Mark is passionate at sharing his fishing knowledge with fellow anglers and especially loves leading kids fishing clinics. We hope you are all excited to meet Mark in person, and learn from one of the great walleye anglers.

TCWU hosted Mandy Uhrich at our February Club Meeting. Mandy has a passion for the outdoors and channeled it into a rewarding career with the Minnesota DNR. She enjoys the competition of Tournament fishing and has achieved many top finishes to her credit. She gives back to the outdoor community by volunteering for events that support and increase fishing opportunities for women and youth anglers. She is a Co-host of Lakeland Fishing Tips and shared many cool tips with the club.

The Sturgeon species dates back 163 million years, wow they were here when there were dinosaurs.

They are quietly located in all Minnesota drainages except the Missouri river watershed. Minnesota lakes and rivers hold 30,000 sturgeon throughout Minnesota.

They prefer clean water, firm level river bottoms of sand, gravel in depths of 20 foot deep or less.

There are 27 different variety’s of Sturgeon and they have a life span is 65-90 years for males and 80 to 150 years for the females, wow! Males reach sexual maturity at 15-20 years and Females range from 15- 22. Females spawn only once every 4 to 9 years, and only 10 - 20% of these fish successfully spawn.

The Minnesota DNR are concerned that there are a lot of old fish and not as many young ones, which is signaling a population decline.

The Lake of the Woods Sturgeon migrate up the Big Fork and Little fork rivers, which are key spawning grounds. Sturgeon put the feed bag on during pre-spawn and then they quit eating during the spawning run. They drop up to 100,000 eggs in a spawn and the eggs hatch in 5 days. The young Sturgeon hang out in the rivers for five years before heading out to the big lake.

They forage in areas with sandy, gravelly and muddy bottoms using their snouts to stir up the benthic material and their powerful sucking mouths to draw in the water and floating debris. The small particles of sand and muck are expelled through their gills and the larger food items are consumed. Sturgeon primarily eat aquatic macroinvertebrates, freshwater mussels, snails, crustaceans, and small fish. They do not eat decomposing or dead organisms, preferring fresh food even in hatchery situations. Secret Tip, Leeches and Crayfish are like bacon for Sturgy. They have and use an electrode system through their head and whiskers to feed. They are able to feel and sense forage from these electrical impulses through the whiskers and quickly suck it up.

John Jordan

TCWU Board Member

Thank You Sponsors for supplying, tackle, equipment, bait, lunch and fun for our special youth friends and families. Scheels, Northland Tackle, the Minnesota DNR, the Wounded Warrior Project, Vados Bait, Vexilar, Hy-Vee, Fresh Thyme, Lunds & Byerlys, Old Dutch, Cub Foods.

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