Sturgeons, Are there Sturgeons in Simcoe?

Hello,

Glad we found this forum. This past Sunday at Cooks Bay a couple of us saw an odd looking fish swimming solo very slowly past two of our ice holes. It was right under the ice which gave us a clear top view. First reaction was ..what is wrong with it's scale?? There were very obvious jagged bumps along both sides. It had more of a flat nose and angled eyes.

Unfortunately we tried to bring our bait to the surface to lure him in instead of grabbing for the camera. He was deaf not interested in our minnow and kept going.

The shape was long, about a foot in length and dull and uniform in colour. It was definitely not a herring or pike and looked very similar to a sturgeon. Do we have these in lake Simcoe?

If anyone has seen something similar please let us know as this mystery fish has been bugging us since Sunday. Thanks.

S.

Yes!
If you look in the "Vintage photos" section there are some pics there.
Cheers!

This has been discussed before. Do an any date search in the Simcoe forum on my user name with the key word sturgeon and you'll find two or three topics.

Is the fish looks like this one?

No not like that. The fish we saw was smaller, darker in colour and had scales that gives it a bumpy ridge look from the both sides.

Because it was right up top we saw the top view and a bit more as it swam away. The nose was more flat and smaller. It reminded of a baby shark but darker and with bumps on the sides. Very cool looking fish:)

I'm hoping someone else has had a sighting of this fish recently.

I do believe that either tim hale or Floyd hale have a sturgeon catch posted within the last few days. I wonder if it was the same fish???

Ohh.. Where would I be able to see the post? Very curious. We'd recognize it if we saw it.

Does the fish looks like this?

I googled images of Sturgeons. Body shape was angular like that but even darker in colour.

It was small, a touch shorter in length from elbow to finger tip and it had an even sharper more obvious jagged bumps on the sides. That was the first thing we noticed.

..Sorry we have to see it from the top view because it was too close to the surface and that was what we saw from the hole lol

That would be cool to see one in Simcoe.

This one is kind of what you are describing.
But its a juvenile and that would be extremely unlikely in simcoe, unless somebody released it.

Thats about the size and colour up top was dark like that, but it didn't have such a long pointy nose though. The one we saw had a shorter more roundish flat nose as opposed to pointed.

Makes it so much more frustrating bc we do not have a picture to post! Heading back to Simcoe this Sunday and will have our camera ready this time.

If anyone sees anything out there pls let us know:) Very much appreciated.

http://www.ontariofishspecies.com/lake-sturgeon.html

Every possibility of a sturgeon being in Simcoe.
Very plentiful in the past.
It could conceivably swim if through the Trent Canal system from Georgian Bay, or Lake Ontarion although sounds impossable because of the amount of water in between.
Somebody could have dumped one in from a minnow bucket.
Anything is possible.

Years ago we saw somebody fighting a fish for two hours off of White Shoal.
He thought it was a huge Laker. Mt thoughts back then were that it was a big sturgeon .

Ask the MNR.
Better feed back from them than a bunch of Yahoo fishermen.

Was it a carp????

Sounds like it could be a big cat fish. ?