Now here's something a guy doesn't catch every day. This is a pallid sturgeon. They are classified as endangered. We were fishing for catfish and sturgeon, but the sturgeon we were fishing for are the more common (not endangered) shovelnose sturgeon. My partner caught a couple of the shovel nose. I still haven't caught a shovel nose, but I'm going to give it another try tomorrow. Anyway I thought you guys might like a look at these strange looking fish. One other interesting thing is that mine had a little tag inserted just under the skin on the nose. It had been tagged by fish and game. I've never caught a tagged fish before. Kind'a cool.

Here's me with the pallid sturgeon.


Here's my fishing partner with one of the shovelnose sturgeon he caught.


Oh and before the sun went down the scenery was pretty darn pleasant.

Cool!

Cool beans!!! Never seen one!

That is neat!

I've never seen on in the flesh.

FWP traps(studies?) them all up and down the river here. For the past 2-3 years they've had a trap set about 500 yards downstream from one the pumpsites.


Always been curious to see what they pull out of the traps.




Troy, bet that sturgeon made a delicious shore lunch....grin

Sam, I let the little guy go. My pard 's two bigger shovel nose and the sauger he caught were fish enough for us. We also landed 5 or 6 catfish. Let them go too, but in hindsight probably should of kept them.

Nice pictures. Which river?

Maria's River.

How big will the pallid grow?

My ichthyology book says 1.5m so that is about 5 feet in American.

The fish doesn't even start to reproduce until is about 14 or 15 years old, so it is not an easy fish to manage in today's world.

John

What bait did those sturgeons bite on?

Very cool. Was there caviar?

What did they bite on?

I caught a spoonbill catfish a couple times, but never seen either of those in the flesh.

Ella

Night crawlers are the bait of choice with sturgeon around here.

I fished the Blackfoot in another life.