Oversize Dinos

Personal best dino @ Hekukua. Oversize @ 84" estimated at 181 pounds. CPR'd.

Badass man...

What are you grabbing onto, just the fishes mouth/lips with your gloved hand?  What types of glove?

Badass man...

What are you grabbing onto, just the fishes mouth/lips with your gloved hand?  What types of glove?

A sturgeon's large suction cup of a mouth is the perfect place to grab hold of them. No glove is really needed on the 'mouth grabbin' hand, because there's nothing in there that can cause harm. The other end, however, YIKES! Gotta glove the 'tail grabbin' hand. Sturgeon feature cool razor blades called scutes that can do a slice and dice job that would make Ronco proud! Simple general purpose gloves, like the pair pictured below, will do the job.
- Karl

Thanks Karl!

Yeah, I catch one dino, help land another, and suddenly I consider myself an expert on the subject... 

Hopefully those of you with more knowledge and experience will weigh in on this too.

With the smaller ones they can be taken care of by grabbin' them in the bucket. But once they get larger a snare is really the only way to effectively handle them. I hadn't brought my snare and learned the hard way. For a ton of detailed info from kayak Dino master Erik Kunz check: http://www.kzreelrods.com/Sturgeon/Kayak%20Sturgeon%20Methods%202009.pdf

Z

With the smaller ones they can be taken care of by grabbin' them in the bucket. But once they get larger a snare is really the only way to effectively handle them.

Why what happened Zee? You didn't try for a lap dance did you?

Given that it's illegal to remove oversized strugeon from the water in Oregon and Washington, holding them by the mouth while they mellow out upside down in the water and removing the hook seems like the way to go. 

With the smaller ones they can be taken care of by grabbin' them in the bucket. But once they get larger a snare is really the only way to effectively handle them.

Why what happened Zee? You didn't try for a lap dance did you?

These monsters all but go to sleep once they roll over.  I'm sure they sometimes must re-animate but from what I've experienced fishing oversize from PB's, once they give up, they're docile as heck.  Just don't let them turn right side up......  Don't ask me how I know.....

With the smaller ones they can be taken care of by grabbin' them in the bucket. But once they get larger a snare is really the only way to effectively handle them.

Why what happened Zee? You didn't try for a lap dance did you?

No non no. That sounds scary. I actually meant if you want to go for an in-the-water measure on the side of the yak.

These monsters all but go to sleep once they roll over. once they give up, they're docile as heck. 

Yeah, she was really chill. Once I let her go she flipped and came right back.

Z

I must beg to differ here...

there is MUCH in the mouths of big dinos to worry about... can't find the pic right now, but included several flashers, spinners and kwiks out of a sturgeon...  No teeth to worry about, but those barbed trebles are another story!

all found in the mouth of a single sturgeon

  I hadn't thought of that....

Come to think of it, one of the fish I caught in April had a mooching rig and two sturgeon hooks in its mouth.

Dang, that's nearly 15 bucks in hardware score!

must have been a willamette fish.  I can tell cause it's got as many piercings as the willamette people

Ok, I'll bite. I could see all of that junk coming out of a sturgeon maw (even the predilection toward chartreuse), but an intact gummy worm?!?!

yeah man, that green/yellow gummy worm is a popular bait with some of the crowd.

haven't tried it yet myself though