I saw a post here with the picture of a trout lashed to the side of a horse and it reminded me of my Idaho history.
In the days before big dams and motorcars, there were pictures taken of giant freshwater sturgeon caught with chickens as bait and pulled out of the Snake River with horses.
That said, is any fly fishing done for sturgeon?
Just curious.
I’ve tried (token attempt) while sampling them for work. I don’t see why it couldn’t be done where we were, the walleye, pike, and redhorse piked up the flies… the sturgeon only went for the baited lines. Next year I will make an effort to target them with flies, sinking lines, softbodied flies with good motion, etc.
The sturgeon we were catching with conventional tackle ranged from 25lbs to 50lbs.
I have for years fished for Sturgeon on the Columbia river from both the Washington and Oregon side. It might be interesting to note that I found the fish would take a tied on fresh smelt with abandon when the bait was tied to the hook tail first. That way the fish when working up against the strong currents would IMO more readily take the bait head first. It worked for me. You might consider making your flies backwards rather than conventional. Good luck, Jonezee
Sturgeon are protected species here.
jed
Salmon, Trout & Steelhead magazine had an article on fly fishing for sturgeon. They did manage to catch a few, some large ones at that. I can’t remember what was used for flies or tackle.
Ya, sturgeon are protected here in Idaho also, if you land one, you must keep them in the water 100% of the time until released. The closest I have been to the monsters is the big tank at Cabela’s.
Larry Dahlberg, monserous thing. Far bigger than he was. He had to jump in with it. Released of course.
Couple years ago, a 120 pound Sturgeon washed up on the shore of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. DNR figured the Sturgeon was about 90 years old. What puzzled them is how it got there in the first place.
Lake Calhoun empties into Minnehaha Creek, that empties into the Mississippi River, after going over Minnehaha Falls. So someone had to transplant the fish back around 1920, from the St. Croix River, which is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin (about 30 miles to the east).
St Croix River supplied most of the Eastern Coast of the USA with Sturgeon Caviar, in the 1880’s, but over harvesting of the eggs (they cut the bellies open and toss the away the fish), almost eliminated these giant fish from our waters.
Sturgeon grow very slowly, and do not mate until about 10 years of age, and then they only spawn once ever five years or so! They have a exoskeleton, of hard plates, protecting their body. They can live to well over 100 years of age.
Going after a huge sturgeon and killing it is like going after an elephant and killing it…fortunately when we fish we can use catch and release.
We have fished’em in the SF bay system. They are pretty much bottom feeders going by smell. They have several barbels near the “siphon”.
We have been around them for around (GULP :roll: ) 50yrs. We have only ssen one taken on an artificial…and that fish had only one eye. Go figure THAT one out! It took a hair raiser jig while halibut were being targeted.
…lee s.
I have no idea if this may help - but when we fished for them on a charter a couple of years ago, the Captain insisted we keep the cut bait absolutely still on the bottom. No moving at all. Yes, we caught fish.
Thirty five years ago I caught my one and only sturgeon, it was 6 inches. I caught it at night fishing for catfish.
I wouldn’t consider flyfishing for a sturgeon unless it was a stinky fly.
I visited the Bonneville Fish Hatchery many years ago and I saw BIG sturgeon close up. I think that is how I formulated a idea in my head about fishing and catching sturgeon. This might sound strange, but I don’t believe in fishing for sturgeon. I honestly look at sturgeon as a creature to be left alone.
Sturgeon are a very ancient fish and they are very different from other fish.
Like JC said, Larry Dalhberg’s show about catching sturgeon in the Columbia river was a eye opener!
I respect others that fish and catch sturgeon and we have a slot limit to protect the big fish. I have a lot of respect for how long sturgeon have been around and I’m glad there protected.
One last thing, I remember watching a Snake river sturgeon fishing show and for bait they used a RAINBOW TROUT!
Doug 
A couple years back I was fishing the Red River at Lockport for channel cats using a modified clouser. I was bringing the fly through a trough when I noticed a ‘stick’ floating upstream. Being in a warmwater tailrace, with backcurrents - it didn’t really seem out of place (different, but not outta place). Well I guess my clouser was coming over the hump at the end of the trough when the ‘stick’ slammed side to side and took off (saw a bit more of the ‘stick’). Instinctively, I set the hook and was thinking huge cat. Then it all clicked in … the ‘sticks’ profile was in fact the top 6 or so inches of the sturgeons tail. It peeled my fly line like a kid with a cheese string - that, I wasn’t prepared for (my index finger on my stripping hand was sore for a week after). Needless to say after all of 7 or 8 seconds, the 20lb tippet I had broke off like nothing - there was no way my 9wt would have handled it.
