I have never caught a Sturgeon. It has been something of my imagination for nearly 20 seasons. Today I set out to conquer that desire.
We launched at Wildcat Landing and headed up river through hundreds of leisure boaters to the sand flat. Our small boat got thrashed very nicely by the wakes of the larger faster boats cruising the channel but with Chad Wenzel's great motor boat skills we got there safe and sound.
We fished just below a snag and in the current with three ounce egg sinkers separated from the hook eye with a split shot and #1 circle hooks in three to six feet of water. Our hooks were tipped with two night crawlers.
We caught a dozen Shovelnose Sturgeon between 6pm and 1am. The Sturgeon bite was very light. Most of our catches in the dark were actually discovered because the hooked Sturgeon would break. We would then check our lines and find a fish on the end. These fish are not the best fighters in the world as most of them would water ski on their shovel noses on the surface of the water on their way in.
The largest Shovelnose that we landed tonight was 32-inches and 3.35-pounds. All of the fish were gently released and the majority of them were not even taken out of the water in respect for this 200,000,000 year old pre-historic species.