sturgeon

[nah2ofish]

got a question for you all............ so today i was fishing in bremerton behind the oyester bay hotel and i caught about a 3ft sturgeon. i was told that those are freshwater fish. am i mistaken or are they brackish?

cory

[Toni]

I heard at another wesite that they migrate down from the Frazer river and up from the Columbia. I think they were trying to figure out how they got into the Puyallup river.
Don't know how real that is. But if you caught one - maybe it is real.

[fishnislife]

Dogfish. Maybe?
Describe it a little bit for us nah2ofish.


fishnislife

[Fish-or-man?]

White sturgeon can indeed be in fresh or salt water. It's my understanding (may be wrong) that they don't stray too far from the coastal shelf though. And they can move around a lot; a tagged one was tracked from Puget Sound to northern Cali if memory serves. Amazing prehistoric fish!

[Toni]

WHITE STURGEON

DID YOU KNOW? White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America and can weigh over 1,500 pounds, be 20 feet in length, and live for over 100 years.

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Acipenser transmontanus, acipenser is an old world name meaning sturgeon and transmontanus meaning beyond the mountains.

COMMON NAMES: Pacific sturgeon, Oregon sturgeon, Columbia sturgeon, and Sacramento sturgeon.

DESCRIPTION: Like the green sturgeon the white sturgeon is a primitive, bottom dwelling fish. It is characterized by its large body size, large head and mouth, and long cylindrical body. It has four barbels located in front of its large, wide and toothless mouth, located on the bottom (ventral) side of its head. It has no scales, but "scutes" along its body for protection. Scutes are actually large modified scales, that serve as a type of armor or protection. White sturgeon have 11-14 scutes in front of their single dorsal fin, no scutes behind the dorsal, 38-48 scutes on the side, and 9-12 bottom (ventral) scutes. Dorsal color is dark to light gray, pale olive, or gray-brown. The white sturgeon's ventral or bottom surface is white. The scutes are lighter than the body in color, and the fins are dusky to opaque gray.

LIFECYCLE: The white sturgeon is a slow growing, late maturing anadromous fish. White sturgeon spawn in large rivers in the spring and summer months and remain in fresh water while young. Older juveniles and adults are commonly found in rivers, estuaries, and marine environments.

Anadromous white sturgeon most commonly move into large rivers in the early spring, and spawn May through June. Spawning usually takes place in swift current with a rocky bottom, near rapids. White sturgeon can spawn multiple times during their life, and apparently spawn every 4-11 years as they grow and mature. Females can produce from 100,000 to several million eggs each. Older white sturgeon produce more eggs and wait longer times between spawns. Adults apparently broadcast spawn in the water column and the fertilized eggs sink and attach to the bottom to hatch. Research shows that eggs can hatch in 4 days to 2 weeks, depending on water temperature, and it has been estimated that white sturgeon reach maturity in 15-25 years.

RANGE: In North America, white sturgeon are found from Ensenada, Mexico to Cook Inlet, Alaska. Found in most estuaries along the Pacific coast, white sturgeon prefer estuaries of large rivers. However, it is rare to find white sturgeon in Puget Sound or Hood Canal, Washington.

HABITAT AND ECOLOGY: White sturgeon rely on streams, rivers, and estuarine habitat as well as marine waters during their lifecycle. White sturgeon prefer to spawn in rivers with swift currents and large cobble; no nest is built. Research indicates that water flow is one of the key determinants of larval survival.

Young white sturgeon primarily feed on algae and aquatic insects while remaining in rivers and estuarine environments. White sturgeon primarily feed on fish, shellfish, crayfish, and on various aquatic invertebrates, clams, amphipods, and shrimp.

Found at http://www.psmfc.org/habitat/edu_wsturg_fact.html

[Fish-or-man?]

