Northwest Fishing Reports

Can anyone tell me how to identify a hatchery sturgeon as opposed to a wild one? We have caught two very nice sturgeon below Wanapum Dam and both had the nostril enlarged on the left side of the fish. This fishery was opened to try to reduce the number of hatchery fish in the Priest Rapids and Wanapum pools but the two fish we have caught have been 53 and 63 inches fork length. Those fish have been in the river a long time the way I understand sturgeon growth rate and I doubt that they are from a hatchery.

Unfortunately there's no discernible difference between appearances of wild and hatchery sturgeon. You could have kept them under the hatchery fish season.

We did keep the fish, I was just curious about the enlarged nostril.

There is no markings for hatchery sturgeon. The WDFW Director was on either GPS Outdoors or NW Wild Country (I don't recall which show) just before the opener and said you just keep the ones legal size. They also don't need to go on your catch card for those two areas. The fish are 10+ years old and then the hatchery being so new didn't have the means to mark fish.

dlantis wrote:Can anyone tell me how to identify a hatchery sturgeon as opposed to a wild one? We have caught two very nice sturgeon below Wanapum Dam and both had the nostril enlarged on the left side of the fish. This fishery was opened to try to reduce the number of hatchery fish in the Priest Rapids and Wanapum pools but the two fish we have caught have been 53 and 63 inches fork length. Those fish have been in the river a long time the way I understand sturgeon growth rate and I doubt that they are from a hatchery.

I think the color is different Because I never seen the dark almost black skin not like the one in Snake river they are only grey almost blue I hope that is correct but if you can find more diference I would love to learn too thank you