The emergency regs confused me. I reread them, and as they are posted on the boards around the boat launch near the bypass and boat launch are, it reads up to Bonneville dam. Although it would have been an easy argument that the emergency opening states Bonneville dam, and not "the sturgeon deadline", I didn't have intention of keeping any fish. If I did, I would have brought appropriate gear, and would have double checked with a phone call. We didn't bring any gear other than side drifting rods, and shad darts. If Merg gives the impression we were targeting 25-500 pound fish on ultralight gear he's F.O.S.

I will admit I didn't bust off the sturgeon when they were hooked.
I was a little curious how big of a sturgeon a guy could land on a knotted pube, and a safety pin.

Did land a couple that were 8 and 15 pounds each, on 6 pound test and a size 6 hook. And did have a 30-40 pound fish on for about 40 minutes, took me to the bottom of my spool twice, had half my line back before it farted on the line and he swam away to continue the shad feast. Sorry if my XJ 9'6 rod, and Izorline 6 pound copolymer line caused an over sized sturgeon to fail to spawn.

I didn't see merg put any bait on his hook, although the sizes of hook we were using it couldn't have been bigger than a shad booger. Dude, don't use boogers as bait, its gross. And the fish he crackered, it really was at least 50 pounds. I"m pretty good at guessing weight, that fish went well over 60 inches and was very squat/thick.


You forgot to mention that you and hohbomb saw that smaller sturgeon charge up on my shad jig 2 feet off the bottom. I always thought sturgeon were close to blind.