Man spent 47 minutes reeling in rare fish — then released it, Missouri officials say
A fisherman in Missouri was trying to snag paddlefish when his tackle wrapped around the tail of a different fish species, officials say.
Troy Staggs then spent 47 minutes fighting the 50-55 pound fish, according to a Facebook post from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
He managed to reel the fish in and pull it up onto the boat — making it the second time he caught a lake sturgeon while fishing at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Lake sturgeons are listed as “rare and endangered in Missouri,” and with that protection, anglers are required to release their catches after capture.
Staggs did so after taking a “quick measurement” and a few photos with the fish, wildlife officials said.
The lake sturgeon measured 56 inches long and officials estimate it to be about 30 years old. The species can live over 100 years and weigh over 200 pounds, making it “Missouri’s longest-lived animal and our second largest fish.”
“Sturgeon evolved during the Jurassic era and survived where the dinosaurs didn’t,” officials said. ”Sturgeon are living links to the past.”
This rare catch is the sixth time someone has reported reeling in a lake sturgeon at Lake of the Ozarks since 2016, officials say, and Staggs caught two of them.
“Now there is something you don’t see everyday,” Edgar’s Ozark Bait & Tackle shared on Facebook. “Troy Staggs has caught not 1 but 2 sturgeon out of LOZ in the last 3 years. Awesome!”
Missouri Department of Conservation began stocking waterways with lake sturgeon in the 1980s and continues to do so in hopes of recovering the species, according to the post.
“Despite its name, in Missouri this fish is almost always found in big rivers, not lakes,” according to wildlife officials. “It prefers firm, silt-free bottoms of sand, gravel, and rock.”
The fish are considered “bottom-feeding predator-scavengers specially fitted for life in the swift currents of our big rivers,” officials say, and “their role cannot be duplicated by other fish.”
Lake sturgeons reach adulthood at about 25 years old, officials say, when they will “move into tributary streams to spawn. This makes them more visible as the fish frequently spawn in shallow water.”
If you catch or see a lake sturgeon, the department encourages you to notify local conservation agents or call the lake sturgeon recovery leader at 573-248-2530.
Lake of the Ozarks is about 150 miles southeast of Kansas City.
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