sturgeon

A new record for sturgeon caught in Rainy River has been certified by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The 80-inch fish was caught by an angler last month near the mouth of the river.

It is estimated to have weighed 165 pounds.

Travis Keating was on an annual fishing trip with a group of friends when he reeled in the lunker.

They had fished Four Mile Bay for nearly eight hours, battling strong winds and cold temperatures for a few smaller fish.

By evening, Keating moved to the mouth of the river, and after an hour, his fishing rod doubled over.

Keating says it was over an hour of pure chaos before the fish finally surfaced, and a friend managed to hoist the massive fish into the boat.

“Getting the fish finally in the boat was such a surreal moment that I just couldn’t wrap my head around it,” states Keating in a release.

“Now looking back, still can’t believe I was the one to catch the fish and can’t wait to get back and try to top it!”

The DNR does not require fish to be weighed for catch-and-release records, but it estimates it to be close to 165 pounds.

Keating’s catch exceeds the former record by 2 inches of a fish reeled in at St. Croix River in 2019.

It suggests its size indicates the presence of some very old fish in the river, crediting measures taken in the 1970s to clean up the river as helping sturgeon to thrive.

Industrial activity during the late 1800s and early 1900s decimated the sturgeon population in Lake of the Woods and Rainy River.

Even when commercial fishing declined, sturgeon suffered from poor water quality and degraded habitat in the river, the primary spawning area.

Government action to improve the waters in the 1970s helped the sturgeon recover, with reproduction considered to be the best it has been in many years.