For anyone that is interested here's a cut and paste from my FlyBC posting.
I'm a hardcore Sturgeon guy and fish for them more than any other type of fishery the last 5 years. I'm glad to see the closure.
Herrling Island area above and below gets hammered that time of year because that's where the fish are. Most people can have multiple fish days at the bars mentioned. Female Sturgeon hooked multiple times reabsorb their eggs and cannot spawn successfully. These fish aren't fast growing. They don't have the same cycles of Salmon.
Poor spawn rates coupled with dead fish from improper handling, Sturgeon caught in nets that don't survive (look at the Albion and Whonnock test sets), poaching (which is way to common. 2 heads were found of approx a 5ft and 8 ft Sturgeon at the mouth of the Stave River this past Nov. The poachers had hook sets hanging off a net from the train bridge. It was reported )...... are all taking it's toll on these slow reproducing fish. One dead 7 ft Sturgeon is approx 30 - 40 years old. This fishery can't take multiple fish deaths since these fish take so long to acquire their large size. Every fish is important.
I get how this may affect the guides but something has to be done or they will not have a viable fishery in the near future. The added bonus of a June closure would be that many people excluding Guides don't fish the high water. The Fraser is quite imposing during that time of year and imo should be left to people that know the river and high water well.
I would like to see a closure of the wintering holes also from Dec 15 to March 15th. If you know the holes, you can catch fish non stop all day. Most of these fish are small mostly 4ft and under even though you can hook 5-6 ft with the odd larger fish mixed in. Sturgeon can still be caught in the main stem Fraser in the winter but are not as abundant as other seasons. At this time of year the fish are sluggish due to low water temperatures and don't revive as well. You also have higher snag rates since some fish will sit on the food to be eaten later.
In the first year I had my boat I fished a certain wintering hole twice and decided to not do it again for my own ethical reasons. I also won't fish for Sturgeon with water temps under 40 degrees.
I remember in 2015 when we where out Sturgeon fishing towards the end of Dec, we were next to a guide boat with customers. I was talking with the guide later and he said he was involved in a tagging program and that's why he was fishing the wintering holes. Most guides on their sites advertise year round Sturgeon fishing and I was told many of them are tagging that time of year.
This is a very complicated issue. People from all over the world come to BC with their money that supports so many different industries while fishing for these magnificent fish. We need to do more for these bucket list brutes if we want to enjoy them and what they bring to us into the future.
I'm hoping some of the guides will chime in and give us a clearer picture of what they feel needs to be done or changed to make sure we will always have these fish around.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/docs/ws_guidelines.pdfhttps://hctf.ca/sturgeon-handling-video-debut/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg7zC95ei5wIVSx-tBh3dLgVsEAAYASAAEgINhfD_BwE
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Topic: Proposed June sturgeon fishing closure for Lower Fraser River (Read 20093 times)