The Sturgeon here spawn at 55-65 deg F - yup - about the right time for that. Also, the sturgeon migrate upstream on the Red River and into the Roseau River (and tributaries in southern Manitoba / Minnesota) for their spawning nests. Although it’s a tailrace, there is a fish ladder to assist the migration at Lockport.
Sturgeon have been become more frequently caught in this area in the past couple years. Either more anglers, or just more attention / reporting thereof, who knows for sure.
Either way - I can say, a sturgeon on the fly is one heck of a battle. Can it be done on a fly. sure. But as a protected and threatened species … they’ve got it rough enough, incident hook-up (like mine) are just that. Intentional angling for them … I’m not too keen on that.
darrell,
A couple of times each spring, I’ll fish the mouth of the Connecticut River from my kayak for stripers.
You’ll be drifting along, casting, lost in thought, when one of those monsters will fully breach right out of the water. Never close…yet…
Scares the **** out of you!
While it would not be impossible to hook one on the fly it would be very, very unlikely. They have terrible eyesight and feed based on their acute sense of smell. I know some guys have caught them on bluewater fly gear on the Columbia BUT they were using cut bait as the guys just wanted to test how much pressure their bluewater outfits could handle. I have heard of one other person catching one on fly tackle BUT he was using a wool-headed fly AND soaked the fly in scent. This is no more fly fishing that fishing chicken livers with baitcasting gear. Not to mention that the best spots for them is typically in some of the fastest water you’ve ever seen. No way to get a fly down 25’ with a current of 10MPH.
Now if you did hook into a big one - GOD HELP YOU! Check out this shot I took last month on the Fraser River near Mission, BC. This baby would have required a 14WT and they get MUCH bigger than this.
This fish had a total length of just over 7.5’.
Here is that fish just prior to release. My wife caught it
As big as this fish was, the eyes were less than 1/2" around. As I said, they have very poor eyesight. A few friends catch them on the Niagara River as they fish Smallmouth Bass with tube jigs but those jigs are salt and scent impregnated so that is why the sturgeon are eating the lures.
Sturgeon are simply fantastic beasts. Having a strong interest and education in fisheries they have fascinated me for some time now. I enjoy fishing them every year on the Fraser River system in BC on conventional gear with bait. The Fraser River fish are the hardest fighting Sturgeon I have found. While the Columbia River Sturgeon are commonly caught larger than those in the Fraser, I swear that an 8’Fraser River fish could tow an 11’ Columbia River fish backwards if tied tail to tail. What a sight to see them jump! A couple years back I caught one just shy of 9’ on the Fraser that had an amazing girth. We estimated its weight at around 600 pounds. My longest was on the Columbia below the Bonneville Dam during the May Shad migration. That fish was 11.5’ long and jumped 3 times : )
If given the opportunity I would highly recommend everyone go and catch one on conventional gear at some point. They are living dinosaurs and we are better off for having them around.
Looks like you were just upstream from the Abby. This is what that area looks like, right now!! 
Actually we were right in Mission but close enough. Yes, I have a good friend who lives in Mission and he has been telling me the beating they have taken on cold and snow. Looks more like Edmonton than southwestern BC!
DrFish,
Tell your wife that is one beautiful fish and I am very jealous. 
River Rat,
Dang that is cold! Hope it gets cold enough for some ice fishing in this part of Pa. this year.
Steven, it’s funny you should mention the St. Croix. Around 10 years ago we did a beautiful float on the St. Croix, and came to a wide sandy section of the river, and went over some monsters (I swear they were almost as long as our canoe). Pretty neat experience.
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Yes, that pic is about the same area, just the opposite side of the river from Mission. Some huge Fraser River sturgeon caught and released this year, such as this one.
Sturgeon are bottom feeders, and rely on scent to locate the food source. They approach it very slowly, methodically. When they reach the source of smell, the barbels come into play feeling the food, identifying it as food. When they decide it is okay, they will inhale it, and exhale it quite a bit. The angler will set the hook when he/she decides the fish has inhaled it sufficiently for a hook set. So if using a fly set up, the fly must be heavily scented and have limited motion,lying on or just off the bottom, and rod must be “freaking powerful!” Personally, I don’t think fly gear is very practical, for sturgeon. Just my 2 cents.