Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum - Should we be fishing for Sturgeon in Alberta?

Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum (http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/index.php)

- Fishing Discussion (http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/forumdisplay.php?f=4)

- - Should we be fishing for Sturgeon in Alberta? (http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=341309)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SKSniper (Post 3754342)

You are fishing bad spots then. I have no issues hooking 50+ a year.

Not so. I have watched lots of sturgeon breaching the waters where I fished. As mentioned I have fished for years between Nordegg and Fort Saskatchewan. I have seen several caught by other anglers in the lower reach and know a few good 'holes' that are would produce sturgeon. I have been quite content catching pike up to 28 lb. and up to 14 lb. walleye. And those weren't caught on pic rigs, but my own lures.
I'm sure if I would have rigged up for the sturgeon I would have caught several too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eggy (Post 3753529)

While fishing for sturgeon always catch more walleye and gold eye than sturgeon. Would be impossible to charge someone for fishing for sturgeon, they could just say they were targeting a different species. The only way to to it would be a total closure of the river and nobody wants that

I find the opposite on the SK side of the North Sask river. I have caught more sturgeon on a pickerel rig when targeting walleye than I have walleye in the few outings I have made to the river.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Bullets (Post 3753454)

So, I'm not playing the devil's advocate but have a question....

In Alberta sturgeon fishing is closed and yet quite a few people still go fishing for them. The reason I am wondering about fishing for them is because in reading one of the Western Canadian Game Warden magazines it mentions that in the other western provinces with sturgeon closures they do not even allow people to rig up or target sturgeon.

So, why are alberta anglers fishing specifically for sturgeon while Alberta has a recovery program and there are no sturgeon licences issued? How are these sturgeon anglers truly helping the recovery program? Should sturgeon even be targeted?

Some may say catch and release is not that harmful to the fish but that is not the point. The point is sturgeon fishing is closed. It is not a catch and release season like Alberta has at certain waters for other fish species.

IMO we do need to show some constraint for the benefit of the fish, the recovery program and the possibility of having this fishery in the future. To me it seems sort of selfish of the anglers that specifically target sturgeon during this closure.
This is only my opinion but I think these questions could make for a good discussion on the forum. Not to divide us but to talk about it.

I agree with you and have personally chosen not to target sturgeon for this reason.

While catch and release can certainly keep more fish in a system compared to catch and keep it is not with out consequences.

There certainly is some mortality involved with catch and release but even more so might be the other possible effects.

Certainly more research would be need to know for sure what the effects are. One careful study, in Germany on pike from a lake, indicated that the pike that were caught and released had a 40% decreased growth rate. Now I don't know if that would be true for sturgeon or not but I can't help to think that if it is indeed true decreasing growth by 40% each season would indeed have a major effect on recover of a fishery.

Hence why I have personally chosen not to target them.