New rules take effect Monday, March 1st; the lower Columbia 2010 sport sturgeon season will unfold this way:
From Buoy 10 near Ilwaco upstream to the Wauna power lines opens May 22 to June 26 seven days a week to retention of white sturgeon from 41 to 54 inches long. A catch and release requirement governs sturgeon encounters in this reach outside the kill fishery period.
To determine the length of a sturgeon for retention purposes, anglers should measure the fish from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail between the two lobes. That’s called the ‘fork length’. The former standard was the overall length from the snout to the upper tail lobe tip.
Anglers should also note that for the first time a quota restriction has been applied to the sturgeon fishery on the lower Willamette River wholly under Oregon’s jurisdiction and the mid-Willamette also will get a new no-sturgeon-fishing sanctuary below Willamette Falls.
Green sturgeon found in the Columbia River and elsewhere in Washington waters are protected by state and federal laws.
Read the full story, by Doug Huddle, at the Bellingham Herald.
