Re: Really ugly fish.
I've had them smoked, the old fashioned way.<br />Very tasty for a 20, 30, 50? year old fish.<br /><br />Makes good caviar too.<br /><br />From Harborside.com<br />"This is a brute of a fish, capable of growing to 16 feet or longer and weighing more than 1,500 pounds. It's a slow grower, though, and often a late breeder, characteristics that call for special measures to assure the survival of the species. "<br /><br />"White sturgeon grow slowly but live long. Although growth rates vary from one estuary to another, most young fish grow to about 20 inches in five years and add two inches in length each following year, to about age 35. After that, they grow more in bulk than length. <br /><br />Spawning in fresh water, usually in May or June, 35-pound females lay nearly 700,000 eggs, while the largest specimens of 800 pounds or more can produce three to four million eggs, with a mass weight exceeding 200 pounds. Poor parents, the adults leave eggs unattended and let young fend for themselves. <br /><br />Juveniles consume mainly insect larvae, mysid shrimp, tiny crustaceans, mollusks, and other freshwater and marine invertebrates. After about five years, their preference turns to fish, which then make up about half their diet. <br /><br />Male white sturgeon mature sexually any time between 11 and 22 years of age, females between 26 and 34. They survive spawning and may reproduce several times during their lives, although intervals between spawning get longer as the fish age. While younger females spawn every four years, older fish might spawn only once every decade. So it's important to protect the brood stock. <br /><br />Toward that end, Oregon enforces strict size and catch limits, permitting anglers to keep two sturgeon a day: one between 40 and 48 inches, and one between 48 and 72 inches. Larger or smaller fish must be released unharmed. <br /><br />Old photographs survive showing white sturgeon so big they had to be hauled out of the water with block and tackle or teams of mules. Many fish of 800 to 1,000 pounds or more were caught around the turn of the century. By the 1920s the biggest breeders were gone. <br /><br />Sturgeon of such huge size have lived for 60 to 80 years or more, so replenishing the brood stock is a slow process. Protecting them and the estuaries they depend on is essential if these great fish are to survive."
I do hear they put on a show when you are pulln them in...How much did the big one hit the scales at?
