Nice Scotch!
We're not allowed to catch them with hook/line here. We're only allowed to spear them through the ice. I've had a few on, and brought a small (4ft?) one to the side of the boat, removed the hook and let it go. We're actually supposed to cut the line right away when we hook one though (which also doesn't seem quite right...).
Ours are Lake Sturgeon though. Neat to see them swarming in the shallows spawning each spring.
Spearing would be fun! I've never done that.
Hooks will generally rust out of them pretty quickly.
Out here you can keep one sturgeon a year, and it has to be between 3.5'- 5' in length. Anything bigger than that has reached reproductive age and is protected. This has helped them come back from near extinction after they were almost killed off for caviar. You can still fish the oversized for sport (like we were doing), you just have to release them. They're so old and fat, and there's so many pollutants in the river that I wouldn't want to eat one anyways. That's one of the few species I support inland fish farming of.
But they put up an awesome fight! You use a barb-less hook, so you have to keep tension on the whole time or you're going to lose it. That one took me 35minutes and we drifted about a mile and a half down river.
Waiting on commercial albacore season in July. Thinking about throwing out a rod and seeing if I can 'accidentally' catch a big shark.
Nice Fish Scotch and when I went out to Tigard a few times, I ALWAYS Stopped at Multnomah Falls. When I retire, I want to live out there.
You should! The gorge is a real nice place, and pretty central to all sorts of things and places.
