Cal and I spent three days fishing at Pointe du Bois, in the tailrace of the Manitoba Hydro power station. The new spillway has dramatically changed the structure and patterns that I remember from the eighties and nineties but the sturgeon fishing has remained the same. Over the three days we managed over 40 sturgeon, many sauger, a few pike, a smallmouth and a large sucker.
This trip we were only targeting sturgeon and the fish were co-operating. The largest fish caught was 51 1/2" with many others between 40" and that length. Within this range the fish all came to the boat relatively easily and the size of the fish determined how long it was before they tired enough to be brought up for measurements, photos and release. We wondered if that was the case for all sizes, even those well above 50" long.
If these fish ran like trout or some of our other line stripping game fish, they could become one of the most desired fish on our bucket list. Something like the 5 lb. bluegill that bluegill fishers dream about. But they just sulk on the bottom and I'd imagine those rare specimens over 60 or 70" inches would tire out most anglers with their typical catfish rods before being boated.
Most of the sturgeon had one or more lampreys on them that quickly dislodged themselves when the fish were boated. We wondered how they might work as bait but decided to leave that experiment for another day. Also many of the fish were tagged but we were unsure about the value of collecting the numbers so didn't record any. Cal had built a cradle to land the fish which I'd think was less stressful on the fish than a landing net, particularly smaller nets. All in all a memorable trip, one that warrants future repetition, perhaps when the mooneye bite starts.