Elmwood21 Loc: Iowa

Nice fish my brother caught this on Lake of the Woods last week walleye fishing. Had 8 lbs test everything great till I told him out of season made him throw it back found out later open till October after a couple beers no longer mad at me.

smitty Loc: maine

totally off limits in maine
seen some real monsters here on the Kennebec river
its an awesome sight to see how high a fish that size can jump

Justoldjim Loc: JUNCTION CITY, OR.

That's a good eating fish very nice haven't gone sturgeon fishing in 5 years

Kerry Hansen Loc: Bremerton, WA

They have them regulated now because there aren't as many as you think and it takes a long time to recover from a shortage. Unlike fish like salmon that go to ocean for 3-5 years and come back full grown and spawn, a Sturgeon doesn't spawn until they are about 6' which is about a 25 year old fish, so there is not a quick turn around.

Terry Wright Loc: Steilacoom, WA

Sturgeon population was doing great until very large Stellar Sea lions learned that they were an easy meal while congregating below Bonneville dam. Even worse, they went after the older, broodstock aged fish and generally just ate the bellies. Help to get rid of the invasive sea lions.

Tsteamman

Sturgeon are catch and release only here in Florida. I had no idea they could be eaten. What do they taste like?

Maid Marion Loc: Corvallis, OR

I hooked a stergon once,in the 70's in the Long Tom near Monroe Or, bank fishing for cats at night. Thought I snagged, line broke above bobber,oh well, rerigged. Later bobber popped up on other side of river. My husband took the canoe to retrieve it, pulled on the line, it pulled a 17 ft canoe down to the gunnals and towed it upstream 20 yds before the line broke at the hook. I don't know what else it could have been or how big it could 've been.

Kerry Hansen Loc: Bremerton, WA

Yep the Sea Lions really hurt them and the people that didn't want to kill them really hurt the population. much like Hershel and his buddies in the locks at lake washing reducing the salmon and Steelhead to endangered which allowed the government to take lethal solutions. I have an article in the news paper maybe 25 years ago called the "Parade Magazine" that had a story in it about the FBI watching an apartment building thinking a bank robber lived there. When he had left his apartment, they snuck into the place and discovered a fishy scent and a lot of steel trays. So they called the game dept to investigate. To shorten the story this guy was the head of a ring to catch and kill LARGE breeder Sturgeon to get the eggs. his fishing cohorts caught the big brood fish, took the eggs and take them to this guy who was in Vancouver WA who packaged them and shipped back east to a packer in Chicago who processed them into Caviar. The Fisheries figure he took about 25% of the brood Sturgeon from the Columbia river system. Then the Salmon fishing fell on its lips and a bunch more fishermen started going after Sturgeon (including me where we could keep 4 fish per day two in the slot of 42 to 48" and 2 in the slot of 48' to 6'. as over fishing went on, the size and quantity went down where you can keep one per day in a reduced size. Before this you filled a punch card, you go and get another and keep fishing the season.

Kerry Hansen Loc: Bremerton, WA

Yep, when fishing for them (with 50lb braid and 80 lb Dacron leader) once had to untie my anchor rope and leave the buoy and follow the fish drifting. Got the huge fish maybe 2 miles down stream and it took all the strength I had to hold the Huge Sturgeon up from sinking down to remove the hook even with the water/boy-ency help. The biggest I ever caught AND measured was 4" longer than my 9' oar and this big one that I unhooked was much larger!

Terry Wright Loc: Steilacoom, WA

They have a very dense flesh, and very easy to overcook. Because they are bottom feeders, they are really unique and not fishy tasting. Very tasty as fish and chips.

Kerry Hansen Loc: Bremerton, WA

I remember in 1960 when I got out of the navy i tied up with a bunch of high school friends and we hit every tavern in two towns for a quick Beer then go, one of them had one of those big jars that taverns have sitting on the bar and this had smoked sturgeon in it. I had never had Sturgeon before and this Was outstandingly good, best I had ever had!

Barnacles Loc: Northern California

They're a very primitive fish. They don't have a regular spinal column, but something called a notochord. I was told that if you slice the fish into steaks, the juice from the notochord can make it taste funny. I cut around the base of the tail, just to the bone and twisted to break it loose. then I pulled the tail and the entire notochord pulled out. It was about as thick as my finger and looked like it was full of clear jelly. They don't have regular scales like most fish, but rows of bony plates spaced along their length. Sometimes the bony plates have a little bit of a hook on them, making a steel leader a good idea in some cases. I fried a couple of steaks in a skillet and if you walked in and sniffed, you wouldn't have guessed that I was cooking fish. Because they're bottom feeders, it can stink if you get careless when you gut them out. The meat is white except for a patch of dark meat just around the pectoral fins.

DE-licious!!!!!

Mine came from the San Francisco bay back in the 1970's. Just about six feet long!

Gtoes Loc: Minnesota

I remember being out one day on the Columbia by Dodson with my daughter. Everything we were catching was about two foot long and I bet we caught 40 about that size. Then I caught one that was less than 12 inches. My daughter wanted to pet the little baby. She reached over the side of the boat and just as she reached down to pet it, about an 8 foot long Sturgeon came up and actually hit my daughter in the hand. It scared her to death as she flew back up into the boat. She used every cuss word that I had ever heard in my life as she danced around the boat trying to keep her feet off of the floor and up into the air. I almost died laughing and asked her why she did not grab that one.

Barnacles Loc: Northern California

Oops. I mentioned cutting the tail just to the bone. WRONG! No bones, they're cartilage like a shark.

Kerry Hansen Loc: Bremerton, WA

prehistoric. Cartilage no bones. i pulled the skin off then cut the filet off while it was hanging by head then discarded the carcase with end of skin still attached to tail.