We were skunked both days at Decker, but fortunately Thursday dawned
calm and sunny, making a cruise down to Suisun possible. We fished my
honey hole near Roe and Ryer Islands. As the last two hours of our
fishing time for the week approached, we finally got that little
sturgeon nibble. Fish On!
She gave us a great fight, breaching twice and giving Dean quite a
thrill as he fought his first sturgeon ever. She weighed in at 38
pounds and measured 55 inches. She fell for - as usual - eel.
Photos and more story at my home page www.FishWisher.com
Dale
Nice, Dale! Great website, too.
Rob
>She gave us a great fight, breaching twice and giving Dean quite a
>thrill as he fought his first sturgeon ever. She weighed in at 38
>pounds and measured 55 inches. She fell for - as usual - eel.
>
>Photos and more story at my home page www.FishWisher.com
>
>Dale
Dale, just curious, but what do you do with all that sturgeon? Maybe
you've mentioned this before but I missed it. Do you mount them? Do
you eat it? How do you cook it? The only sturgeon I've eaten was
smoked. It came from the Columbia River up north. It was very good
eating. We fished near Bonneville Dam all day and caught only one but
it was too big to keep, so we ended coming back to SJ with smoked
sturgeon from a cousin of my friend who lives in Portland.
If you need help, I can take some of your catch and smoke it in my
Kamado smoker. <G> Heck, I'll even smoke yours! (I use only aged
cherry wood - no charcoal!)
Eddie
We release most sturgeon caught. Unless you are part of the Russian Mafia,
that run major sturgeon poaching rings in Calif. You are allowed 3 fish a
year in the slot limit.
Eddie, I have kept only two so far this year, releasing the rest.
Three I have reported on were caught by friends on my boat. I don't
eat 'em - I don't like fish. I've given both of mine to a friend who
makes good use of them.
Most guys talk about smoking them, but one friend loves to just fry
them in butter. I've cooked some in the past, just rolled 'em in corn
meal and fried 'em. Not worth all the effort to clean, etc. in my
opinion. But I'm the exception; most guys love to eat sturgeon. The
meat is very white, and very mild. Like sharks, sturgeon have no bone
and lots of meat. I've had a zip-lock bag of sturgeon in the fridge,
and after three days I opened the sack and there is no odor. That is
mild fish!
There is an un-enforced (170 or so sworn DFG enforcement officers in
the entire state of Kalifornistan) limit of three, all of which must
be tagged as deer are tagged, and a slot limit of 46" to 66". If
you're a poacher the largest ones are reserved just for you; there is
no size or number limit on sturgeon and you will very likely never be
caught!
Funny aside to the tagging of sturgeon. About 18 years ago, I catch a
tagged sturgy. Get my 20 bucks, a certificate and history of the fish.
Problem with the fish, is it shrank an inch after tagging.