South San Francisco Bay Sturgeon Try

[Capt Paul]

Did an early trip for some Sturgeon in the South Bay this past Sunday. Had no luck with Strugeon but hooked into a couple of small leopard sharks. I actually hooked up to a couple of seven gill sharks also. The bay is a breading ground for a couple of different species.

[RobS]

My father-in-law pulled in a Sturgeon here on the south shore of Long Island 2 weeks ago while striper fishing - very rare to see. Of course no camera on the boat that day.

BTW, Why do they call that a leaopard shark?

[zinbaad]

wow what a pretty fish those leopards are. I always thought they were a tropical shark. Nice pics

[Capt Ron]

Are sturgeons legal to keep in California? They're endangered on this side of the country (although a friend of mind took one, ignorant of the law, and said it tasted pretty good). I did catch one in the Delaware river with the New Jersey state house in the background. It would've made a great "Welcome to NJ" shot, but no camara on board.

[fuenstock]

Hi Captin Paul,
I'm another California Albin owner, I'm out of Vallejo.
Sturgeon are legal in Ca. slot limits are 46"-66" and 3 per year for each angler. Heres a couple pictures of one I hooked a few weeks ago in the Benicia area.

[jcollins]

Not that I have ever caught one, but how do you enforce a 3 per year limit? Just curious.

Thanks,

[Capt Paul]

John,

Good point and not only that but the slot length itself is hard to enforce. They have a tag system, when you get your license you need to ask for the tags and they are handed out and you license number is recorded. Every fish you keep needs to be tagged and reported. The Department of Fish and game is very active out here and the fines are extremely stiff if caught. Some have jail sentences attached to them. We still have poachers though. Many get arreseted every year.

The DFG wardens often are working in stealth mode. They use high power binoculars from the shore to keep track of what's being caught in the hot sturgeon areas which are generally not to far from shore. They record your boat's registration number and either wait for you at the boat ramp or knock on the front door of your house with a present for you! I just read of a case where a short sturgeon was being cleaned at a boat ramp and the wardens showed up in force. Either it was called in or they had been monitoring them throughout the day from shore.

Paul

[fuenstock]

Yes, the game wardens are in full force in the hot fishing areas here in Ca. On weekends it's common to see wardens go from boat to boat that are out anchored. With in the past 2 months I have been boarded twice by fish and game, and once after I sliped my boat and was walking to my car they were already waiting next to my car to speak with me. They told me they had been watching me the whole time I was fishing and wanted to know If I had seen them watching me, since I looked in there direction a few times. I never did see them. They thanked me and encouraged me to report any poaching, which I would do in a heart beat!
Poaching is a big problem with sturgeon and some other fish here. In San Fransico's black market, a pregnant female sturgeon can be worth $5,000-$10,000 or more for it's caviar! If you got caught it would end you up in prison!

[Mariner]

Not that I have ever caught one, but how do you enforce a 3 per year limit? Just curious.

Thanks,

Catch limits are very common out here on the West coast, and it's pretty much an "on-your-honor" system. Here in WA, I'm not familiar with any yearly limits, but we do have daily limits on just about everything. You get a Catch Record Card with your license. You have to record everything you catch on the card.

The way they make it enforcable is by very strictly punishing you for minor reporting discrepencies. For example, lets say you're allowed four of a particular fish per day. You catch four, but forget the mark the last one down. As you're pulling the boat out at the ramp, an enforcement officers comes over and inspects your catch and notices the discrepency. Even though you have not exceeded your daily limit, you will still be ticketed for not reporting correctly. And god help you if you don't have your license on you while fishing. Most of those type of infractions are relatively minor with only small monetary civil penalties that do not go on your record and do not carry jail time. However, some of the laws are criminal and can in fact land you in jail if you break them.

I have an associate who was fly fishing in one of the rivers here. Apparently it's illegal to fish before sunrise on that particular river. He looked up and saw light in the sky, and figured he was ok. He tossed out his line just as a DFW officer came by. Becuase he tossed his line out 5 minutes before legal sunrise, he was arrested, charged, and booked into the county jail. He posted bail and is currently free, but is likely facing 30 days in jail because it is his third criminal offense. He's hoping that when it goes to court, he will be able to convince the judge to give him some leniancy, but either way, it will cost him thousands.

Most people who break the rules around here do so out of simple ignorance. They don't know the rules, so they don't follow them. Or they run afoul of the letter of the law, while still trying to obey the spirit of it. The one positive in the whole thing is that physical enforcement is minimal and predictable. DFW officers don't generally have boats. They typically hang out at busy launching ramps and simply check every single boat as it comes out of the water. You can usually avoid their prying by simply saying, "I didn't fish today". So long as they don't actually see you carrying a dead fish up the ramp, they usually just say thank you and go on to the next guy (I think that by saying you didn't fish, you eliminate their probable cause to check your boat). They seem to focus MUCH more on fresh waterways than salt. In 25 years of boating on Puget Sound, I've only seen a DFW boat once, and he was actually working a line of his own at the time. If you depart from a private marina or dock, there is generally no chance of being checked. They seem to keep busy enough just responding to specific reports or complaints of poaching. I once saw someone crabbing off the dock in front my office on a day when the season was closed. I called it in, and the next day, the officer was there, checking it out. Of course, the crabber wasn't.

That said, I still do my best to follow the letter of the law, and always respect the spirit of it. Their goal is to preserve the fisheries for future generations, and I am 100% in support of that.

[jcollins]

Huge difference around here. All my years of striper fishing maybe boarded twice. They asked to see the catch, talked a bit to be sure we weren't drinking too much and we were done. We had a rockfish mortorium a few years ago and at that time there were some very stiff penalties for going over the limit. I heard stories of high fines and boats being impounded. Since I have never trailered I don't know if they hang around the launch ramps. We catch our limit and go home. No big deal. No cards or records. <yet> Even in casual conversation I never hear about anyone catching over the limit. I'm sure guys are out there but I've never met anyone that bragged about it.
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/re ... gchrt.html

I don't think I'll complain as much after hearing about your rules.