12-13 CR Sturgie Report and a Question

[5-Cents]

Got out on the CR at the crack of 8:30. Morning was pretty nice with a little breeze and no rain. Anchored just off Kelly Point in 62' of water. Used smelt with a fresh squid hoochie with some crawdady scent... mmmmm!

5 min later my rod goes tap, tap... very light biters... tap, tap... I set the hook and instead of the fish coming toward me he starts going away like he has some kind of agenda! 10 minutes later get a nice 50.5 inch gator in the boat. The nice thing was Cracker Joe could not cracker him off with the net because the hook was about 5 inches down :grin:

Of course we new it was going to be a good day because when we looked for the d.camera we could not find it... oh yea I left it at home :hoboy: So we did not get any pictures of all the shakers we caught.

Afternoon got pretty nasty but we stayed till just about dark. Landed the one keeper and 5 other fish we put the tape to but were just short as well as 14 smaller shakers.

Here is a picture of the keeper I took at my house when we got home :grin:
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/193807347.jpg

The question I have is this... do sturgeon carcasses make good crab bait? I put mine in the freezer to keep for such an occasion but if I am wasting valubale freezer space I need to toss it.

Thanks :cheers:

[jet]

Nice I-fish sticker placement.

I have never done well with the gator remains on crabs.

Jet~~~

[NEUTRON]

Crabbait....fess up, how much sturgy do you eat?

[SureSet]

I agree with Jet, I've tried gator remains and they just don't work near as well a salmon, shad, turkey or chicken. You would think they would work, but Crabs might think of them as a predator, or they just don't have enough smell I don't know.........

SureSet

[Tacklebuster]

I agree with Jet and Steve as well. I am not much of a crabber but my neighbor from across the street was. I give him all my Salmon/Sturgeon remains and shad. He said the sturgeon never seemed to work as good as the rest.

Congrats on your success Friday :cheers: We put the hammer to them as well. The morning was beautiful until about noon. The good thing about having wind that day was it kept you fishing when the water went slack. Not many boats on the river either. I can't wait until the smelt hit the system :dance:

[King13fisher]

Nice fish.....and thanks for the idea on where to put my ifish sticker.

[Hogmaster]

You should keep all your carcasses, Buff!

When the freezer is full, get another one and fill it with more carcasses. You can do a scientific study on carcass atractivity. Not that anyone would ever actually use a sturgeon carcass more than one time before they knew that they attract crabs about as well as railroad spikes do. :hoboy:

OK, nice catch. Guess I'm just salty because you got to go fishing.

You know, when I start looking really closely at that picture, I think I can see... Oh, nevermind! :grin: :grin: :grin:

[KingFisher85]

What the, OMG, is that what I think it is in that picture. Yes, its is. There is an elk in that picture.
Black helicopter? What's that doing over there?

Nice sturgeon

[ 12-14-2002, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: KingFisher85 ]

[Nanook]

Take the filets off the side. Toss the rest.

Clean absoutely everything off the meat, only clean white meat left both sides.

Lay the filets on top of crushed ice or ice in a cooler for a day or so. No comparison in taste and texture of the "aged" product.

Deep fry pieces in your favorite batter/breading.

P.S. Your net won't last long using it on Sturgeon. Lift them in the boat with the leader or tail them. graemlins/eek13.gif

Bait setup works eh? :tongue: Nice keeper. graemlins/applause.gif

[ 12-14-2002, 05:45 PM: Message edited by: ****** ]

[fishing is life]

way to go Shane! i usually dont keep my carcasses but that was a good question cause i have pondered that too.

[fishing is life]

good advice on the net ******. i was gonna post a question about who nets and who uses their hands with sturgies after reading the post. when i first started sturgie fishing i had a buddy who advised me not to use my net (some darn good advice for newbies).

[sportster]

nice fish. did you fish the wa. side or the ore. side?i plan on going on sun. if i can get a crew together.if i dont go there i will try the fishery.thanks for the pic. and info. :wink:

[Smj]

As far as sturgeon and salmon carki, ( being that we don't crab), there are a couple of the nicest Phillipino families in the neighborhood that are always glad to take them off our hands. "Make soup" is what they say, I even tried a bowl of it once and it was good but a little too rich for me. A few days later they come to the house with some delicous egg rolls fresh out of the oil, and a bowl of special dipping sauce. It's a great trade.

