Sturgeon Alert

By Spider Rybaak

Carl Rathje, a fish culturist at the DEC's Oneida Lake hatchery, holding one of the facility's resident lake sturgeon.

The funniest thing happened to me while fishing below the Caughedenoy dam for bullheads last Sunday. Something powerful took my slice of gizzard shad, sending my drag into a fit. Figuring it was a catfish, I set the hook and waited for the drag to stop.

It never did. Whatever hit stripped almost 200 yards of 6-lb test line off my reel like it was taking a walk in the park. I’ve caught 20-something-pound carp, a 12-pound cat, even a 7-pound sheepehead on the same rig. But this thing spooled me; for the first time in my life!

After hours of struggling to figure out what species was powerful enough to do that, I’ve come to the conclusion it was a sturgeon. They’re in Lake Ontario and Oneida Lake; and the Oneida River at Caughedenoy is between the two… which kind’a doubles my chances of hooking one… don’t ya think?

Last year several were reported caught in the city of Oswego. In addition, rumor had it that several were also caught in the Erie Canal at Sylvan Beach and Brewerton. So chances are good that the fish that made a fool out of me a few days ago was one of the primitive beasts.

Sturgeon go back a long way in Oswego County. They were here before the Indians. In fact, they swam with the dinosaurs. Up until the middle of the 19th century, the Great Lakes had so many of them, they were netted commercially, dried and sold to the railroad for fuel.

That kind of abuse, combined with habitat destruction, dams blocking migratory routes and pollution just about wiped them out in the 20th century. Fortunately, a few survived. Larry Muroski, owner of Larry’s Oswego Salmon Shop, remembers seeing a 10-footer come to the surface (jumping out of the water to make a big splash is part of their courting ritual) when he was a boy fishing for silver bass in the Oswego River, behind the Canal Commons in the Port City.

DEC at work

Still, it would have taken centuries – if ever – for the survivors to repopulate their former range in any significant way. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation stepped in to help them out in 1993 by stocking 35 sturgeon into the Oswego River. They were hatched from eggs taken from St. Lawrence River fish. The Oneida Lake hatchery went to work raising roughly 5,000 annually for distribution throughout the region, including Oneida Lake.

According to Carl Rathje, fish culturist at the Constantia facility, the stocking program came to a screeching halt in 2004. Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, the virus responsible for massive fish kills in the Great Lakes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was discovered and the sturgeon rearing program was suspended to prevent infecting Oneida lake.

Mother nature smiled on the program; however, you see, Oneida Lake is very sturgeon-friendly.

“They’re the fastest growing lake sturgeon in the entire U.S.,” claims Rathje. “This year Cornell has netted several pushing 100 pounds. They’ve collected fish that had mature eggs and they believe sturgeon are spawning in Fish Creek.”

Your chances of seeing or hooking one are growing greater all the time. If you should be using a heavier line than I was last Sunday, or simply hook a smaller, more manageable fish, please remember sturgeon are listed as a threatened species in New York and must be released immediately.  To ensure you inflict no further damage, the DEC advises the following:

·         - Avoid bringing the fish into the boat if possible.

        - Use pliers to remove the hook; sturgeon are almost always hooked in the mouth. 

l      -Always support the fish horizontally. Do not hold sturgeon in a vertical position by their head, gills or tails, even for taking pictures.

-            -Never touch their eyes or gills.

·       -   Minimize their time out of the water.

For more information on this native son, check out “DEC Advises Anglers to be on the Lookout for Lake Sturgeon in the Great Lakes and Oneida Lake,” at www.dec.ny.gov/press/82097.html; and the “Lake Sturgeon Fact Sheet” at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/26035.html.

Lake sturgeon up close and personal.

Return of the Giants

Carl Rathje, a fish culturist at the DEC's Oneida Lake hatchery, holding one of the facility's resident lake sturgeon.

Larry Muroski, of Larry’s Oswego Salmon Shop, reports five lake sturgeon were caught in the river behind his shop the last week of June.

“These things were huge. The one caught by Jarret Crimmins [a native of the city of Oswego] was six feet long” claims the colorful bait monger.

Fortunately, just about everyone who fishes in downtown Oswego knows the species is listed as threatened in New York State and totally protected, and all the fish were quickly released.

Up until the 19th century, lake sturgeon were plentiful in the Great Lakes. They thrived in the Oswego River drainage, including its two biggest lakes, Cayuga and Oneida.

There’s even evidence the art world’s most popular sturgeon came from our drainage, specifically, Onondaga Lake, on Syracuse’s northwestern corner. In his poem, “The Song of Hiawatha,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes how the legendary warrior went “Forth to catch the sturgeon..., Mishe Nahma, King of the Fishes.” While most scholars claim the setting was Lake Superior, Iroquois legend has it Hiawatha was an Onondaga, suggesting his favorite fishing hole was the lake named after his tribe.

Poetic license aside, the fact is these native New Yorkers were around way before man; going back to the Jurassic period, in fact. They survived very nicely all the way up to the 19th century, when humans posed a greater threat to them than the meteorite that allegedly smashed into the Gulf of Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs. You see, human activities ranging from pollution and over-fishing to building dams blocking their spawning routes pushed them to the brink of extinction.

Luckily, small populations survived in some of the state’s northern streams, most notably the St. Lawrence River. However, it’s doubtful their numbers would have rebounded without assistance from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to Carl Rathje, a fish culturist at the Oneida Lake hatchery in Constantia, “The DEC’s goal is to restore lake sturgeon into their original range in the Great Lakes.”

In 1993, the authorities stocked 35 sturgeon into the Oswego River that were hatched out of eggs taken from fish netted in the St. Lawrence River. The Oneida Lake hatchery continued raising roughly 5,000 sturgeon annually for distribution throughout the region, including Oneida Lake.

According to Rathje, before the program could bear much fruit, Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), the deadly virus responsible for massive fish kills in the Great Lakes, was discovered, leading to cessation of the sturgeon rearing program at the Oneida Lake hatchery in 2004 for fear of contaminating the lake.

Still, scientists didn’t give up. Research showed eggs could be disinfected by submerging them in an iodine solution. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, eggs taken from St. Lawrence River sturgeon were treated and brought to the Oneida hatchery for rearing. “But we haven’t been able to hatch out any,” laments Rathje.

On a brighter note: “Oneida Lake is very productive and our sturgeon grow quicker than anywhere else in the state. Cornell University has already netted fish in the lake weighing up to 100 pounds.” continues Rathje.

“It’s been 16 years since Oneida Lake was first stocked with sturgeon. The females will be maturing soon [they take about 20 years], and there’s a possibility we’ll be able to get future batches of eggs from our own fish,” he adds with great enthusiasm.

In the meantime, prepare to hear a growing number of stories of sturgeon being caught in Oswego County. And as more and more sturgeon gain 100-something pounds, brace yourselves for a proliferation of stories of the one that got away.

By the way, if you catch one, Rathje advises leaving the fish in the water while removing the hook and simply letting it swim away. If you must remove it from the water, keep it out only for as long as it takes to extract the hook and release it immediately.

Lake sturgeon up close and personal.