Russian Fishing 4 – Match Fishing Guide for Sturgeons

This guide will take you through the basics of using the Waggler’s for Sturgeons, how to bait, what rods/reels that works.

How to Fish Sturgeons (Match Fishing)

All credit goes to Zaon90!

Introduction

Float fishing after Sturgeons can be really difficult sometimes, but also very rewarding once that trophy strikes you. It’s a fun way but it’s a challenge. So once again, take out your coffee/tea cup and sit back.

Rods

The rods that you can use on Sturgeons are limited, due to the pressure theese heavy fishes put out. You want a strong high end rod with alot of load capacity, not just to pressure the fish but also lock and lead it in towards the shore. Therefore the ultimate rod for this purpose is Monster Match 440, with the load capacity of 65KG. You can use the Shooting Matches aswell, but do remember to use a proper line weight. The strongest point of your setup should always be your rod, because you don’t want the rod to break, you want the line to snap first and not the rod.

As you can see on my setup, i’m using the 60KG braided line, combined with a 65KG Rod, so the line will snap first and not the rod. That’s the element that goes through all pretty much, by doing this you can use the pressure on your rod to your advantage.

For Shooting Match i’d recommend a line that is around 50-55KG, and not above the load capacity of 58KG.

The Plasma Match has a Load Capacity of 54 KG, wich you can use for Sturgeons aswell but with a well balanced outfit.

Reels

The next part is Reels, and it’s also limited to theese heavy fishes, since you want a quality reel that can withstand the damage theese fishes might do to your mechanism/Friction Brake and so forth.

The Venga 10000 is the ideal choice to use since it has the overall best Mechanism/Friction Brake withstand in this game. It has a max drag of 32KG. It also has a big spool, so you can use thick braided line and still have some line to fight with.

Another reel worth mentioning here is the Tagara, it can be used aswell. It dosen’t have the max drag of 32KG as the Venga has, but will still do the job, but it takes more damage compared to the Venga, so be aware of that when fighthing a big fish, to maintain an eye of the reel.

Waggler’s

We’ll the waggler’s ive used to fish after Sturgeons are heavy ones, and there is a reason for this. When you fish for sturgeons you overdepth it, so the bait drags on the bottom and stops the float. The ideal weight for a waggler is 14g on this Purpose. I personally use the Pomor VK-14 but you can also the Silver Fish Total Cast 932-140.

The main reason for the weight is that the bait you are often using are the Larvas, wich has a weight of 7g, and might be combined with a Mole Cricket, that has a weight of 5g so you want something that is heavy to balance this setup up. Therefore the ideal Waggler is a heavy one for this purpose.

The Ataman Match – LED 13 can also the work, but they are not that visible combined to the other’s since their body isn’t that long, but they have very good lightning and are visible during night time.

So if you might have poor eye sight or any other eye condition, this is an option for you, if you don’t have the Pomor.

Hooks

I’d highly recommend the Bloody Series 4/0 Large hooks, as they can withstand alot without losing the fish. And they are my go to choice when fishing for Sturgeons, since they have an excellent hook up function.

Baiting for Sturgeons

As most of you know already when floating for certain species you want to bait up the water you are fishing in, and same goes for Sturgeons.

This is the Dry mix im using when spoding the water for Sturgeons in Akthuba River. It’s a widely used mix that works both for Bottom and Float.

But I also use another Dry Mix when im float fishing for East Siberian Sturgeons wich is slightly different, but when you bait up a water make sure you are using the SPOD rocket and not the SPOMB.

Since the SPOMB will drop the bait on the surface directly when it hits the water, and that might make it to drift away from the spot, not entirely sure about this function tho, but the SPOD rocket has given me results so far, and has proven to work for me.

Depth and How to Set It Correctly for Sturgeons

As mentioned earlier in the guide, you are fishing slightly different for Sturgeons when using a Waggler, it’s a type of bottom fishing but with floats, let me explain it further. When you are at the spot you are going to fish, make sure you secure how deep it is. By using a Marker Rod and it works slightly different in rivers, so here is how you do it. Reel speed 5, throw it out, lock the reel and unlock it right away so the float comes up. Then lock the reel and wait for the float to stand up by itself since the river is doing it for you, or just slightly reel it to it stands.

If the float dives under, unlock the reel so it pops back up and try again, but pay attention to the depth and what it says.

If the area for example says 6.10 you want to go 6.30, wich means you overdepth it and the reason for that is you want the bait to drag on the bottom until it stops so it stands still. And by doing so your float will stand up but the bait is still on the bottom, the float might however stand slighty to the right or left depending on the current, and when a fish bites it might drift away, just let it drift and pay attention to the bottom end of the float cause that will indicate to you what is going on, if the fish is still nibbling or actually eating the bait. It’s the same function as it is with Carp Fishing with float, always pay attention to how the float reacts, if it goes aggresive it’s taking the bait and then it’s time to strike. Sturgeons bite heavy wich you’ll notice on the float, and it’s a strong nibble and taking the bait might be difficult for someone that hasen’t got alot of experience with it.

To hook the fish, you lift the rod up, press Right Mouse Button with the CTRL key at the same time and move the rod left or right depending on the river, if it goes to the right, jerk left and do the combo to hook the fish, and reverse it if the river goes left then you jerk right.