Fishing for sturgeon is – or should be – the province of the patient and prepared angler.

Sturgeon are known to be less than picky when it comes to bait, but these fish have also been known to show regional preferences. For example, in Ontario, the river and lake sturgeon hate the smell of pike meat. What sturgeon like and dislike will vary from area to area, of course, with some sturgeon loving shrimp and others going straight for sardines and shad. A hungry sturgeon will snap at just about anything, but you’ll definitely improve your chances of a great catch when fishing for sturgeon by giving the fish something they’re excited to eat. Bait your hook liberally – don’t skimp. Sturgeon want a mouthful!

Your rigging is also high up on the list of importance. Sturgeon have rigid, sharp ridges running from nose to tail along their backs and sides, and these can slice through your line and leader if the fish gets wrapped up in it. Fishing for sturgeon successfully means choosing gear that works with how these fish move and how they bite. Use a wire sturgeon leader that can’t be cut easily and make sure your leader is long enough – think 3 feet with sizeable barrel swivel on one end and two large opposing hooks on the other. Making a sturgeon leader isn’t that hard and is the best solution when you can’t find a leader long enough. Opt for forgiving braided 40 pound test line, and make sure you have a long-handled, large hooped, deep net.
And this is where the patience comes in. As tempting as it is to check your bait when fishing for sturgeon, let it go unless you’re getting bites or seeing debris in the water. When you do start getting some action, it’s important to remember that sturgeon, for all their power, are relatively gentle eaters. Their mouths are built for suction, not grab-and-yank. Common wisdom says that a sturgeon will take two soft bites, then latch on – that’s when it’s time to set that hook because you only get one chance with a sturgeon’s rubbery mouth. This is when the battle begins. Have your fishing partner reel in all the other poles and pull up your second anchor (if you’re using one) so you can move around the boat. A sturgeon will fight like a champ, even dragging the boat, so your job is to tire your fish out. You know they’re beat when you pull them in belly up – which is just a sign of exhaustion, not mortality.

Once you’ve pulled in your sturgeon, be careful! Those barbs can do plenty of damage and even a tired sturgeon can get a second wind when it finds itself on the deck of your boat. Practice safe hook removal. Other than that, remember the limits when fishing for sturgeon and be cool about gently releasing any fish that’s under or over the keeper limits.

There’s nothing quite like reeling in your catch, firing up the grill, and creating a simple, fresh, mouthwatering feast right there on the shoreline. But wait! Have you ever stopped to consider what, exactly, that the fish in your cooler have been eating during their lifetime? It’s not something most of us like to think about, but when we eat a fish, we’re also eating everything that fish has ever eaten – and that can include pollutants like mercury, pesticides, and other contaminants.

Luckily, there are steps we can all take to avoid taking in too many of these unpleasant and unhealthy substances while still enjoying the culinary benefits of a day out on the water. Here’s a list of things you can do to reduce your exposure to contaminants in the fresh fish you eat:

•  Eat less of the following fish, which often contain high levels of mercury: largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, pickerel, walleye, and yellow perch longer than 10″.
•  American eel, bluefish, carp, lake trout, Chinook and coho salmon, striped bass, weakfish, white and channel catfish, and white perch tend to have higher levels of PCBs, dioxin, mirex, DDT, chlordane, and dieldrin than other fish, so grill these up in moderation.
•  Fish exposed to pollutants and other contaminants tend to store them in fat, so trimming the skin and fat from fish before cooking and using cooking methods that allow melted fat to drip away can reduce your exposure significantly.
•  Mercury, however, is stored in the muscle tissue of fish. There are many guides online that list fish with the highest mercury levels. Eat these sparingly or throw them back to catch another day.
•  Some bodies of water that have been shown to be contaminated will have prominently displayed warnings along the shoreline or in guides. Catch and release fishing is the smart choice in areas where fish may be exposed to pollutants. Better yet, fish in areas where there are no warnings.
•  Choose smaller fish that are lower on the food chain, since smaller fish have often had less time to accumulate contaminants and fish that are lower on the food chain consume fewer contaminants.
•  Practice food safety with your catch. Keep freshly caught fish cold, wear gloves when doing your skinning and trimming, and keep food prep surfaces clean. Always cook fish thoroughly, and keep raw food and cooked food prep areas separate.

The bluefin is the rock star of the sea, let’s face it. It does everything better. It’s one of the most beautiful animals out there. It’s got the best submarine design of any fish that I know of. They’re incredibly beautiful. Each bluefin is different when you see it alongside the boat, it’s big black eye looking at you. You’ll never forget it. If you think about a giant bluefin that’s swimming alongside as we’re trying to put a satellite tag in it, I realize that that fish has crossed the ocean hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

That fish has traveled from the surface to the great depths. It’s seen things that I will never see and it has incredible knowledge on every aspect of life. Also it lives over 25 or 30 years.

Bluefin tuna has evaded us in terms of understanding everything about it. It’s a great mystery that despite its value, despite the 30 years, or 40, or 50 years of scientists studying it…

The bluefin tuna travel. Their migration route is for two reasons. One is to eat and the other one is to have babies, to spawn. We know they spawn in at least the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mediterranean Sea, but to stay here in New England so that we can catch a pod of the sustainable catch, they need to be able to eat herring. They need to be able to eat whiting, bluefish and other types of [inaudible 00:24] . Around the middle 1990′s, the herring fishery grew exponentially in the United States and it’s partially the result of these boats across the harbor. These are relatively new boats that have been introduced. They’re called mid‑water trawlers. 160 feet long. Big horsepower. They fished right in our coastal waters.

