Types

• The Ecological Society of America (ESA) lists five varieties of sturgeon that can be found in the United States. This includes the shortnose sturgeon, pallid sturgeon, gulf sturgeon, white sturgeon and Alabama sturgeon. While fishing in the Sacramento River, you'll be fishing for white sturgeon. Green sturgeon may not be kept as they are listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.
  
  

Size Classes

• The Sacramento River has three size classes of sturgeon. A small sturgeon is known as a shaker and is any sturgeon under 46 inches in length. These fish cannot be kept and must be released unharmed. A keeper, as its eponymous name suggests, is a sturgeon of an appropriate length that it can be kept. These fish measure between 46 and 66 inches. The third variety is known as a peeler. This indicates a fish so large that it cannot be effectively fished. These over-sized fish must be also be released unharmed if caught.
  
  

Time Frame

• White sturgeon are at their peak from February to April; however, depending on rainfall and river water levels, it may be successfully caught throughout the year.
  
  

Features

• According to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, "white sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North American and can weigh over 1,500 pounds, be 20 feet in length, and live for over 100 years."
  
  

Permits

• To fish in California, any person who is over the age of 16 must have a fishing license. These can be obtained as long-term licenses for residents or as a short-term single-day license. For the serious fisherman, the state also issues lifetime fishing licenses. You can buy these licenses online through the California Department of Fish and Game.
  
  

Concerns

• According to a report by American Rivers, a leading conservation organization that advocates on behalf of rivers, the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system is the most endangered river of 2009. The continued deterioration of this valuable resource not only threatens the fish that inhabit this river but also the communities that depend on the river for drinking water and agriculture.
  
  

Warning

• A fisherman may only keep one white sturgeon per day and three white sturgeons per year. After these limits have been reached, the fisherman must stop fishing for that season.