I was fishing there Tuesday - and the pix Masin posted were also sent to me by my mom. One of her other fishin' buddies is the one who took those pictures. There were half a dozen folks out there Tuesday and Wednesday who said they witnessed the fish come up into the shallows.
I've heard stories about sturgeon in Hagg ever since I was a kid - been fishing there now for 30+ years. I have hooked fish in that lake that snapped 8lb test line like it was nothing, and I've busted off 12lb line on fish like it was nothing - both times fishing worms on the bottom in deep water. There have been big fish of all varieties taken from that lake - there's been big cats pulled out, a number of record bass, huge trout, an uncle of mine even pulled a 13 inch yellow perch out of there once (yes, I saw the fish - my grand dad and I were in the boat with him) - and it's not impossible at all for someone to plant them in there - either by retaining fish caught elsewhere and transplanting them, or by introducing them as babies. There was an aquarium supplier on Farmington Rd. in Aloha that had a pair of sturgeon in their pond in their back yard, and they had a 50 gallon tank full of baby sturgeon for sale - hundreds of baby sturgies in that tank. It would've been nothing to buy a few dozen and release them - and it's possible someone did. My grandparents had a friend when I was growing up that had property out near Buxton, and he had transplanted sturgeon into his ponds - they were his pets. One of his pets was 8 feet long.
The fish in the picture appears to be about 6 feet, judging by the average size of the rip rap along Hagg's dam.
I guess unless you see the fish with your own eyes, or it gets caught and kept in front of witnesses there will always be suspicion about it. ODFW still tows the line that there are zero Kokes in Hagg - but I've pulled a handful of them out of that lake over the years since I was a kid, and know others who have as well. Government agencies don't like to admit to their "mistakes" so if a stocking truck full of kokes accidentally got dumped in there years back, or some kokes wound up in a rainbow tank somehow - so what, right?
The only bad part about sturgeon being in hagg is that it means the bucket biology brigade won't stop messing with things.
To say that sturgeon never would've been in the streams, or never could've gotten there - I don't know about that. Scoggins Creek feeds the Tualatin - and there are sturgeon in the Tualatin - though they are rarely caught. There would be little stopping a sturgeon from going all the way up to Lee Falls on the Tualatin, and there are no impassable water falls on Scoggins Creek to keep a sturgeon at bay. There are coho salmon and steelhead that spawn in the spillway of Scoggins Dam - a treat to witness. Scoggins Dam was originally supposed to have a fish ladder but the feds cheaped out and didn't build it - if they did we'd have runs of steelhead and salmon up into Sain and Scoggins creek - and an interesting salmon fishery in the lake for sure.
That sturgeon being in there might make me break down and get my 2 rod endorsement this year, and keep a "meat line" out while I'm tossing lures for bass or panfish. I'm thinking a standard slider rig with a big hook and a hunk of herring, shad, or a perch fillet would be just the ticket if that fish is in the mood to eat. I"d probably spool up with 50lb braid and run a 15-20lb flourocarbon leader for good measure. I'd be a hoot to get that fish for sure.
opcorn: