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SouthernExposure
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I haven't caught one, but I have read that the material that the natives used to make pictographs was made up of a mixture of iron oxide (the red color) and oil derived from the spinal cords of sturgeon. I would imagine that the natives knew exactly when and where they could find sturgeon shallow enough to take with a spear.
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schucanoe
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A friend of mine caught a sturgeon below Rebecca Falls as well several years ago while we were jig fishing for walleyes. Wasn't expecting that but was neat to see. Saw 2 large adults once in the shallow narrows between Twin Lakes downstream of Dore. Most recently we saw one porpoise completely out of the water on Sturgeon Lake on our trip a few weeks ago. Strange behavior for a bottom feeder but not uncommon for Lake Sturgeon. Have also seen this happen on Rainy River and Lake of the Woods. Expert opinion seems to differ on why they do this. Maybe its just fun for them.
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bobbernumber3
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Caught these with the camera in QPP.
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walllee
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Just wondering if anybody has ever hooked into a sturgeon. Caught one ice fishing for Walleye in Lake Superior, I figured somebody has had to hook into one somewhere in canoe country.
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Miami1
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A buddy caught 2 in Russell lake years ago when nightcrawlers were legal. One was 48in. the other was 53in. The first one took 40 minutes to land on 6lb test line and the larger one took 1 hour and 20 minutes to land. sorry no pictures. Anthony
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walllee
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Pinetree: "I know of zero lakes in the BWCA but at least one in Quetico has them. The lake has the right name for Sturgeon." There was a study done a few years ago , sturgeon were also in wolseley , and McAree .
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GopherAdventure
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A guy I know caught one on McAree, right below Rebecca Falls. Had to cut the line as his drag was as tight as it would go and the fish was peeling line and just swimming away...lol.
Tony
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oldmil
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I caught one on Russell in 2003. Jigging for walleyes, I foul hooked it in the pectoral fin. I thought I had the mother of all walleyes on. Turned out to be about a 30" sturgeon. 
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tumblehome
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This is a fascinating thread.
I hope to God I never hook into one. The adrenaline would most certainly kill me.
Fish that big scare the crap out of me. I'm just a meek fisherman in a tiny canoe.
I am perfectly content catching 2 pound walleye all day long. Even a 10 pound northern freaks me out!
Tom
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Mocha
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thought there was sturgeon in east pike? or is that some other fish not normally found in the bwca
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Pinetree
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Mocha: "thought there was sturgeon in east pike? or is that some other fish not normally found in the bwca"
It has a few Muskellunge.
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GSP
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walllee: "Just wondering if anybody has ever hooked into a sturgeon. Caught one ice fishing for Walleye in Lake Superior, I figured somebody has had to hook into one somewhere in canoe country."
Hooked several, landing zero
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Basspro69
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schucanoe: "A friend caught this sturgeon on our trip below Rebecca Falls in June 2001.  " Cool picture
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Basspro69
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bobbernumber3: "Caught these with the camera in QPP.
" Awesome !!
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Basspro69
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oldmil: "I caught one on Russell in 2003. Jigging for walleyes, I foul hooked it in the pectoral fin. I thought I had the mother of all walleyes on. Turned out to be about a 30" sturgeon. " Cool
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Basspro69
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bobbernumber3: "Caught these with the camera in QPP.
" Awesome
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Drex
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Caught this one on LLC May 20th 2019. Just north of the portage to Toe lake.
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dentondoc
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Back about 2004, on an early spring Quetico trip, as we reached the top of the “spillway” between Russell and Sturgeon lakes, we spotted a school of sturgeon migrating into Russell. The school likely numbered nearly 100 fish of various sizes (between 2 and 5 footers would be my estimate). Since we began fishing for them from shore, we needed to be able to turn them at some point, but 10 lb test was insufficient for even 3 footers. Larger fish just kept swimming as though the line wasn’t there. So several were hooked, but none were landed.
dd
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YetiJedi
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Drex: "Caught this one on LLC May 20th 2019. Just north of the portage to Toe lake.
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Wow. Simply wow.
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mgraber
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I believe Pickerel also has them as well as the lower Malign river. I have never heard of anyone catching one, but have had people say they have seen them jump as well as seeing them migrating through or staging in shallow water.
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cburton103
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tumblehome: "This is a fascinating thread.
I hope to God I never hook into one. The adrenaline would most certainly kill me.
Fish that big scare the crap out of me. I'm just a meek fisherman in a tiny canoe.
I am perfectly content catching 2 pound walleye all day long. Even a 10 pound northern freaks me out!
Tom"
I agree with you, Tom. Northern approaching 35-40” are a real difficulty to handle. We try to never bring those in the canoe. That said, they’re pretty exciting to catch!
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Pinetree
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I know of zero lakes in the BWCA but at least one in Quetico has them. The lake has the right name for Sturgeon.
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timatkn
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I swear I saw one breach the surface in early May in Darky Lake near the 1st narrows where you start to head to Brent. Could they be in that lake?
I had one up to the boat that seemed to be 5 feet long on LOTW…it toyed with me for 1.5 hours before seeing the boat and taking off…my 8# fire line disintegrated as did all the gears on my reel…I could break the fire line with my fingers after that. Had to throw the reel away. It just took off so suddenly and powerfully.
I had a similar experience on McIntrye off the Rock wall peninsula, never got the fish off the bottom finally line wrapped around a rock and cut. Fought exactly the same way as the one on LOTW, wasn’t as big.
Mine are totally unconfirmed of course.
T
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arctic
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Lac La Croix has sturgeon, as do Tanner and Russell. Never caught one though...
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OgimaaBines
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My friend hooked into something at night from Tiger Bay on Lac La Croix that could've been a sturgeon. There was nothing we could do to slow it down before the line broke as my friend was increasing the drag. It didn't breach as I've seen several sturgeon do, so who knows, but the weight and consistency of the movement was similar. There are also monster northern in LLC, but I like to imagine it was a sturgeon.
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Argo
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I had one breach the water about 30m in front of my canoe on Sturgeon Lake in the channel on the south side of Scripture Island in July 2020. Huge fish. About half of its body was out of the water. Way to big and wide to be a pike. It looked like a shark.
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schucanoe
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A friend caught this sturgeon on our trip below Rebecca Falls in June 2001.
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missmolly
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bobbernumber3: "Caught these with the camera in QPP.
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Cool pic!
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