Rescued by Ol' Spadeface

This weekend was supposed to be a hardcore Lake Sturgeon trip with my wife.  Sturgeon have been being caught lately and our anticipation was reaching boiling point.  We fished a community hole that usually gives up 6 or more Lake Sturgeon a night peaking at 11pm.  We fished from 8pm until 2am, 6 straight hours of baiting 4 rods, re-baiting, adjusting casts, adjusting positions and never even had a nibble.

Feeling quite defeated this morning, we decided to keep our chins up, head to a different river, and try for the Lake Sturgeon's cousin; the Shovelnosed Sturgeon.  My Shovelnose spot is a beautiful old river with muddy banks and snagpiles as tall as a building.  Its prehistoric beauty hides many prehistoric relics.

The river this trip was a bit low and averaged 3-5 feet deep with holes up to 37 feet deep and vast hidden sandbars, sometimes only and inch or two under the surface.  This truely is a rugged river and is one of the last strongholds of the beautiful and unique Shovelnosed Sturgeon.

The Shovelnosed Sturgeon is an amazing fish that uses sensory organs located all over their snouts to detect food items and help guide the fish through its muddy environment.  Notice the organ markings on the top and bottom of the snout.

Notice also the 4 barbels which are used to feel the bottom and food items along the bottom.  Shovelnose also have clusters of papillae along its lips; these are the taste buds.

Between my wife and I we must have caught 15-20 Shovelnosed Sturgeon today.  Here's a few shots.

To top it all off I caught a very welcomed bonus fish.  This fish isn't large for the species, but is only my second one and my largest so far.  My Flathead Catfish, yeah!

Saturday night pretty much sucked royaly, but today made it all better because Ol' Spadeface keeps flourishing and keeps my rods bent.