SURGIN STURGEON

It was a hot, sunny day on the Winnipeg River in late June, pristine conditions to catch a lake sturgeon. After having anchored the boat on a big mud flat in some very fast water, I threw out a 3 ounce sinker, with a short snell and 2# hook on which were gobbed nightcrawlers and some minnows for good measure. This is the same rig I would use for catfish on the mighty Red but believe it or not the sturgeon that we would catch that day would fight even harder than the mighty channel cat.

Have you ever caught a sturgeon? Well if you had, it would be something that you would remember for the rest of your life. That's because when hooked, these prehistoric creatures tend to rocket straight up in the water column to do a tailwalk that would make any bass or muskie envious.

The lake sturgeon which exist in the freshwater tributaries in this part of the world have been around for close to 60 million years and are part of a 23 specie sturgeon family worldwide. The sturgeon has not changed much over time with their cartilaginous skeletons and thick-set, torpedo-shaped bodies distinguished from those of other fishes by rows of hard, knobby, pointed bucklers running from head to tail. They have a long snout which allows them to root around for crustaceans and other tasty morsels along the bottom including freshwater clams. A row of four barbells or feelers under the snout in front helps track down food and they have a forked tail that looks like it could have come off a shark. The sturgeon will also vary in colour depending on the environment but one thing is for certain, pound for pound they are extremely powerful fish in the water. For those who have caught them, they will attest that sturgeon are an incredible sport fish. Ultimately it might be this fact that saves the sturgeon. You have to remember one thing, sturgeon is like no other fish, a female doesn't spawn until she's 25 years old, and only once every five to nine years thereafter. So it was real bad news when in the year 1860 commercial fisherman discovered that sturgeon could be smoked and sold as a substitute for smoked halibut. It didn't take long for the stocks across North America to be depleted. Here in Manitoba large scale commercial fishing for sturgeon began in 1887 and in 1900, the last glory year, over 450,000 kilograms of sturgeon was removed. By 1924 after some 2,808,865 kilograms had been harvested, there were few fish to be found, a legacy that remains to this day.

There is a glimmer of hope in this part of the world that sturgeon are making a comeback, especially in the river systems that drain in and out of Lake of the Woods. Once probably the best lake sturgeon fishery in the world, the Lake of the Woods is benefiting from the resurgence of the Rainy River. On the 110 kilometre stretch of the Rainy River which drains from Rainy Lake the construction of two paper mills just after the turn of the century had created an environmental mess for these fish by coating the bottom of their spawning areas with effluent and wood chips. That changed in the late 60's after the U.S and Canadian governments made the mills clean up their discharges. Slowly but surely the fish have come back and right now the Rainy River is one of the best lake sturgeon fisheries in North America. It has been helped along not only by cleaner water but co-operation of all user groups. Commercial fishing was stopped in 1930's on the U.S side of the border, then finally commercial fishers were bought out in 1995 on the Canadian side. The Rainy River First Nations band also got involved, opening a sturgeon hatchery at Manitou Rapids to stock the river, as well as limiting domestic fishing. A combination of all these events once again has proven, that when fish are given a chance by man they can make an amazing comeback! The sturgeon in the Assiniboine River near Brandon are also making a resurgence, helped by the restocking process that has been taking place for the last six years.

Rick Hansen, the "Man in Motion" knows all about comebacks. He is the founder and chairman of the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society, a group that works to save the imperiled white sturgeon in this British Columbia river from all the problems the sturgeon on the Rainy River were faced with; pollution, poaching and spawning habitat destruction. His group has tagged more than 12,000 white sturgeon in order to better understand the movements of these fish, their survival, their health as the environmental indicators of the whole ecosystem.

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