Oversize are coming

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

Its not to far away from another awesome year! nothing beter then a 10ft fish tailwalking behind the boat!!!

[fc2038]

yup love that time of the year! A little shad shack action and on down to the HOLE!!!!!!!!!

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

l that is true.... I enjoy the peace of the lower river that time of year

[buckhorn2]

It was on the outdoor channel yesterday and they got in the water with the fish I think it was Gowdy. Showed pictures from around the fishery and beacon rock and on down below 85. It was a black and yellow boat they fished out of but did;nt catch the name. Hope they are getting some of the oversize eating sea lions out of there.

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

I saw that a few years ago, cant fish where they were at now

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Our sturgeon fishery in the future will be seriously curtailed if we keep stressing the big females... Just something to think about...

I know some people don't care they want them big and now but think about what happens when a big hen reabsorbs her eggs...

[huntnphool]

I agree, more needs to be done, relocation doesn't work.

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

We catch them accidently, nothing you can do about it. But i am not going to go out and purposely catch an oversize sturgeon. Not to hard to cath them or target them and if you do please use heavy enough gear to land them quickly with the least amount of stress.

When we used to fish oversize fish we would use the heavy tiger sticks, and 100 pound tuff line, i could land an 8-10 footer in 10-15 minutes. Hearing people fight them for an hour is absurd. I liken over size fishing to chasing a buck in the spring trying to get his antlers to drop, especially if the fish are moving up to bonneville to spawn. Why they still let people fish for them during the spawn is beyond me.

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

A Few reasons.... 1 you can close the whole river down that time of year, 2- even if you made it illegal to "target" oversize the numbers would not change much, ever put out a strip of shad trying to get a keeper? we all know what happens, and that is the ONLY bait that time of year those fish keeper or otherwise are really feeding on.... 3rd- if you use the right gear like stated above the fight should be no longer then 25 min.... the fish IMO are just fine.... this is nothing new and certainly not the reason for the sturgeon fishing going down the last few years.. id liken that to alot of other reasons first, remember years ago when we could fish at the dam for them as they were spawning? the numbers kept going up year after year.. not the oposite......

[huntnphool]

I'm with you WDFWHM, I try to stay toward the mouth, less likely to hook a spawner and the fishing is still generally pretty good. Anyone that purposely targets these spawners, in my opinion, are part of the problem and should seriously think about the long term affects.

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Hoyt you can make a case to still fish for them and i will not ever agree. I do not use shad as a bait anymore. And i hook maybe 1 oversize sturgeon a year if any. I fish for keepers when i go so i focus around the estuary and the terminals near kelly point. I have other places but these are examples.

And opinions do not really matter in this case. There are studies that show that big spawning hens will reabsorb there eggs, so that 25 minutes of your plessure just ruined a spawner but in your opinion it is just fine i guess.

And the reason for the decline is the increased harvest and pressure because the salmon seasons have been crappy people have shifted there focus to sturgeon. Not to hard to see that. When they allowed people to fish the dam there was no problem because there were less sturgeon trips... Cant just look at one part of the issue. Illegal harvest doesn't help either. But you have to start somewhere.

Now the sea lions have joined in the harvest.

Sorry man not going to be part of the problem, i will help be a part of the solution so my son has the opportunity to take his kids sturgeon fishing.

[huntnphool]

Well stated!!!

[Hoytstaffshooter83]

I also agree that the pressure is much greater now that the salmon runs have gone down the drain, and the illegal fishing and sea lions dont help either... however I do not disagree that when those fish are hooked quite a few times they can reabsorb the eggs but I would certainly like to see more studies on this subject, considereing the sturg is the least studied and known fish that swims in our waters. I would also like to see a study showing the percentages that spawn and do not spawn. because I think anyone can agree that 99.9% of th fish that spawn at the dam have been hooked more then once on the ay up the river in the summer..... so if every single fish then reabsorbed the eggs then less then 1% of the females spawn annually.... and thats quite hard for me to believe... just like you I also want to fish for sturg for years and years to come

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

dude you really think 99.9% of the fish swimming up to spawn get hooked??? Really??? That means that if there are 100 fish over lets say 72 inches swimming to the dam to spawn every one of them gets hooked??? I will look for the info and post it. I know it is there. Over on Ifish there is a sturgeon BIO, i will ask her for some info.

[huntnphool]