02-05-2017, 09:35 PM
Heard about a private pond, in Idaho, where one could catch sturgeon through the ice. I've always thought it would be fun to land a sturgeon through an ice hole but doubted that I would ever get the opportunity.
Kory, Trent and I arrived at the private pond at 8:00 AM (the printed materials state that anglers are allowed to fish from 8:00 AM to 5 PM). After meeting Jim, the owner of the pond, and having him review the rules for how he wanted the sturgeon landed and handled, we were off to the pond.
We set up near the center of the 2 or 3 acre pond and hoped for the best. Trent (who had never caught a sturgeon before) immediately landed three of them. Then Kory caught one or two and I patiently (not really, but it sounds better) waited for my first bite. I moved around drilling several large holes (drill four holes in a square and then cut it all out with my ice saw) searching for my own honey hole. I eventually found one and was in business.
Friday we landed 20 and I think we all had several get off before we got them out of the hole. Unfortunately, I lost the two largest ones that I had hooked. The largest was around 5 1/2', landed by Kory.
Saturday, Jim told us to go ahead and arrive early, because we now understood the drill and we had already paid for both days. This was great news, because on Friday we had the entire pond to ourselves, but he told us that others would be joining us on Saturday. When I asked him how many would be joining us on Saturday he said that 18 had signed up. I actually counted 19 additional anglers on Saturday.
In approximately the hour that we were able to fish before the crowd arrived we landed 13 fish. After the crowd arrived and until we left at 2:30 Kory landed two more sturgeon and Kory and I had a few other bites, but very few. All of those other anglers combined had caught one sturgeon before we left at 2:30.
Most of the sturgeon, we caught, were less that two feet long with only a handful that were 4 feet or longer.
Moral of the story is that if you want to fish this small pond go during the week. It was a fun experience, although the sturgeon are all slightly deformed, likely from too much inbreeding and being raised in a confined environment. I hope to get my wife up there sometime during warmer weather to allow her to finally catch a sturgeon.
Pictures to be posted later and hopefully Kory adds some text and some additional pictures
[signature]
Kory, Trent and I arrived at the private pond at 8:00 AM (the printed materials state that anglers are allowed to fish from 8:00 AM to 5 PM). After meeting Jim, the owner of the pond, and having him review the rules for how he wanted the sturgeon landed and handled, we were off to the pond.
We set up near the center of the 2 or 3 acre pond and hoped for the best. Trent (who had never caught a sturgeon before) immediately landed three of them. Then Kory caught one or two and I patiently (not really, but it sounds better) waited for my first bite. I moved around drilling several large holes (drill four holes in a square and then cut it all out with my ice saw) searching for my own honey hole. I eventually found one and was in business.
Friday we landed 20 and I think we all had several get off before we got them out of the hole. Unfortunately, I lost the two largest ones that I had hooked. The largest was around 5 1/2', landed by Kory.
Saturday, Jim told us to go ahead and arrive early, because we now understood the drill and we had already paid for both days. This was great news, because on Friday we had the entire pond to ourselves, but he told us that others would be joining us on Saturday. When I asked him how many would be joining us on Saturday he said that 18 had signed up. I actually counted 19 additional anglers on Saturday.
In approximately the hour that we were able to fish before the crowd arrived we landed 13 fish. After the crowd arrived and until we left at 2:30 Kory landed two more sturgeon and Kory and I had a few other bites, but very few. All of those other anglers combined had caught one sturgeon before we left at 2:30.
Most of the sturgeon, we caught, were less that two feet long with only a handful that were 4 feet or longer.
Moral of the story is that if you want to fish this small pond go during the week. It was a fun experience, although the sturgeon are all slightly deformed, likely from too much inbreeding and being raised in a confined environment. I hope to get my wife up there sometime during warmer weather to allow her to finally catch a sturgeon.
Pictures to be posted later and hopefully Kory adds some text and some additional pictures
[signature]