What used to be a persane fishery that was limited to how much herring they could take became this very efficient fleet of mega trawlers, if you will. They were able to catch vast quantities in a quick time.

Man:  The bluefin tuna is truly the most majestic creatures to ever grace our planet, let alone swim in our seas. It travels thousands of miles in the course of a year from ocean to ocean, sea to sea in search of prey, in search of its breeding grounds. It is truly a marvel of engineering of evolution to behold. Unfortunately for it, the bluefin tuna happens to also be one of the most delicious things that swims in our sea. We’ve put it in a dire predicament now because of that.

Bluefin tuna is the most sought after fish in the sea. It commands astronomical prices at market. Just one fish can bring in at auction hundreds of thousands of dollars. A fisherman can make in just a 10 week season an entire year’s salary.

Now, what other professions can that happen in? Well, treasure hunting really and that’s what we’re doing in the seas. Bluefins are a treasure to behold, but, unfortunately, they’re worth more on our sushi plate than they are in the ocean.

Woman 1:  Oh no.

Woman 2:  Greg is coming.

Man 1:  What has been most detrimental to this fishery was herring draggers. They’re called pear trawlers. They scoop up tons and tons of herring. The herring is the natural feed for the tuna fish. So if there’s no feed the tuna fish don’t come. If the tuna fish don’t come, we can’t catch them, we can’t survive.

Man 2:  When these fish are out roaming to eat they go to the restaurant and if there’s no food they go to the next restaurant.

Man 3:  Fish have two things on their mind. That’s sex and food. If there’s no food they’re going to keep moving on.

Woman 3:  They wiped out the bait that the tuna fish eat.

Woman 4:  Tuna fish are not going to come here if there’s nothing for them to eat.

Man 3:  So the fish would come here as they do every year. If there’s no food they move on and most of them wind up in Canada where there’s plenty of herring.

Man 2:  Over the years as the bait situation got worse and worse and worse…

Man 1:  Come on. We got fish under the bill right now. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. Just don’t get it.

Man 2:  They will eat, it’s just that they’re full right now. It’s like you when you go have Thanksgiving dinner. You fill yourself, you can’t eat another thing, and then you go take a duke. Then you wait a little while. You burp, you fart, then you frigging go back and eat a piece of pie. It’s just as easy as that.

Man 1:  Maybe we should put a piece of pie out.

Man 2:  Yeah, well they’re not ready yet. Couple hours.

Man 1:  There’s no guarantee they’re going to bite tonight. No guarantee. I’d love to be on my way home. Another six, seven hours.

Man:  We’re on, we’re on, we’re on! Let’s go. Right over here, yeah. Let’s go.

For the salmon:

1/2 orange

1/2 lime

1/2 lemon

4 medium skinless salmon fillets

1 tbsp. melted butter

For the salad:

1 garlic clove, minced

1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 c. olive oil

2 oranges

1 large fennel bulb

4 c. baby greens

1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted

• With a microplane or grater, zest and then juice the citrus for the salmon. Combine the zests, and set aside. (The juice will be used in the salad dressing.)

• Preheat your barbecue to medium-hot. Brush salmon with melted butter, and place fish butter-side down for about 5 minutes or until grill marks appear. Turn salmon, and grill for another 5 minutes or until fish is flaky.

• Remove salmon from the barbecue and sprinkle each fillet with a pinch of zest. Serve hot or cool in refrigerator.

• To prepare the salad, combine the reserved juices with garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add olive oil, whisk, and set aside.

• Section oranges. Cut green fronds from fennel and discard, then cut remaining bulb in half. Core the bulb, then finely slice using a mandolin or food processor.

• Toss orange sections, fennel, and salad greens with dressing. Place the salmon on the salad and garnish with almonds.

Enjoy!

Would it surprise you to learn that America’s favorite fish is the Alaska Halibut? Often called whales, soakers, barn doors, or chickens (in the case of smaller fish), Alaska Halibut are among the largest fish in the sea – and they are the biggest of all the flatfish.

How big? These monsters can grow to over eight feet long and more than seven hundred pounds. If you’re wondering why this fish is America’s favorite, look no further than its firm, flaky, white meat and sweet, delicate flavor. Lean and mild, Alaska halibut cooks up deliciously no matter how it’s prepared and there aren’t a lot of bones to get in the way of flavor.

But that’s not all there is to this amazing fish. The biggest Alaska halibut ever caught while sport fishing was 459 lbs. in Unalaska Bay, but it’s in the commercial fishing industry where this fish really shines. Commercial halibut fishing as an industry is over 100 years old and in the beginning, steamers would carry small two-man rowboats out. Alaska halibut was caught right from these until schooners specially designed for halibut fishing were introduced. Today, the boats used in commercial halibut fishing are more versatile – often other fisheries will share crafts with the companies going after halibut.

Can you catch halibut without a commercial setup? Yes! Contracting with an Alaskan sports fishing charter that has all the gear you’ll need is a popular option since most hobby anglers don’t have the equipment necessary to fish for Alaska halibut. Locality is another issue that bars many people from fishing for this type of halibut on their own – Alaska is farther away than most people expect. It’s worth the time and effort, though.

No matter how you fish for halibut, know that reeling in one of these huge fighters is an experience no angler should miss.

Here’s a clip of Dave, Paul, and the crew of Tuna.com waiting for a bite, on Wicked Tuna from National Geographic.