“Fishing mortality accounts for no more than 1 percent. “Today, sturgeon mortality from all causes is only 3 to 5 percent per year,” said Heinrich. This fundamental habitat improvement combined with science-based fisheries management has driven the ongoing sturgeon recovery. “What needed to happen happened,” he said, acknowledging that the Rainy River’s water quality has greatly improved over the past 60 years due to pollution regulation, prevention and awareness. Heinrich, the DNR’s Lake of the Woods fisheries biologist, sees a bright future for sturgeon. Our sturgeon tournament is a sellout every year.” He said it is common to see 250 to 300 boats within a mile or two of his resort. We have had a huge increase in our spring occupancy rates. “It’s been completely different the past eight or nine years. “In the old days, it was a ghost town up here after the walleye season closed in April,” he said. Greg Hennum, president of Sportman’s Lodge resort northwest of Baudette, shares a similar perspective. Many anglers also buy frozen shiner minnows and sprays to add additional scent to their hook. Mortenson said springtime sturgeon fishing has been “a boon for my business and the entire local economy.” He said the average angler buys two dozen night crawlers for each day of fishing. It’s like saltwater fishing right here in the Midwest,” he said. Greg Mortenson, owner of Outdoors Again sport shop in Baudette also uses the ocean analogy when he talks about sturgeon. That’s as close to ocean fishing as you can get.” Said Greg Peterson: “The fish we catch in May average more than 4-feet long. Like many sturgeon anglers, the Petersons are hooked on sturgeon fishing because it is relatively easy, it’s fun, and equipment needs are modest. “I’ve caught the two largest.” Her heaviest weighed nearly 100 pounds based on its 68 1/4-inch length and 30-inch girth. “I’ve been the lucky one,” said Julie Peterson. Meticulous record-keepers, their angling log tallies 337 sturgeon longer than 50 inches 55 have exceeded 60 inches. They have caught and released 1,260 sturgeons since they began fishing for them a dozen years ago. She, husband Greg and son Blake are perhaps the best sturgeon anglers in the state. Julie Peterson of rural Effie, Minn., is among Minnesota anglers who have caught sturgeon at or near 100 pounds. Ten years from now that will still be unusual but less so.” “But clearly the population is trending in the right direction. “Realistically, we may never see 9 million pounds again,” said Heinrich, who noted the current population weighs about one-third of that amount. That was a gigantic haul it decimated what had been an unexploited fish population. During those seven years, commercial netters harvested 9 million pounds of sturgeon from Lake of the Woods. The new data chronicles the remarkable recovery of a species that nearly vanished from these waters due to unregulated commercial fishing during the 1890s, especially from 1892 to 1898. Those assessments estimated the number of 40-inch or larger sturgeon at 59,000 and 17,000, respectively. The sturgeon assessment was conducted in 2014 by the Minnesota DNR, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Rainy River First Nations. Not long ago a 50-inch sturgeon was quite the catch. “We’ve known big fish numbers are on the rise,” said Tom Heinrich, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries specialist in Baudette, Minn. Put head to tail, that is a string of fish more than 60 miles long. Lake sturgeon fishing began in earnest this week on the Minnesota side of the Rainy River, and those seeking the state’s largest fish are bobbing above more huge sturgeon than anytime since the late 1800s.Ī new sturgeon population assessment concludes the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods contain 92,000 lake sturgeon 40 inches or longer.
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