By Drew Lockwood
You are paddling a canoe in a
shallow river when you see what looks like a large log. As you get closer the
log darts away like a torpedo. This was no ordinary log, in fact you saw a
sturgeon!
Last week, I paddled in my kayak with the Center for Conservation Leadership group of high school students from the Chicago area as they canoed the Manitowish River. Like Captain Ahab, suddenly Peter, one of the counselors, yelled STURGEON!! We had come across a Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), holding onto the bottom in shallow flowing water. I paddled as fast as I could to catch up and see it for myself but just barely got a glimpse of the elusive beast darting away.
Sturgeon are incredibly interesting fish. They are living fossils that first appeared nearly 150 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth! With a heterocercal caudal fin (the backbone extends past the base of the tail), and sharp plate like “scutes” on their sides, sturgeon resemble a prehistoric shark. However, sturgeon are classified in the class Actinopterygii (boney fishes), which is the same as common game fish are today. Incredible!
Sturgeon do not spawn every year like typical fish. Females spawn once every 3-6 years and do not reach sexual maturity until they are between 24-26 years old! Males spawn more often, about every 1-2 years and reach maturity around 14-16 years old. Sturgeon are bottom feeders that eat mostly bugs, snails, crayfish, and other invertebrates on the bottom of streams and lakes. Catching them is much like catfishing, by just casting out a hook with a glob, worm, cheese, or chunk of meat on the bottom. I, personally, have never caught one. However, if I am ever lucky to, it will be a day I will never forget.
So grab a rod and reel, wet a line, and patiently wait, because if a sturgeon finds its way to your hook, you are in for the fight of a lifetime!
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Photo by: American Fisheries Society – UWSP Student Subunit
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Sturgeon are incredibly interesting fish. They are living fossils that first appeared nearly 150 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth! With a heterocercal caudal fin (the backbone extends past the base of the tail), and sharp plate like “scutes” on their sides, sturgeon resemble a prehistoric shark. However, sturgeon are classified in the class Actinopterygii (boney fishes), which is the same as common game fish are today. Incredible!
Sturgeon do not spawn every year like typical fish. Females spawn once every 3-6 years and do not reach sexual maturity until they are between 24-26 years old! Males spawn more often, about every 1-2 years and reach maturity around 14-16 years old. Sturgeon are bottom feeders that eat mostly bugs, snails, crayfish, and other invertebrates on the bottom of streams and lakes. Catching them is much like catfishing, by just casting out a hook with a glob, worm, cheese, or chunk of meat on the bottom. I, personally, have never caught one. However, if I am ever lucky to, it will be a day I will never forget.
So grab a rod and reel, wet a line, and patiently wait, because if a sturgeon finds its way to your hook, you are in for the fight of a lifetime!
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