2-28 SS Sturgeon Fishing

 A Twin Falls fish producer is an expert on sturgeon and caviar. Leo Ray says that sturgeon meat is delicious and I had heard rumors: “Can a sport fisherman keep a sturgeon or is it all catch and release? “It’s all catch and release.If we go back, I moved to Idaho and 1973 and you could keep anything that was over 3 feet and less than 6 feet because they were not of reproductive age yet. Then they closed that and made it all catch and release. I have no doubt in my mind that the sturgeon in the Snake River now would be on the endangered species list and there would be no catch and release or anything. They were dying in the river. The habitat had changed to the point that they were not surviving. As a result, the population was in decline. By raising them in a hatchery and getting them past that stage they have done very well. Now Fish and game has stocked sturgeon in the Snake River between Shoshone Falls and the American Falls reservoir. They cannot get up above the reservoir. They have done so well in there that the story is that they are ready to do a tag system like the deer tag system and allow people to start keeping Sturgeon from that stretch of the river.”