17 Sturgeon..13 6' or longer

[luckybob]

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[font "Times New Roman"]My son and I drove to Idaho after work on Tuesday so we would be ready to fish Wednesday morning. Beautiful morning…no wind and the sturgeon where jumping all around us. My son caught 5 sturgeon Wednesday the largest 7’ 8” and the smallest just over 6 feet. I caught a 7’, a 4’ and had a big one break me off. I would have caught more but I was experimenting with some different bait (won’t use that bait again). [/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I think all but 2 of the sturgeon came to the surface and stood on their tail and tried to shake the hook out of there mouth. What a sight to see.... a 7 foot fish come straight out of the water!![/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Thursday was another nice day. Good to see Kent again and meet Neldon. I first went sturgeon fishing with Kent many years ago and have been 4 or 5 times with him over the years…thanks Kent for introducing me to the thrill of sturgeon fishing. My son caught a 7’ 6” sturgeon and I caught a 7’ 8”, a 7’, a 6’ 6”, a 6’, and a 4’. I got up to 98 degrees in the boat and the water temp was 71 degrees. We did catch a few bass on the side as well as perch. [/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Friday we fished until 2:00 pm and my son caught a 4’ and I caught a 6’ 7”, a 6’ and a 5’.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Nice trip…a little on the hot side but very little wind made up for the heat.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]In 2 ½ days of fishing we caught 17 sturgeon with 13 being 6’ or longer. My left arm was sore. When we get a fish on we pull up the anchor and let the fish and the drag on the reel do the rest. Typically the battle last for ½ an hour or so if the fish is 6’ or bigger. [/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Kent's boat in the background. [/font][font "Times New Roman"]
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[MasterDaad]

Great Pics. A Sturgeon trip is on my "must do" list for the fall as I am now making regular trips up to Boise. A detour to Sturgeon country wouldn't be too hard.

Nice pics too!
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[Catcherman.]

Way cool! Looks like a ton of fun!
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[Ktrout]

I love the picture of you next to the shore with the sturgeon. It is always hard to get a decent picture with the sturgeon. I want to convince Kent to try this at some point but know the shoreline isn't always conducive to doing this. Nice catching.
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[dtayboyz]

Did you guys stay at Jim's place. We were farther upriver in the white water, the freeway crosses over the river there. We only caught one before the Gertrude developed an oil leak, so went and got the bass boats and went to Anderson ranch. Nice work!
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[Kent]

Well done Rob and your son.
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[lunkerhunter2]

Let me guess... Carp for bait? The secret is obviously out. You can thank me later if so.
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[Kent]

[quote Ktrout]

I love the picture of you next to the shore with the sturgeon. It is always hard to get a decent picture with the sturgeon. I want to convince Kent to try this at some point but know the shoreline isn't always conducive to doing this.

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You are welcome to have at it. It has been done before and here is the picture (Rob happened to also be along on this trip.)
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[luckybob]

dtayboyz...We camped along the snake river down CJ Strike way...never heard of the places you named.

lunkerhunter2...Never tried carp meat...we caught them on pickled herring.
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[lunkerhunter2]

Yeah that's what i meant. Pickled herring is the secret bait not carp.
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[Kent]

Rob,

"Jim's Place" is the 1 Stop Motel in Bruneau (where we stayed).
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[dtayboyz]

Night crawlers fellas!

Will out fish most everything else in the summer. You have to use a corky and toothpick. I know it sounds crazy, but . . .

Roll mop from Freddie's is cheaper than sturgeon candy.

This fall squid from WinCo works well too.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Have you ever tried crawdad tails? Haven't fished the Snake in a lot of years but used to get good action on the mudbug parts on the upper Sacramento River in California. Also did well on sardine fillets...while fishing for stripers.

But a ball of crawlers produced there too...if you could keep the pesky cats and other nibblers away long enough for the sturgeon to find them.
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[Kent]

[quote dtayboyz]

Roll mop from Freddie's is cheaper than sturgeon candy.

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Pickled herring, in quart jar, in wine sauce from Walmart is cheaper than roll mop from Freddie's, and except for an occasional drunk sturgeon it works just as well as roll mop.
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[lunkerhunter2]

[quote TubeDude][#0000FF]Have you ever tried crawdad tails? Haven't fished the Snake in a lot of years but used to get good action on the mudbug parts on the upper Sacramento River in California. Also did well on sardine fillets...while fishing for stripers.

But a ball of crawlers produced there too...if you could keep the pesky cats and other nibblers away long enough for the sturgeon to find them.
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I tried it in ID several times Pat and never got a rattle. Caught them on crawlers too but the squaw fish are too bad to stay with it. Cat quarters work very well in the winter. They were biting pretty well this past weekend. Caught over 400# of sturgeon in 4 hours. They wanted Mort's this trip. I hate those damn fish. I am not going up there again.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Interesting how different baits work on different waters...for the same species of fish (sturgeon).

Caught them on freshwater mussels in the Klamath River...in Norcal. But those were green sturgeon. Caught lots of small to medium sized white sturgeon on the Columbia, near Portland Oregon, on chunks of lamprey eel and fillets from big shad.

In the Sacramento River, both above and below Sacramento, they ate just about any fish or crustacean likely to be found in those waters. But sardine slabs worked best most times. Unless we were fishing inside the bay. Then it was ghost shrimp. Also, before they banned it, using fresh herring roe stuck to shoreline seaweeds was candy to those big sturgies.

Not surprised to hear that sturgeon have a fondness for pickled herring. Kinda like that stuff myself. But not with a hook in it.
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[dtayboyz]

Same stuff, but in plastic container. Been doing it 25 yrs and I've tried about everything. With worms you just use one.
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