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Sturgeon Report Card

Fishing for White Sturgeon is catch and release only, no harvest is permitted.

white sturgeon under water

Sturgeon Fishing Report Cards (Cards) are an integral part of Department and legislative efforts to reduce the illegal commercialization of sturgeon. Cards provide critical data on catch and (prior to CESA candidacy) harvest that enable the Department to make informed fisheries management decisions surrounding White Sturgeon and federally threatened Green Sturgeon populations. While Card reporting is legally mandated for all anglers targeting White Sturgeon, it also serves as one of the most important actions anglers can take towards conserving these species.

Fees and information on the Report Card and other California sturgeon fishing regulations may be found on our Regulations page.

Program Overview

CDFW Biologists tagging a white sturgeon and recording data

The California Sturgeon Report Card program was initiated in 2007 to help CDFW gather good quality data about the White Sturgeon recreational fishery. The Report Card gives us information on things like how many anglers are fishing for sturgeon, how many fish are caught per year, and how any are released vs. kept for the table (when harvest was permitted). This is some of the most useful information we can get, and we use it to help monitor the fishery and determine how much fishing pressure the population is experiencing. Filling in the Report Card completely and returning it on time are some of the most important things anglers can do to help CDFW manage these fish and keep them around forever.

Card Purchasing and Reporting

Fishing for White Sturgeon is catch and release only.

Report Cards may be purchased online or wherever fishing licenses are sold. Cards are good for the White Sturgeon fishing season, from October 1 to June 30. You must have a Report Card with you if you are fishing for sturgeon. Anglers must return their completed Report Cards, or submit the information online, by July 31 after the Report Card expires. Prior to purchasing your sturgeon report card you must have a valid sport fishing license.

Note: Prior to 9 September 2025, Report Cards ran on the calendar year (January 1 to December 31) and needed to be reported by January 31 after they expired.  Anglers that have already purchased a 2025 Report Card before the regulations changed may either 1) acquire a new 2025-2026 season card immediately for no fee, or 2) continue to fish with the old card until it expires and then aquire the new card for the rest of the fishing season.

Where to Purchase

Online(opens in new tab) License Agents(opens in new tab) CDFW Offices(opens in new tab)

POSSESSION OF A STURGEON REPORT CARD IS REQUIRED OF ANY ANGLER FISHING FOR WHITE STURGEON IN ALL CALIFORNIA WATERS

How to Report

Reporting Period for 2025-2026 season cards: July 1 - July 31, 2026

Reporting Period for 2025 annual cards: January 1 - 31, 2026
RETURNING YOUR REPORT CARD IS MANDATORY

Report Your Catch Online (preferred)(opens in new tab)

Or report your catch by mail to the address listed on the report card.

Regulations at a glance

Species Restrictions

  • White Sturgeon are a candidate for listing as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. Fishing for White Sturgeon is catch and release only, no harvest is permitted.
  • Green Sturgeon are listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act and take is prohibited.

Bag Limits

  • No sturgeon of any kind may be kept.

Size Limits

  • No sturgeon of any kind may be kept. Removing a White Sturgeon larger than 60 inches FL, or any Green Sturgeon, from the water is prohibited

Gear Restrictions

  • Only one single point, single shank, barbless hook may be used when fishing for sturgeon
  • White Sturgeon must voluntarily take the bait or lure inside its mouth
  • No sturgeon may be taken by trolling, snagging, or by the use of firearms
  • Sturgeon may not be gaffed or snared.
  • Note: hooks with a gap larger than 1 inch may not be used in waters east (inland) of the I-680 Benicia-Martinez Bridge. Some sturgeon tackle sold for ocean waters may exceed this size limit.

Additional information on the Report Card and other freshwater and saltwater California sturgeon fishing regulations may be found at our Fisheries Regulations page.

Areas off-limits to sturgeon fishing

Please consult current fishing regulations for full details about the White Sturgeon catch and release fishery.

Map showing season and area closures for catch and release White Sturgeon fishing

It is illegal to fish for Green Sturgeon in California. Any Green Sturgeon caught must be kept in the water and released immediately.

Filling out your Sturgeon Report Card

If you did not fish -- we need to know!

  • If you did not fish for sturgeon, please mark the 'Did Not Fish' check box

If you caught sturgeon

  • Fill in a line for every location code in which you fished that day. If you moved to multiple locations in a day, you must a lines for each location code.
  • Do not write the lengths of fish caught. Just provide a tally of the number caught in each of the four categories: White Sturgeon less than 40 in. FL, 40-60 in. FL, greater than 60 in. FL, or all Green Sturgeon.
  • If you fished but did not catch any sturgeon, you must still fill in the card. Enter the other information requested for each day and location where you fished.

