How to make a sturgeon jump....

[wootersen]

I spoke to my dad on the phone today, who lives in Arkansas and I don't get to fish with very often. :depressed: Apparently, he was watching a fishing show where they demonstrated how to make a sturgeon jump out of the water.

They said if you give them a good yank after they have been hooked, they swim to the surface and jump out of the water. I know I've seen pictures of sturgeon jumping, but I've never had one personally jump. I've even heard of them referred to as "poor man's marlin"

Anybody ever heard of this ? Is there actually technique to this ?

[Dipnet]

I don't know if there is actually a technique to get them to jump, but I have caught quite a few that jump while fighting them. The biggest was a 64" that came out of the water twice. What a rush that was :grin: !!! I also got a 54" down at Astoria in about 4' of water that came out of the water a couple of times. Really cool to see!!!

Dipnet :grin:

[Okie]

In general it is a bad idea to make a fish jump. It is a good way to loose a fish. Just for show maybe but if the object is to get the fish in the boat don't make it jump. In fact it is better to keep it from jumping if possible and this really applies to salmon and steel head fishing also.

[SturgeonKing50]

Hook them in real shallow water say 4'or 5' you wwill not have to yank to make them jump. They will do it for you. I hooked a 7' in the mud at Tillamook Bay and it got real ugly right now. He headed for the ocean ang never did stop jumping. If they cannot go down they will go up. I had a friend fishing with me another time down there and he hooked a big one and made the mistake of trying to thumb him with 80lb Tuff line. It yanked his thumb up under the cross bar and melted his skin white. He will not make that mistake again.

[First Light Bite]

Sure you just tickle them right behind the ears. They just can't stand that.

[ 01-18-2004, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: ****** ]

[wootersen]

******

That's awesome...that's exactly what I'm talkin' about.

I know it's risky, but I just might try it !!

Get your camera's ready !!

:grin: :grin: :grin:

[notaclue]

great video ******. i've only caught one, but i did get a really good jump out of it. other wise it felt like reelin' in a ton of bricks.

notaclue

[jet]

******,

I just love the Harley in the background... nice pipes.

Jet~~~

[skrimmy]

It's been my experience that the bigger gators are the jumpers. Most of large keeper size and oversized sturgeon I've caught with Sturgeon Tom over the years up at Bonneville have been good jumpers. Nothing like having an 8 or 9 foot sturgeon do a tailwalk and then head down river for a couple hundred yards!

[Fishfinder1]

I know this works on the bank......sometimes, but not always. A minute or so after hookup when the battle is turning into a scrap I will start twanging my line like a guitar string, this sends a vibration down to the fish I guess and really t's them off! Either they will blister your thumb or go airborne! If this doesent work try knocking on the handle of the rod, oh, ten or fifteen times........ gators can fly!!!!! :shocked: :grin: :shocked:

[Steelie Steve]

Originally posted by ******:
So...SteelieSteve...just how do you make a Sturgeon jump. :grin:

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I don't know :grin: Maybe you could give us all a lesson on Saturday... :tongue:

Fun Days Rick!!! :grin:

Steve

Fishfinder1 - The guitar thing does work.

[ 01-07-2004, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: Steelie Steve ]

[steel_beaver]

it has worked for me 2 out of three times i have tried it....
the first time was at bonneville. the drag on my reel was too tight, but the fish was still taking line out..... i just couldn't get the ugly stick out of the pole holder. so i loosen the drag and the gator takes off like crazy.... by the time i got into "fighting position " and tightened the drag, i was almost spooled :shocked:
so i remembered what a friend a of mine told me... "if you want to turn a big sturgeon, 'set the hook' a few times" so i did it.....5-6 times :grin:
the sturgeon jumped about 5 feet out of the water(only about 2/3 of its body came out, the tail was still in the water), just like a marlin
and when it fell back in broke the leader off...
the second time was at warrendale when i accidently hooked an oversize while fishing for steelhead. it went pretty much the same way but this time the hook got bent and it looked more like a pin after the gator was done with it [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[ 01-07-2004, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: steel_beaver ]

[troybuz]

My brother, who is the true fish catcher in the family, taught me to tap on the bottom of the rod handle...it brings them right up. Also, the small fish generally don't jump.
PS....Nice video

[PapaHog]

Let me tell you about a jumper.

