The Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis), a flagship species of the Yangtze River, has suffered a dramatic population decline after the construction of the Gezhouba Dam. Currently, its natural reproduction has been disrupted for several years, with the migratory breeding group less than 20 individuals, placing the survival of the natural population in jeopardy. The release of artificially bred individuals has become a crucial measure to sustain the Chinese sturgeon population and facilitate its sustainable population recovery in the wild. However, the current approach to selecting release candidates and locations remains somewhat arbitrary. A fundamental question remains unresolved: Can Chinese sturgeons that have not undergone the downstream migration process from spawning grounds to the ocean during their larval and juvenile stages successfully initiate reproductive migration and navigate back to the spawning grounds on reaching sexual maturity. To investigate this, the current study analyzed release experiments involving Chinese sturgeons in the Yangtze River Estuary. In these experiments, we employed satellite tagging (Pop-up Archival Tags, PAT) to track the artificially bred adult and sub-adult Chinese sturgeons’ migration patterns. The findings indicate that, from 2004 to 2021, a total of 13204 Chinese sturgeons (including natural individuals and artificially bred individuals) were released into the Yangtze River Estuary, in which there were 665 artificially bred adult and sub-adult Chinese sturgeons (aged over three years). Of these, 71 were equipped with PAT tags, and data from 42 of these tags were successfully retrieved. Crucially, among the 21 individuals older than 10 years with valid PAT monitoring data, three exhibited upstream migration behavior along the Yangtze River. These findings suggest that the downstream migration experience during early life stages may not be a prerequisite for upstream migration in sexually mature Chinese sturgeons. To further validate this conclusion and gain a deeper understanding of the breeding migration process following release, more rigorous and detailed experimental research is urgently needed.