Example of New Sturgeon Report Card

Example of season-based sturgeon report card that has been correctly filled in after fishing on one day in two locations
On March 17, 2026, you went fishing for sturgeon in Suisun Bay and caught one White Sturgeon between 40-60 inches FL that you released. After two hours, you moved into Grizzly Bay where you fished for four hours. While there, you caught two White Sturgeon under 40 inches FL that you landed to the boat and released. You also caught a Green Sturgeon that you released in the water. The card represents the correct reporting of this example. (MM = month, DD = day, LC = location code, HF = hours fished, WS = White Sturgeon, GS = Green Sturgeon)

Example of 2025 Calendar Year Card

sturgeon report card with information filled in according to the example provided
On April 7, 2025, you went fishing for sturgeon near the mothball fleet in Suisun Bay and caught two White Sturgeon that you released. One fish measured 51” fork length and possessed the CDFW disk-tag HH3356, and the untagged fish measured 55” fork length. The card represents the correct reporting of this example.

Report a lost or stolen card

If your Sturgeon Report Card has been lost or stolen, you may purchase a new card online or at a report card vendor.  Data from the old card should not be copied to the new card. Instead, either report that information for the lost card, to the best of your recollection, online at the end of the fishing season (July 1 through July 31) or submit an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, to a CDFW license sales office containing the following information:

  • The report card holder's full name, GOID#, and a statement confirming that the originally issued report card is lost and cannot be recovered.
  • A statement containing the report card holder's best recollection of the prior catch records that were entered on the report card that was lost.
  • A statement describing the factual circumstances surrounding the loss of the report card. 

Report poaching

Poaching, or illegal harvest, remains a serious concern for California sturgeon. Not only do poachers take more sturgeon than legally permitted, they usually specifically target the largest spawning females in order to produce valuable caviar. When fish grow, they produce exponentially more eggs than smaller fish, so a large, older female may contain many times the eggs of a first-time spawner. The survival of large females is critical in order to reproduce the next generations of sturgeon and maintain the population.

Any suspected illegal activity can be reported confidentially to the CalTIP (Californians Turn In Poachers and Polluters) program. Call 1-888-334-CalTIP (888-334-2258) or text anonymously to "CALTIP", followed by a space and the message, to 847411 (tip411).

Anglers may also download the free CALTIP smartphone App for Android or Apple phones.

For more details about CalTIP, visit the CDFW CalTIP page.


Card Data Results

Anglers are required to return Sturgeon Cards in January of the following year (by mail or using the online reporting system; see the "Purchase & Report" tab for more details). After January 31, we compile all Card data from the previous year and produce an annual technical report. The resulting report summarizes data from the previous Card year for comparison with past Card years. This allows us to document trends in sturgeon catch, harvest, and angler participation in the fishery. Visit our Bibliography page for access to the most recent report (PDF)(opens in new tab), as well as past reports.

The following tabs display graphs for various analyses of Card data, along with explanations for each plot.

Annual Sturgeon Card Purchases

Graph of annual sturgeon card purchases.
The figure above shows the trend in annual Sturgeon report card purchases over time. Sturgeon cards were issued free of charge at the onset of the program in 2007, evidenced by the increase in card purchases until a $8 fee was implemented in 2012. Since the incorporation of a fee, it is apparent that anglers have become more selective in the additional tags purchased with a fishing license.

Kept vs. Released Sturgeon

Graph of the annual percent of reported White Sturgeon catch that is kept versus released.
For every sturgeon caught, anglers must record whether or not the fish was kept (and thus harvested) or released. This plot describes the percent of catch reported as ‘kept’ vs ‘released’ as a fraction of the total caught. In other words, this plot answers the questions: “Out of the total number of White Sturgeon caught each year, what portion is kept by anglers? What portion is released?” The lines represent the trend in catch across the two groups over time, and the r2 values are a statistical measure that describes how well the lines fit (or represent) the data. The closer an r2 value is to 1, the better the fit. The p value of < 0.5 indicates that there is a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of catch that is released, suggesting that overtime, anglers are harvesting more White Sturgeon relative to the total amount caught. However, this trend was not observed in 2023, resulting in poor regression fit (r2 = 0.34).

Catch by Size Category

Bar graph of the proportion of total reported catch by size category, including under-sized, legal-sized, and over-sized.
In 2023, the fraction of reported catch that was kept was 21.4% compared to the long-term average of 32.5%. To better understand the factors driving this observation, we first looked at the size composition of reported catch. This plot shows that there was a relatively high proportion of sub-legal (“under-sized”) catch (light green bar; < 40 inches Jan 1- November 15th, < 42 inches November 16- December 31) and over-sized catch (dark green bar, > 60 inches Jan - November 15th, > 48 inches November 16 – December 31) observed in 2023, which likely explains the decrease in the proportion of harvested catch. Additionally, emergency regulations (in effect starting November 16, 2023) enforced a narrower slot limit, decreased the annual bag limit, and established a vessel take limit during months with historically high catch (November-December, see Section “Catch by Location and Month”), which may have also contributed to decreases in reported harvest.

