Lake Sturgeon Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Five rows of bony scutes (armor plates) running along the back and sides
• Olive-brown to gray body, paling to a whitish belly
• Short, blunt, conical snout that rounds out further with age
• Four barbels positioned in a row closer to the mouth than the snout tip
• Wide, toothless, tube-like mouth on the underside of the head
• Heterocercal tail with a longer upper lobe; can reach 6-7 feet

Common look-alikes

• Atlantic sturgeon: has a more sharply pointed snout and lives in coastal/anadromous rivers rather than the Great Lakes and connected freshwater systems where Lake Sturgeon reside.
• Shovelnose sturgeon: much smaller overall, with a flattened, shovel-shaped snout and a distinct thread-like tail filament that Lake Sturgeon lack.
• Common carp: superficially similar bottom-feeding shape, but carp have true scales and a single dorsal fin instead of bony scute rows.

Where you'll see one

Lake Sturgeon are strictly freshwater, found in the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay drainage, and the upper Mississippi and St. Lawrence river systems. Look for them cruising rocky or sandy lake bottoms and large river channels, often in deeper water near spawning shoals in spring.