Muskegon River Monster!

Muskegon River Monster!
(Rick holding a very rare Muskegon River Sturgeon)

Here’s Rick from Fort Wayne, Indiana holding a very rare sturgeon from the Muskegon river.  When Rick initially hooked this fish and I had a chance to see it roll for the first time, I thought Rick had a world record steelhead on what looked to be well over 40-inches.  

(Muskegon River Sturgeon)

Measuring over 50+inches and weighing in excess of 50 pounds, Rick brought this  beautiful sturgeon to the boat after a 10 to 15 minute battle on a 8 weight, 10-foot fly rod.  The sturgeon took Rick’s egg fly while steelhead fishing a deep run.

In over 25 years fishing the Muskegon river we’ve only hooked a handful of sturgeon before and were never lucky enough to get one in the boat until now.

These sturgeon are a very large primitive fish with bony plates on the body and life expectancy up to 100 plus years.  These incredibly majestic fish date back to prehistoric times.  The DNR biologist I shared these photos with estimate this sturgeon to be well over 25 years old.

***Please note this sturgeon was released unharmed back into the Muskegon river without problem.***

Steelhead numbers are starting to thin as the water levels continue to drop.  New pushes of water could bring more steelhead up to the river well into May.  Only time will tell.

Afternoon black stone fly hatches continue to get large size trout to look up!

post by: jon fortuna

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