Ty Cobb was busy batting .350 plus for the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field (later named Tiger Stadium), James L. Couzens the former Detroit mayor, was elected to U.S. Senate and served during the Coolidge and the Hoover presidencies, and the Purple Gang was rum-running booze from Windsor, Canada across the Detroit River back to sell it in Prohibition era America. It was the 1920's and a tiny little sturgeon flapped its fins for the first time. On April 22, 2021 that female fish was caught near Grosse Ile by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This historic sturgeon weighed in at 240 pounds and measured nearly 7 feet in length.
via AP:
"Based on its girth and size, it is assumed to be a female and that she has been roaming our waters over 100 years. She was quickly released back into the river" after being weighed and measured, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.
It took about six minutes to get the fish into the boat with a net.
"I felt the fish thumping on the line. As it got closer, it just got bigger and bigger," said Jason Fischer, who was with fellow biologists Paige Wigren and Jennifer Johnson.
Wigren recalled thinking, "Yep, this is going to be a real good fish story."
"She was tired out and didn't fight us very much," Wigren said. "Imagine everything that fish has lived through and seen."
Lake sturgeon are listed as a threatened species in Michigan. Anglers can keep one a year, but only if the fish is a certain size and is caught in a few state waters. All sturgeon caught in the Detroit River must be released.