I hooked up a big (8ft) plus stugeon below the dam and my buddy says shall I break loose from the anchor and I said nah.... This is a little one as it was comming right up as I cranked in line. Well my buddy had cranked up the kicker and was ready to break loose form the anchor when this little (I thought) sturgeon came out of the water right at the side of the boat. It hit the side of the boat splashed back in the river drowning us both with water. It was like getting a 5 gal bucket of the columbia in the face.
The fish was out of the water 6 plus feet. After splashing back in it went up river across our nieghbors anchor line and headed for the pacific.
Talk about the fire drill getting started. We broke loose from the anchor and tried to get up above the nieghbors anchor line around his boat and give chase only one problem I would have been spooled before the kicker would have got us around the niegbors boat and I had the drag very loose so not to cut the niegbors anchor line. Well I yelled to fire up the big motor and the Duckworth responded like a champion she is and we ran that gator down. It jumped a second time after we caught up to it and it did not want to give up to us. A little before my arms fell off this fine sturgeon did give up and seemed grateful to be unhooked. Swam strongly away leaving us with a great memories of a great fish out of the water at arms liength. My arms were sore, my heart was pounding. Life is good. :smile:

A month after this I broke my arm fighting a big gator from the bank. But that is another story. :grin:

[Okie]

I still feel that it is wrong to intently make a fish jump, which is very easy to do if you want to horse it in. Almost any fish will jump under those conditions. It takes more skill to keep it in the water and not make it jump. And that's my deffinition of a good fisherman.

[nitroduk]

nice fish....

[wootersen]

OK, OK... :grin:

I tried the guitar thing today on some shakers.(It was a little off key) [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] It didn't seem to have too much effect on them.

I'll have to try tapping the rod handle next time. I'm kinda hoping to try this on a good size gator.

Two more weeks to figure this out !!! Keep an eye out for pics

[Sturgeon]

Wooterson, I try to make all my big fish jump. not only is it exciting to see the line cut accross the water but the exsplosion when they come up is great. I set the hook and once I feel the fish is on I yank till I see the line cut "It is on his way up". if that dont work then I do the guitar string method. put lots of pressue on the rod and start twangin the line. I think the vibration tickles their barbles( feelers on the upper part of the mouth)they usually will come up with one of these teckniques. Usually the fish that are 50" or better are the most submisive to this. I have had problems making the smaller ones comply.
Good Luck :grin:
and "Keep'em Jumpin"

[ 01-12-2004, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: Sturgeon ]

[wootersen]

Yeah...It's probably no so good in terms of keeping the fish on the hook to try and get them to jump. I look at it this way;

Michael Jordan didn't have to jump all the way from the free throw line to dunk it in. He could have done a lay up and scored an equal number of points. It was totally unneccessary, and one of the most amazing feats in sports I've ever seen.

Sturgeon:

Thanks for the tips. I'm gonna keep trying and hope the camera is ready for it. I'm not sure what is different about the shakers. Maybe the larger fish are more sensitive. :whazzup:

BTW, all my sturgeon so far have not been fought very long, I use Sharp barbless hooks and they are all released promptly afterward. Swimming away until they are big enough to jump

[Sturgeon]

Wooterson, maybe when this weather warms up here in the gorge you can come up and we can catch some jumpers. cant even get down the boat ramps without fear of slidin in. we can try the teckniques and mabybe find some new ones. send me a pm with your # and we can set sumpin-up.

[wootersen]

Yeeeeeaaaahhh buddy....

Let's do it !!!

Your profile isn't set up for PM's but I can email you.

Thanks Sturgeon

[Hoosier Daddy]

Is it possible that doing things like "trying to make a sturgeon jump" are contributing to the backlash from the Fish and Game Commissions on oversize sturgeon handling? What I mean is we should probably all be aware that stuff like this contributes to the view that fishing on oversize sturgeon is a bad thing.

"Making" a sturgeon jump is probably a bad idea. Doing something to any fish that would cause it to jump when it might not have otherwise is going to stress the fish out. Not good if you are planning to release it. Just my 0.02. I know its cool, and lots of sturgeon, especially oversize, do it anyway. But I don't think going after them with the intent of "making" them jump is a good idea.

[Seefood Man]

They will jump higher if they are wearing Nikes :tongue: