Top_Heavy's World

The rod tip bent slightly, tiny little tugs made the rod wiggle. I was poised, knees bent, arms outstretched, I was in position for just the right pull. I stood there, like a guy who just dropped his keys off of a tall building, stuck in time. The rod wiggled, the rod popped, the rod just started to bend and I sprung into action. I grabbed the handle and swept upward with the rod... nothing, I missed again. I was trying to perfect my hook set on the strangest of spring fish, the sturgeon. I had the best hookup ratio of the 4 of us. We stood along the bank of the Cedar River just below a sand bar. The sun felt good on this chilly spring morning. The grass was turning green, the buds on the trees were starting to grow, soon we would be looking for mushrooms and hunting turkeys. Today we were drowning nightcrawlers in the hopes of catching a batch of prehistoric sand sturgeon.
I found a single aberdeen hook of size 1 to be perfect. I threaded the upper inch or so of the worm on the hook and I left the barb exposed. My secret weapon was the walleye trailer hook I used. I use the type that uses 4" of monofilament line and makes a small 1/16" loop. This loop is dipped into liquid rubber and left to dry, once dry it is tough enough for the main hook to be pushed through past the barb and it stays on! I put this on over the worm and I then let it straighten out. Once it was straight, I hooked one of the 3 hooks on the small treble hook into the body of the crawler. I pinched the worm off about 1/2" below the stinger hook. I was using a 1/8 ounce slip sinker to pull the worm down a little, but not enough to allow the fish to feel too much resistance. I fish this light rig behind normal current brakes usually, but sometimes fishing it down the edges of sand bars can be really good too. I gently set the bait out about 10 or 12 feet and I lighly walk down the sand bar, allowing the current to slowly push the bait. This presentation looks like a worm that was washed into the river, lighly drifting in the current. I slow the bait a little and I pick it up and reset it at the bottom of the swing. I pick up a lot of differet types of fish with this natural system, but the sturgeon was the fish of choice.
The fast tip bent a little and stayed that way. I lifted the base and the quick bend in the rod said one thing "Fish On"! I played the scrappy fish to the shore and started bragging, I was now up by 5 or 6 fish. We were all getting bites, but with out trailer hooks the others were just keeping them fed. We ended up with almost a dozen fish on our best day, but 4 to 6 was the norm. Light line, small hooks, simple equipment and great eating, makes this type of fishing fun for everyone. If you haven't been sturgeon fishing before, you owe it to yourself to try. These 25 to 30" fish are fun to fight, easy to find and simple to fish for. Tired of the boat, the hassles of long runs and lots of hours to find crappie in the spring? Try Strugeon, some unusual spring fishing.