Dino heaven!!!!

This is Kunz porn if there ever was...holy cow!....http://blog.oregonlive.com/multimedia/2008/05/sturgeon_swirl_by_the_thousand.html

Damn... Oregon and washington rock..

What is the story on that?  I mean, I watched the video but stacked up like that?  What causes them to do that?

Now that the world knows, the fishing pressure will be over the top.  

Michael

No one really knows why they're stacking up like that.  My guess is that they just want to keep swimming upstream but the Army Corp put a dam in the way.  Anyway, the ball of sturgeon is actually in a no-fish zone right next to the dam so I wouldn't worry about people fishing right there.  As for the general area, yep it's pretty heavily fished but with the strict slot limit and barbless hook requirement the fishery is doing pretty well.  In fact, sturgeon are the only species in Oregon you can legally keep fishing for after you keep your limit.  There's even guided trips to catch oversized strugeon in the 7-12 ft range.

I've yet to catch a legal sized sturgeon up here, but I've caught about 20 of them in the 20-40 inch range in only a few trips right near downtown Portland on the Willamette River. 

Brian

Very cool info, thanks Brian.  Glad to hear that they are not in immediate danger.  No fish ladder for them though?

Michael

There is a huge ladder there, but it was designed for salmonids.  I know they occassionally get sturgeon that pass through it, but that dogpile is indicative of a barrier issue.

http://www.katu.com/news/outdoors/19035294.html?video=pop&t=a

Here is the other clip I found.

Awesome!  Wow!  I was tripping on the huge one laying on its back from 46-53 seconds on Sean's link - they seemed to ram it with the camera to see if it was dead, and it wasn't!  Then from 2:57 to 3:13 you can see a huge head on the left side of the screen, upper middle.  That could be the same fish - compared to fish all around it it's massive.  Totally cool.  Can you imagine having the balls and the bright idea to go scuba diving there?!  That'd be such a shocker.     pao's TV news clip was excellent followup - great stuff.   

According to the 2nd clip, some as big as 14'!         WOW!!! 

Michael