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. 
You should! The gorge is a real nice place, and pretty central to all sorts of things and places.
I've often contemplated doing some spearing . It's only allowed on a few lakes here, and I live about a mile from the shore of one of them. I also have friends that do it, so it would be easy to go, I just haven't done it. I'm always busy with my falconry at that time of year...
They drag shanties out on the ice, and use chainsaws to cut large rectangular holes (bath-tub size at least). They then shove the ice block (2 feet thick, and too heavy to lift out...) down under the ice, and to one side. That's dangerous, as the block can shift suddenly, and flip/rotate over. If it does that while your pushing down, and you fall in, the "door" will shut over the top of you...
They then drag the shanty over the hole, and in the dark shanty you can see very clearly under the ice (if there's no sediment suspended in the water). They then drop pre-measured pieces of white PVC pipe down on the bottom of the lake. They can see that, and use it as a size-reference to judge fish that swim through the area... They have fish-shaped lures that they jiggle and bounce to attract the sturgeon (curiousity, they don't come in to eat it, hehe) and then they try to hit it with a pitch-fork sized multi-pronged spear.
Sounds cool, and also very boring. Imagine staring at a hole all day, and seeing nothing. Then, when you rub your eyes, you see the tail of the sturgeon as it passes by... The season lasts until a quota of adult females is reached, or until the last day allowed. They almost always shut down early, because the quota is reached. Lots of fish in the 5-6 foot range are harvested. They're harvested for meat, and many are smoked, or cut into steaks, or both.
Did you see the episode where Babe Winkelman (?) fought the sturgeon in a belly-boat? That looked like fun!
