Sturgeon excursion serves up a fun night on the ice in Lake of the Woods country

Feb. 24—NEAR BAUDETTE, Minn. — The first time Ben Barrus tried sturgeon fishing through the ice a few winters ago on the St. Croix River, he caught one within 10 minutes.

It wasn't big as lake sturgeon go — maybe 30 inches or so, Barrus recalls — but he thought he had things figured out.

Little did he know. ...

"I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, this is easy — this is the coolest thing ever,' " said Barrus, 27, who was living in St. Paul at the time. "And I went like 10 times that whole winter and never caught a fish. I mean, I was sleeping out on the ice, trying to make it happen.

"Couldn't do it."

There's still plenty to learn, Barrus says, but these days, the Blissfield, Michigan, native feeds his sturgeon fever through the ice on the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods, where he is a guide for Border View Lodge.

Barrus, who moved up to Lake of the Woods country about four years ago, spends most of his winter ice time servicing the resort's fleet of "sleeper" ice fishing houses; sturgeon fishing is a side gig.

"I'm like, 'OK, they've got sturgeon up here, the river freezes good, there's a guy here and there talking about it, let's see if we can make it happen,' " Barrus said. "It's just different — it's very unique."

With that as a backdrop, Barrus led three Grand Forks fishermen on a quest to catch their first lake sturgeon through the ice on an evening excursion last Sunday, Feb. 18. Jason Laumb, 48, of Grand Forks, has been a sidekick on numerous outdoor adventures and misadventures and has a handful of sturgeon to his credit — all in open water. Joe Banish, 29, also of Grand Forks, is a newbie to sturgeon fishing.

A certain Herald outdoors writer, who has caught his share of sturgeon in open water, rounds out the crew.

"We've caught five over 61 (inches) this year," Barrus said. "It's been a good year."

It's no secret that the winter of 2023-24 has been one of the oddest and warmest in recent memory, and safe ice dictates where Barrus chases sturgeon this year. Earlier in the day, he checked a couple of spots and found as little as 5 inches of ice in an area with current.

Barrus opts for a safer spot with 13 inches of ice over about 20 feet of water.

"I haven't fished in this spot in a few weeks now — not quite a month," he said. "This is like the go-to (spot)."

Sturgeon in the winter are most active after dark, and Barrus already had two double hub-style houses set up when we hit the ice about the time the sun began its descent toward the western horizon.

The portables offer plenty of room, so rather than splitting up, we opt to fish in one house.

Every bite can mean a fish measuring 5 feet long or more so sturgeon anglers traditionally make one large hole by drilling three holes in a pattern that resembles a triangle or — for the more imaginative — a Valentine heart, perhaps, or Mickey Mouse's head.

Six of the large holes extend across the width of the hub house.

The presentation for fishing sturgeon through the ice is similar to fishing them in open water, and that means a large glob of nightcrawlers threaded onto a 4/0 hook with a sinker heavy enough to keep the bait pinned to the bottom.

Barrus uses stout 40-inch rods, Daiwa spinning reels rigged with 65-pound-test braided line and 12- to 18-inch mono leaders and large bobbers, to which he attaches LED lights after dark, that serve as strike indicators.

Forward-facing sonar alerts him to the presence of the occasional sturgeon that roams through the area. Sturgeon generally are light biters, he says, similar to a perch.

"As the current pulls your line and drags your bobber to the bottom of the hole, you can still see that light halfway down the hole or all the way to the bottom of the hole, and that's your indicator — that movement of the light," Barrus said. "So, a lot of times, we are bobber fishing, but you're not necessarily watching your bobber drop."

Sturgeon tend to only be active during certain "bite windows" every evening, Barrus says. The best bite window, of late, has been from about 6 to 9 p.m.

"The key is the bite window," Barrus said. "When the water's cold, metabolism slows down and they only feed during certain periods of the day."

There's no point, in other words, to sit on the ice for hours on end. That's where electronics such as forward-facing sonar really shine.

The body language is a giveaway, he says.

"You know when you're going to get bit before you do, a lot of times," Barrus said. "If there's a lot of fish swimming around the area, you'll see them just floating through, just kind of casually passing by. Then, it will just go calm and then all of a sudden, when they come in, they come in on the bottom and you see it and they're like they're on a mission.

"You can tell they're actively feeding or hunting and then five minutes later, the bobber goes down, so it's a cool tool to utilize to help figure out your bite window."

Sturgeon fishing isn't a numbers game unless referring to potential size, and Barrus spends most of his time as a fishing guide targeting walleyes, saugers and — during open water — smallmouth bass.

"It's not the trip for everybody," he said. "I try to kind of handpick (clients), which fortunately, I'm able to do with working at the resort. It's not my livelihood on the line — it's like a pastime."

He credits a fellow Lake of the Woods fishing guide with showing him the ropes for fishing sturgeon through the ice.

"I don't consider myself dialed in, and I'm still learning," Barrus said. "As you know, we're spoiled with walleyes and saugers, but it's something different — it's exciting."

Fishing of any kind can often be described as long periods of boredom followed by intense moments of excitement, and we passed the time swapping stories, basking in the warmth of the propane sunflower heater and listening to the ice "talk."

Once darkness fell, the sound of the ice shifting and groaning reverberated across the frozen expanse. At times, large bubbles burped up from the bottom of the lake. We speculated on the reason, but no one had an answer.

The first chance to hook up on a sturgeon had been a missed opportunity, but it wouldn't be the last. Slow and steady, a lighted bobber dipped into the depths in front of Laumb.

He picked up the rod, set the hook and the battle was on.

Typical of sturgeon, the light bite turned into a battle as line peeled off the reel. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Laumb will never be described as dainty, but he definitely had his hands full in this battle of man vs. fish.

After a battle that lasted nearly 15 minutes, Barrus was able to reach down and birth the fish through the large hole in the ice.

The sturgeon measured 56 1/4 inches and was released after a few quick photos.

"The fight was a lot like tying a dump truck on the end of my line and sending it downhill," Laumb said. "I could not do anything with the fish for the first five minutes or so of the fight."

The scene repeats itself about 2 hours later when another bobber dips, this one also in front of Laumb. He sets the hook and hands the rod to Banish, who now has a chance to play and land his first sturgeon.

This time, the battle goes faster, and it's not long before the big fish appears at the bottom of the hole in the ice, where Barrus carefully lands it.

The sturgeon — Banish's first — measures 55 1/4 inches.

That's the way it goes sometimes, Barrus says. Sometimes, even large fish come to the top within minutes; other times, the battle goes on for half an hour or more.

"Seeing it come through the hole was exhilarating," Banish said later. "That is by far the biggest freshwater fish I've caught. Catching a sturgeon has long been on my fishing bucket list, and I feel fortunate to have done it on my first try."

There'd be one more small sturgeon on the night, and it was well after 10 p.m. by the time we called it an evening.

As sturgeon trips go, it was a typical night, Barrus says.

"I've been averaging just over three a night, so it's right on par," he said. "Any time you can catch 50-inch fish through the ice, I'm in."