[GreenDrake]

Hi everyone/ newbe here...

I have a really dumb question! Is it possible to catch a Sturgeon on a fishing fly???? Has it been done??

I've caught Cats and other strange fish on a fly. How about a Sturgeon??

Slim (Pickens)

 

[KeepFishingFun]

Never heard of it. I have seen them caught on kwikfish though. I'm not sure how you would get a fly in the depths or in any place where a sturgeon would live. Also, sturgeon feed by smell. Of course (or so I thought) so do catfish?!? I wouldn't take my fly rod out to the river and expect to catch sturgeon.

 

[gpa's-fishin]

hate to disappoint ya but no.

 

[River Ranger]

Yes it is possible.Someone did it a few years ago and I think it was in a magazine or t.v.,I forget which.All they did was find a shallow flat and scented a fly with some type of fish oil,used a sinking line and let it sit on the bottom and they got fish.
Not really "Fly fishing" but they got fish.

I have heard of fishermen that tried a 9wt fly rod a dacron tipit and smelt,down at Astoria on the sands

RR.

 

[KeepFishingFun]

I would ask "what the?"

But that would make me a hypocrite, I broke a nice lamiglas flyrod two years ago at bouy 10 trolling a 3 oz weight and an anchovie.

Never did get a bite, I pointed the rod straight up and let the weight go straight down. My rod tip (not still attached to the pole)went with the weight.

If you ever need advice on how to turn one nice rod into three, pm me.

 

[buzzerbaby]

during the shad runs the sturgeon cruise the banks, if you hook a shad and leave it in the water they'll come right up and chase your shad down and eat it right off your hook. If it was legal I bet you could just tease 'em up like they do for sails and marlin. That'd be a blast.

 

[3riversBob]

Check out <u>this</u> from the flyfishing board. YES, it;s been done.

Bob

 

[WaterDog]

Guide Mark Henry did it and it was published in STS a few years back. I think he sort of cheated tho's as the fly had a small piece of crappie wrapped on it.

 

[Cliff]

you can catch em if you tip the hook with smelt or crappie, but not straight fly. And you pretty much just plunk it... its not really fly-fishing, but its with a fly rod.

 

[KeepFishingFun]

:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

Does anyone have any photos or documentation of a sturgeon going after live shad? im just not sure how the sturgeon could do this. I asked a WDFW biologist and he says it's bunk. He said a sturgeon would only take a live shad if it were not in good health and swimming poorly. ??? I have heard so many things I don't know what to believe. People say "oh yeah, my buddy got one when he was fighting a shad", but with all the shad I have caught, and all the shad I have seen caught, I have never seen a sturgeon do this. I have however caught one on a kwikfish, which would make me lean toward believing they would? I don't know, what do you think? :whazzup:

Funny story: a guy told me one time that "sturgeon lay on their backs and suck the shad in as they swim over the top"... LOL, I just said "uh huh".

 

[Fshklr]

with over 4 million shad going over bonne, and 30,000? falling to rod and reel...another 5,000? just dying in mid journey, turbine wash etc...whats so hard to believe a sturgeon hasn't taken a hooked live shad on rod and reel.

I've caught flounder in Kalama, Small mouth Bass on a wobbler, Sturgeon on a spinner...one would have to believe, it is possible just with the law of averages alone..rare...but possible!

 

[buzzerbaby]

:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

Does anyone have any photos or documentation of a sturgeon going after live shad? im just not sure how the sturgeon could do this. I asked a WDFW biologist and he says it's bunk. He said a sturgeon would only take a live shad if it were not in good health and swimming poorly. ??? I have heard so many things I don't know what to believe. People say "oh yeah, my buddy got one when he was fighting a shad", but with all the shad I have caught, and all the shad I have seen caught, I have never seen a sturgeon do this. I have however caught one on a kwikfish, which would make me lean toward believing they would? I don't know, what do you think? :whazzup:

Funny story: a guy told me one time that "sturgeon lay on their backs and suck the shad in as they swim over the top"... LOL, I just said "uh huh".

go up to bonnie this shad season, I don't know if they do it on the OR side but I've seen it more times than I can count on the WA shore, and yep I've watched the gators roll over on there backs and pluck 'em right off the surface. Now these are all fish that we've hooked and keep fighting right next to the shore until we see 'em coming then we try to guide them towards the fish, once they get within about five feet of the sturgeon, they will usually start trying to find'em. You usually lose your shad dart once they grab the fish and take off but sometimes the darts just straighten out.

 

[Reel Class]

This year I watched a 6' sturgeon fight for and take a shad off of a fishermans line....

 

[fishtat]

I'm going to guarantee you this much: Sturgeon are migratory bait chasing feeders. If you can get them to eat a sardine wrapped kwikfish, then you can easily imagine how they can eat a live shad/smelt/eel/herring or whatever. I've talked to biologists who have told me that fish have been tagged and tracked from Wilapa bay to Northern California. And that those same fish will chase the in season baitfish up into the Columbia for feeding. Herring and anchovies they'll chase into the estuary whereas Shad and Eel they'll chase or follow all the way up to the dam. On the bank, we run really long lead lines and fish our baits way up off the bottom. I started fishing this way because of how I imagined their feeding habits might lend them to try to grab a bait and pin it on the bottom. I'm convinced much of their diet is comprised of live bait. Not all of it. But a good portion.

 

[STGRule]

Yes, they can and do eat live food. They have been seen upside down slurping shrimp off the surface in estuaries, they eat live shad at the dams (and presumably elsewhere too), oversized that are kept for spawning were fed live trout and I was told that it had to be added quickly and the lid to the tank dropped fast because the tanks exploded with water everywhere. As soon as the sturgeon calmed down a peek would confirm no more trout in the tanks.

In the Columbia, sturgeon evolved in a system that had some specie or race of fish entering the river just about every month of the year. They followed them up the system and returned to the ocean or lower river to find the next set of goodies swimming past. Mind you they did this in an un-dammed, wildly dynamic river system. Huge rapids that were miles long. They ain't no mud suckers boys.