"80" lb sturgeon on Kare 11

[ec30_06]

Anyone else see this guys huge St. Croix sturgeon? The article didn't say if he was fishing for them or not. I hope he doesn't target them because he was holding the thing by the gills

[DTro]

yep, and if he didn't have a tag, that fish was illegal as soon as he decided to keep it longer than needed to get measurements and a quick photo.

He was probably unaware of that, but it's still the law.

Nonetheless, it is a great fish, and I sure wish I would've caught it.

[dps]

Im not going to go into great detail on commenting. What the guy did with the fish was very unsportsman like. Its not ok to transport a fish for re-release without a proper life sustaining device(live well, etc). A 6' fish is not going to fit in any livewell. The fish was tied throuh the gills with a rope and held for many hours off a dock for weigh in and future release.

Not cool at all. Very nice fish, it takes a long time to grow a fish like that. I hope the fish actually survived to fight another day. The angler should be proud of that catch. but I hope he comes out of the situation with some fines. Very poor judgement. Take a picture and throw it back if you are releasing a fish 6' long.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

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yep, and if he didn't have a tag, that fish was illegal as soon as he decided to keep it longer than needed to get measurements and a quick photo.

He was probably unaware of that, but it's still the law.

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Your right even if he had a tag it has to attached before transporting it.

http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=54028&bw=

On a side note and this is just my opinion I don't think its an 80 pound fish..but it sure is big.

[hanson]

Thats a great fish!

The guy has caught a lot of flack for his handling of the fish. Everyone makes mistakes, I know I have. And I think we are allowed to make mistakes as well, but you have to learn from those mistakes and grow and mature in the process.

I have had a couple of posts over the course of the last few years touching on the proper way to handle large sturgeon, or large fish in general. A lot of people don't know, or understand that what they are doing is not good for the fish. I will be the first to admit I didn't know either, but someone took the time to educate me and I'm more than willing to take the time to educate others. I think the best we can do is try and educate people and break old habits, sharp criticism goes nowhere.

30 years ago, that fish would probably have been going home to the dinner table. But this guy DID release it, and I give him all the credit in the world for that. A little education might go along way however in the proper handling of the fish between the Catch and the Release.