White Sturgeon Catch

Graph of the average percent of all anglers that report catching White Sturgeon (kept or released).
Not all anglers that target White Sturgeon are successful in catching them. This plots shows the average percent of reporting anglers that catch 0- 15+ sturgeon. Calculations were made using data only from anglers that expended fishing effort (i.e., does not include anglers that did not fish). On average, most anglers (74%) that fish for sturgeon do not catch any. 1-2 fish are caught by an average of 19% of reporting anglers, and even fewer (less than 7%) catch 3 or more sturgeon.

Catch by Harvest Level

Graph of the annual proportion of all reporting anglers that keep 0, 1, 2, or 3 White Sturgeon. ‘No Effort’ denotes anglers reporting ‘did not fish.’
Anglers participate in the sturgeon fishery at various harvest levels. The plot above describes the fraction (ie. proportion) of reporting anglers that keep 0-3 fish (3 being the annual limit) or do not fish at all. The color associated with ‘Kept 0’ takes up most of space within each bar on the plot. This means that each year, the majority of reporting anglers keep 0 fish (on average, 53.3%). The next dominant color block belongs to the ‘No Effort’ category. On average, 35.1% of reporting anglers do not end up fishing for sturgeon. Those that report keeping one fish make up, on average, 8.7% of all reporting anglers. Some keep two fish (less than 3.2%), and less than 1% of the total reporting anglers keep the annual bag limit of three fish (prior to emergency regulations of one fish annual limit).
*NOTE: Prior to the the implementation of emergency regulations in November 2023, anglers were permitted to keep up to three fish per year. From November 2023 through July 12, 2024, Card Holders were limited to harvesting one fish per year under emergency regulations. On July 12, 2024, White Sturgeon became a candidate species for listing under the California Endangered Species Act and were granted full protections during the review process. Fishing for White Sturgeon is currently closed throughout the state.

Catch by Month

Graph of the mean annual percent of White Sturgeon catch by month, vertical bars represent standard deviation.
The figure above describes trends in reported catch as a fraction of the total caught (represented as a percent) for each month, averaged across all years. The vertical bars represent the standard deviation of the average value (the points on the plot), which describes the variability in the individual data values compared to the average. A longer bar means a wider range of reported catch values for that month over time, while a shorter bar indicates a smaller range of catch values for that month over time. We see that highest catch of White Sturgeon typically occurs in the late fall through the early spring, while lowest catch occurs in the late spring through the summer. An important caveat to note is that this analysis does not take fishing effort into account. This means that higher catch in the late fall/ early spring could be simply due to anglers fishing more often during those months, and less during late spring/ summer. However, these trends coincide with the timing of sturgeon spawning migrations into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and lower rivers, which could be linked to higher observed reported catch by anglers in the winter and spring.

Sturgeon Identification Tips

Green Sturgeon

  • Olive green with dark stripe on sides and belly
  • Barbels closer to mouth
  • 33 or fewer sharp lateral (side) scutes
  • Scutes behind vent
  • Vent between pelvic fins

White Sturgeon

  • Gray with pale belly
  • Barbels closer to tip of snout
  • 36 or more dull lateral (side) scutes
  • No scutes behind vent
  • Vent behind pelvic fins
white and green sturgeon
Photos courtesy NOAA Fisheries.

Sturgeon Report Card Map

Map of Sturgeon Report Card location codes - link opens in new window
Go to interactive map for further details on fishing regions and catch analytics. Scroll down for numerical code definitions.
Card Code Card Description
1 Sacramento River: Red Bluff to Colusa (2007-2009)
01A Sacramento River: Upstream of Red Bluff (closed area, not labeled on map)
01B Sacramento River: Red Bluff to Hwy 32 bridge (closed area, not labeled on map)
01C Sacramento River: Hwy 32 bridge to Colusa
2 Sacramento River: Colusa to Knights Landing
3 Sacramento River: Knights Landing to Rio Vista
4 Sacramento River: Rio Vista to Chipps Island
5 Feather River
6 American River
7 Sacramento Deepwater Ship Channel
8 Yolo Bypass
9 Montezuma Slough
10 Napa River
11 Petaluma River
12 San Joaquin River: Upstream of HWY 140 bridge
13 San Joaquin River: HWY 140 bridge to Stockton
14 San Joaquin River: Stockton to Sherman Lake
15 Old River
16 San Pablo Bay
17 Carquinez Strait
18 Suisun Bay
19 Grizzly Bay
20 San Francisco Bay: North of HWY 80
21 San Francisco Bay: South of HWY 80
22 Pacific Ocean: North of Golden Gate Bridge
23 Pacific Ocean: Golden Gate Bridge to Point Sur
24 Pacific Ocean: Point Sur to San Diego
25 Any reservoir or lake (not labeled on map)
26 Klamath River (closed area, not labeled on map)

Contact

For more information about the Sturgeon Report Card, email Sturgeon@wildlife.ca.gov.

Related Information

Visit the below links to learn more about White Sturgeon biology, fishing for White Sturgeon, and seasonal closures.

Fisheries Branch
Branch Chief: Jay Rowan
1010 Riverside Parkway, West Sacramento, CA 95605
Fisheries@wildlife.ca.gov