Giant Sturgeon, real?

[JRedig]

Anybody getting the email about the 11' long sturgeon from Oregon? Trying to figure out if it's real or not, haven't seen anything on the net about it. I have a pic, but don't have anywhere to host it that allows hot-linking.

I'm doubtful it's real...

Words:

"This Sturgeon was caught on the Willamette River just below Oregon City.

It weighed out at over 1,000 lbs and measured out at 11'1'. It w as 56" around the girth and took over 6 and a half hours, and 4 dozen beers, for the 4 guys taking turns at the reeling it in.

Any Sturgeon OVER about five feet has to be released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water.

They are brood / breeding stock and probably older than most of us."

Cheers

jeff

[Dano_the_jigasaurus]

Sturgeon that big exist. I know that there are huge white sturgeon in the Snake River (Oregon and Idaho) . Whether this is a white sturgeon and if the Williamette River has them would help determine if it is a real fish. The story that accompanies the pic sounds suspect.

dan

[Team Salmo]

Someone needs to get this picture posted on here!!!

[Jim Uran]

This has to be the one he was talkin about. I got that in an email before same story this was the pic that was with it. Doesn't look 11' but huge none the less.

[JRedig]

Yep that's the pic! I dunno, that looks like eleven feet, who's got photochop to blow it up and see if it's modified anywhere?

[10,000 Casts]

It's real, I don't know where that fish if from but it is a pretty old pic.

[Ralph Wiggum]

That's been around for years and I'm sure it's real. Those white sturgeon out west get huge.

[markkstanley]

It's real but fish was caught in Fraser river British Columbia. WHite sturgeon are in the entire Columbia river system which includes the Snake and Fraser rivers. And they get bigger than this. Some Idaho photos in the late 1800s show fish that were lots bigger.

[Nick Kuhn]

Yep, most fish species grow continuously throughout there lives, so big fish are old fish. White sturgeon can live for very long times, so they can grow massive. The problem is dams and the like have altered the habitat and angling pressure has resulted in huge declines of white sturgeon populations. A 50 year old fish that is harvested may look huge, but that fish may have lived to 100 and gotten enormous. It simply takes too long to replenish those monsters.

[Team Salmo]

Thanks...

[crazyice]

Man that would be fun to tangle with!!

[PDXFisher]

It's also illegal to keep one that big in Oregon, and I believe in BC, also. So yes, the pic must be fairly old.

In a related note, recently a big sturgeon was stolen from a hatchery visitor site here. Had to have been 9' or bigger. Was there at night, and missing from the pond in the morning.

I'm actually thinking about trying some of my muskie gear for sturgeon this year. I've never fished for sturgeon since I didn't feel like I had a right to wound a 100 year-old fish. Hooking mortality seems very low, so maybe I'll give it a shot. I'm just not into bait fishing, though. My father hooks into them incidentally trolling rapalas for Walleye in the Columbia, so it can be done, methinks.