Too Big for a Fly Rod
Forwarded to me:
Some fish are just outsized. It might be fun for the first 8 hours; after that it would just be work.
This is a darn interesting picture and story even if you aren’t into fishing,
But please show it to anyone you know that likes to fish.FYI: This sturgeon is still alive, just worn out from the fight.
As the sports fishermen they are, they turned him loose after the photo.This Sturgeon was caught in the Missouri River, North of Bismarck, North Dakota two weeks ago.
It weighed out at over 1,000 lbs and measured out at 11’1″.It was 56″ around the girth and took over 6 and a half hours, and 4 dozen beers, for the 4 guys taking turns at the reeling it in.
Any Sturgeon OVER about five feet has to be released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water.
They are brood / breeding stock and probably older than most of us.
Too Big for a Fly Rod
In my experience,it is the rare angler who is able to play a very large fish proficiently enough that the fish survives the fight. I wonder what the lactic acid levels are in this fish. Physiolically, this fish’s hemoglobin may not be able to bind oxygen, though I don’t know what a fish Hb oxygen dissociation curve looks like. This fish is out of the water in the photo with no water running over its gills.