Okay, forget my first quote, as I have no hard refrence for it. But according to my favorite overpriced freshwater fishy book "Inland Fishes of Washington" tagged white sturgeon have traveled as far as the Columbia River to the Sacremento River, California; one traveled from the Columbia River to San Pablo Bay, Ca (660 miles); and one traveled from the Duwamish River to Astoria, Or (pg. 42 par. 2). And like Toni said Frazer to Columbia River travel seems to be a little more of a common occurence between these two healthy sturgeon stocks according to tagging surveys.

It seems so wild that a fish would just high-tail it into saltwater when they have a good food source in a river!

[nah2ofish]

[Toni]

Looks like a dogfish to me.

[Fish-or-man?]

I agree, it's a Dogfish. A really nice one too! Depending on your set-up I bet that was a pretty good fight!

[Toni]

They have the same type of body. I am trying to get a photo to show the difference.

[nah2ofish]

thanks for the ID! didn't really know what it was when i caught it. at first i thought it was a shark of some kind! id did put up a good fight though, especially for an ugly stick on 6# test!

[Toni]

Saturday I had to ask what I caught. It was a steelhead.

[GJorgy]

Sturgeon definately live in salt water. Per the WSDFW regulation book "Sturgeon Year-round Min size 42" max size 60". Daily limit 1. Release Green Sturgeon". I've seen them in area 8-1 north of Kayak Point park. I don't know of anyone that actually targets them in the salt, they must be an accidental catch.

[A9]

Theres always rumors of them being caught in the salt, and some even in the Snohomish system?
But yes that's a dogfish for sure, but have fun with those, sometimes they are a blast to catch when nothing else is biting....
Careful for the spines on their fins, those things sting like crazy when you get em into the skin...

[Bubbadel2]

Dogfish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In freshwater lakes and rivers, "Dogfish" refers to a member of the Bowfin family.

Note the fisherman carefully avoiding the poisonous spine near the rear dorsal fin
Note the fisherman carefully avoiding the poisonous spine near the rear dorsal fin

The name dogfish is applied to a number of small sharks found in the northeast Atlantic, Pacific, and Mediterranean, especially those in the three families Scyliorhinidae, Dalatiidae and Squalidae. Although often used in reference to Scyliorhinus canicula, the name is applied only loosely and does not usually signify a close taxonomic relationship. The Spiny Dogfish (Squalus acanthias) are the most common sharks in the western Atlantic Ocean. They hunt both solitarily and in schools. They eat small fish, squid, and crustaceans, and have extremely strong jaws for crushing the shells. They are considered a nuisance by fishermen because they will latch on to almost anything put in the water, including human hands. Some fishermen kill them when caught which, along with pollution, has contributed to a sharp decline in population in Puget Sound. It is now illegal to kill or mutilate them when caught. Care has to be taken when handling because they have 2 poisonous spines at the back of both dorsal fins. The poison is not likely to cause major damage, but the wound can take months to heal.

[nah2ofish]

thanks alot for all the info, didn't know about the spikes.

[gpc]

A dogfish and a sturgeon look very similar, almost like they are from the same family (even though they arnt). But I never realized how much they look like one another until it was brought up in this thread. I can understand where one could get the two species mixed up.

[Jake Dogfish]

Thats a bow wow alright. They do look fairly similar. I caught a sturgeon in the salt once by accident, I believe it may have been a green sturgeon... I have caught 3 sturgeon lifetime, but never when fishing for them. I have spent several days and in several locations fishing for them with no luck yet.

[Reel_Nut]

One of my fav fish to catch. They are def a salt water fish that migrate with the salmon, and smelt. Cant think of a more challenging fish to catch and fight on the coast. I wish I knew how to post pictures of some of the gators that I have caught with this responce.

[Palmer]

I've always heard they like 6 oz water when fishing the rivers.
Once in a while there is a story of one in Lake Washington. I never hear of anyone catching them in the lake, however. A report claimed that before the locks went in they would migrate up the Black River into the lake so any that are in the Lake today would be over 80 years old. A newspaper article in the 80's had a picture of an 11 footer washed up on shore. The article also quoted a scientist claiming that the lifespan of a sturgeon may be as long as 500 years.