Smj

[5-Cents]

sportster,

Fished both sides.... got the keeper on the OR side just off Kelly Point. There were also quite a few boats up by T-6. Good luck if you go.

******,

Ya man that alnatural hoochie setup works great. I think those bad boys keep working on the squid even if the smelt brought them in. A couple extra nibbles never hurt anybody except for the sturgeon in the picture, which by the way was quite tasty! My kids kept saying, "Dad we want more chicken!" :cheers:

Hogmaster,

You know I dont think there are any elk around my house but the day I lost my mojo on the John Day (since recovered :grin: ) take a look what was following us... :shocked:
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/142908348.jpg
(sorry about picture quality as I had to zoom and crop so you could see the deer more clearly)

In all honesty this buck did forge the river right below the boaters park... kind of cool. Maybe you have to watch out for the DEER since the elk was takne out by an airplane in Astoria :shocked:

[Sturgeon Tom]

****** you hit the nail on the head. I do the same thing. I hang mine from a fence post skin it first then fliet it. Real easy to do. Skin just pulls off from head to tail. Just remember get rid of the red in the meat, makes a difference in tast.

[5-Cents]

Sturgeon Tom,

Could you please explain to me how you skin it first? Please be as detailed as you can as to where you start the cut and how to do it. I fileted this one fine but it sure would be easier to skin first as skinning takes the most amount of time!

Thanks

:cheers:

[Smj]

5-Cents, I lay the sturgeon on a fillet table outside and cut the tail off, cut the dorsal and pelvic fins off, slice just under the skin beneath the scutes on top and sides and remove them completly leaving strips of skin to be removed. At this point i'll make a sallow slice just barely through the skin just behind the bone of the head. I use a pair of cat fish skinning pliers to grab the skin just behind the head and pull back toward the tail, it helps to use a fillet knife to make a little flap of skin to grab with the pliers. Cat fish pliers have wide jaws, maybe an inch or inch and a half wide.
Where I run into problems is trying not to waste the meat that is down low on the sides of the fish. It always seems when trying to pull the skin from the lower sides of the fish the skin will pull the meat away with it. Anyone else have tips on how to avoid this problem, or any other tips for that matter?

Smj

[Biteme]

you dont want to save too much of the belly meat anyway it tends to be strong. I usually trim mine above the row of scutes on the belly and discard the rest. I also remove all of the red fatty layer just under the skin. As far as skinning it first I dont do that I have a telescopic cutco fillet knife that I use for filleting the meat from the carcas and a forsner carving knife with the recessed grooves in the side of the blade that i use for filleting the meat from the skin. The whole process takes about 4 minutes per fish with some practice.

[ 12-15-2002, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: Biteme ]

[Herring Impaired]

If you ever get a chance, stop by Sturgeon Pauls in Warrenton. Of course, best to do this when you are fishing around the area, such as tongue point....

Just watching him fillet a sturgeon a few times, and I was on the way to greatly reduced fish butchering times.

$5 well spent...

[Pilar]

The last two trips I have noticed the 'light bite' situation. Good job and nice fish.

As far as your question goes .... IMHO, sturgeon carc makes crappy crab bait. I've tried it numerous times and would use almost anything else first.

I have to wonder if sturgeon feed on juvenile crabs whille they visit tidewaters and repel crabs for the same reason Cabezon do.

Try Cabezon for crabbait and all you'll catch is seaweed.

[5-Cents]

Thanks for the replys on the crab bait issue. The sturgeon remains were laid to rest in the garbage yesterday!

:cheers:

[live to fish]

SMJ
Try pulling the skin from the tail to the head i think it skins much easier without pulling any meat away.

[Sturgeon Tom]

5-cents
First I hang it buy the head. Then take a sharp knife and cut down the back bone on both sides. Then cut both sides of the belly, I leave the fatty white. Then cut Just the skin below the head like any fish. I use skining plyers but something else would work, Grab the skin buy the head and pull. You have to help whith the knife to start, after it starts, just pull to the tail. It comes off slick as a whistle. :smile: Next take your knife and cut to the cord at the top and then down and the meat starts falling off in a long fillet. When your done trim the red off the white meat and enjoy. I let mine eather set on ice or in the refer for a day befor vacuum pack it.

[ 12-16-2002, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: Sturgeon Tom ]