S
stonesworth
a lot of things kill sturgeon, like putting them on the beach for your avatar picture, sea lions, crazy gillnetters, it should be solely catch and release off the columbia anyway. but hey... they can't shut down the wall, so the obvious solution is to shut down all of us... you know, that old chestnut
I would like to see how pulling an almost legal sized fish out of the water on small round rocks hurts a fish .Sturgeon if banked on flat ground and if they are supported have little issue or ill effect if put back into the water in a timely manner.....Have you ever seen the ofw catch tag and do research on sturgeon or any other fish for that matter.The fish in my pic was let go unharmed like 99% of the fish I catch the rest get bonked for friends and fam since I dont eat the fish I catch salmon or other.....And another thing with the exception on a few other rivers in the world the columbia is one of the biggest producers of caviar in the world I think that and the politics that go with it have more to do with the over fishing or lack of fish along with the nets and sealions..I think sport fishing has very little to do with it.. .DISCLAIMER... This is all in my opinion......I know how people can get all uptight about things they are passionate about..
I have seen tagging, ive done it, over 1200 days on nmf, iphc, and alaska dept of fish and game research vessels, tagged halibut sablefish gray cod sharks.. in an average day we would tag 100 halibut, hoping to produce 10 fish that would survive to give data, you probably didn't hurt that fish at all, I agree... but you are taking a great big p*ss right in the boots of odfw that says clearly in the regs.... do not remove oversized from the water for any reason. You cannot justify that photo away. I have sat and watched bank poachers in the birdhouse hole on sauvie island poach undersize, too many, fillet on site, or let leashed sturgeon go after hours becouse of a bigger fish. we need more enforcement..... period. heck even a guide up at st.johns got popped 3 weeks ago for a 28" fish... he knows better. I hate to have to say it again, but... it is not odfw responsibility to provide us with a better fishing expirence, or fishing at all.. but hey.. lets blame them anyway, its easier to swallow. in an undercover boat I could bust 10 poachers on any keeper day in the willy or channel. probably a lot more.... I would love to see a sting operation take place.... heck i,d even donate my boat and $1500 bucks for some officers salaries to do it.
actually I have stared at your avatar in amazement, several times, you know how many of us have caught a very large fish and properly released it, then there you are, balls out doin what you want and making comments like we all do it just to make yourself feel better?? well on any other site you would have been thrashed loooong ago, most people here are cool and friendly.... im not... your picture sucks... and you can drag me into the mud when you are holding a picture of me, breaking the rules with any fish. You mock every guy who walks the line with that photo.
actually I have stared at your avatar in amazement, several times, you know how many of us have caught a very large fish and properly released it, then there you are, balls out doin what you want and making comments like we all do it just to make yourself feel better?? well on any other site you would have been thrashed loooong ago, most people here are cool and friendly.... im not... your picture sucks... and you can drag me into the mud when you are holding a picture of me, breaking the rules with any fish. You mock every guy who walks the line with that photo.
Nope he's not trying to pick a fight with anyone. He just knows his stuff. A large Sturgeon like that doesn't do well after being on land. They have all kinds of problems with they're air bladders and it can take days sometimes for them to die. That is why it's illegal to pull them out of the water. As far as native fish go. I haven't looked recently but I don't remember it saying flat out that they can't be taken out of the water at all. I may be entirely wrong. I haven't looked lately because I don't take native fish out of the water so it doesn't matter. There is a massive difference between carefully craddeling a fish for a few seconds for a pic and dragging a massive fish being drug up on shore. You have no idea if that fish lived or not. How do you know that it didn't have internal injuries from its weight. I would have said something in my first post but honestly I don't pay much attention to avatars so I didn't notice.
I am no biologist but I have read that because sturgeon have no bone structure that their own weight crushes their organs causing potentially leathal damage by either lifting them from the water or laying them on a bank.
Stonesworth, in refrence to your original post here what are you doing to make it better? Your fish handling is certainly not doing anything to help the fish or us as fisherman. You make vague unfound statements about sport-fisherman not being the problem, I dont want to argue that point with you because I dont know the answear. IMO its many things that contribute to the proven problem of our sturgeon population.
So rather than point ignorant fingers at problems you dont understand may I suggest you start doing something about it. You dont need to run for govenor or anything, mabey start by following game laws, improve your own ethics, saying something to people you see poaching, be a true sportsman and others will respect you for it and want to follow your lead. Imagine how a non-fisherperson would feel about what happened the day you drug that fish up the bank, now go ask them for finacial support or a vote for our fishery.
I am not trying to throw you under the bus, there is not a person on this site who has done everything right with every fish they have touched. I can say that if I had to potentialy harm a fish to measure it... it would get released un-measured.
We all better start taking charge of our fishery because if we dont, they will go on allowing it to be raped to a point of no return... and that will be a sad day.