I was out fishing my favorite roughy hole on the Zumbro River today when out of nowhere what could only be a sturgeon (got a good look, ~4'long, sloped snout, and spiny) took to the air about 15 yards from me.

I have a couple of questions.

1.) It jumped clear out of the water in some fairly fast current, why would it do this???

2.) I've heard of sturgeon being caught in the Zumbro before, but have never personally seen one. Are they loaners or schoolers, Do they roam or are they generally home bodies? Just wondering if this was just a fluke or if I should be expecting to see more of these.

I've noticed Lake Sturgeon to be schoolers around their migrating times of the year; spawning stream in the spring, larger river like the Wisconsin River or Chippewa during the Summer, possibly back to the Mississippi during the Winter. Some areas have resident populations.

During the Summer however, I haven't noticed too much schooling activity. When they're feeding they'll all kind of move around all over. They don't school or attack like Bluegill do but in the right spots you could catch a dozen easily.

If you're sure it was a Shovelnose I can't really comment too much on that. I've only caught one and I just know they like fast current, sandy flats or holding behind dams. Anything that's hard to bottom fish without half a pound worth of lead might be a good spot to try.

Jumping...shaking parasites off or being spooked?

Corey will have more to say about that.

They just jump. Its their thing.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=jumping+sturgeon&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

H

The Zumbro? Very cool. That's got to be a good testament to the fact they continue to recover habitat.

Nice to see them in the Zum!

They are habitual jumpers.

Cricks,

Both shovels and lakers jump. Sometimes they even jump when they are hooked. If it was in fact 4', it was a lake sturg. There might be a few others around if you see one, but it's I doubt they school hard in the zumbro river or else you'd hear of people picking a few of them up once in a while. Crawlers on the bottom in the deepest water would be a worth a shot.

Current? Seams? Pools?