My old man sent me this photo, we are big fishing nuts so all of you who are the same as us, you will enjoy this, and even if your not it's still cool!




Willamette River - Oregon City










FYI: This sturgeon is still alive, just worn out from the fight.
They turned him loose after the photo.


This Sturgeon was caught on the Willamette River just below Oregon City two weeks ago.
It weighed out at over 1,000 lbs and measured out at 11'1".
It was 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.

I have seen that photo before from one of the persons that was there. Nice catch though, sorry they had to throw it back as you can't keep anything over 4' I think.

nice catch

thats not possible....
and nice catch

Awesome catch to those involved! I could only imagine 6 1/2 hours worth of fighting that thing in. Heck, even a 5 minute fight feels like it takes forever. Thanks for sharing KilR!

Personally, I don't take any of my fish home unless it's channel cats. I try to practice CPR-Catch, Photo, Release.

WOW thats nuts!

well that sucks that u had to throw it back...coulda fed them(lol i spelt it fed on accident)for awhile...it should be throw them back if thr over 5 feet...but under 10

awsome...

Now that's a big fish!! Hey I heard that sturgeon are supposed to be really close to dinosaurs or something? Lack of evolution??

Yeah that's crazy, I WISH I was there, the biggest sturgeon I've ever caught was 45" and 50#, just a small one lol. They made mention of the fact that it might be older or as old as some of them in the photo lol, understatement, I'd say she is probably over 200 years easy. We fish for them on the lower Columbia and see them while we are shad fishing below the dams, and their are some of the opinion that those huge beasts there were around back in the Lewis and Clark days lol! The predominant legal size on the Washington and Oregon shores is between 42-60". That usually equals a 30-35 year old fish! They are amazing creatures!

And taste great smoked or fried!!!!! The biggest one i ever caught was around 45 inches and that was a heck of a fight. I hope to get out this year for them but it looks like maybe next year. Probably the Columbia but maybe the Chehalis.

INDEED!! Yes they are incredible eating! Thats cool, I didn't know they were in the Chehalis, cool! We also pick on them in the Snohomish system up north. Problem with them there is the vast number of Greens (which are protected by law) proportional to the whites and the very many "over sized" reletive to the under sized. Just not a lot in between (keepers), but the fishing is good. Even a 3 footer can give you one heck of a fight lol!