish!

Can't wait to get up there in a couple of weeks and get the boat on the water for lakers!!!
Brett Erickson
www.thornebros.com