Willamette River Sturgeon Fishing
Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 3:36 pm
It was the opening day for sturgeon keepers on Thursday, and it was supposed to be sunny and close to 70 degrees F. It would have been criminal to work, so I took the day off. I am sure glad I did. Between 3 of us on kayaks, we got 18 sturgeon. Unfortunately, none were inside the slot limit (38-54 inches), so no sturgeon steaks for us. We had one sturgeon, approximately 8 feet in length jump in between us. It was cool, but it would have been a bad thing if it would have landed on one of us. Using the weight to length chart (http://www.riverfishingbc.com/WhiteStru ... eChart.pdf), an 8 footer weighs about 276 lbs.
The biggest I caught was about 30 inches. I didn't have a camera so I couldn't get a close-up shot so one of the other guys took a shot. Its only about halfway out of the water because we did a quick photo and release.
We were fishing in about 90-100 feet of water. There are several really deep holes in the river like this where most of the sediment is washed out down to the basalt rock bottom. I took these shots with the camera on my phone. I had forgot about the phone cam until after I caught my fish.
This is the only one we took out of the water to measure because it was close to the slot limit. It was about 37 inches. We usually won't keep them unless they are at least an inch over the minimum just to be safe.
The power boaters were wondering what we were fishing for. They couldn't believe that we were fishing for sturgeon, until I yanked one up in front of them while they were talking to us. They said they would love to see us try to catch an over sized sturgeon. I explained to them that I know two people who have and its actually easier on a kayak. You can't remove them from the water so being lower its easier to get the hook out and the kayak is like a built in drag system. You just reel yourself to the fish rather than muscling it back to the boat. I guess people don't realize that the Inuit used to whale off these little boats.
Here are three oversized that some fellow NWKAs have caught up here in the Oregon and Washington within the last year.
The biggest I caught was about 30 inches. I didn't have a camera so I couldn't get a close-up shot so one of the other guys took a shot. Its only about halfway out of the water because we did a quick photo and release.
We were fishing in about 90-100 feet of water. There are several really deep holes in the river like this where most of the sediment is washed out down to the basalt rock bottom. I took these shots with the camera on my phone. I had forgot about the phone cam until after I caught my fish.
This is the only one we took out of the water to measure because it was close to the slot limit. It was about 37 inches. We usually won't keep them unless they are at least an inch over the minimum just to be safe.
The power boaters were wondering what we were fishing for. They couldn't believe that we were fishing for sturgeon, until I yanked one up in front of them while they were talking to us. They said they would love to see us try to catch an over sized sturgeon. I explained to them that I know two people who have and its actually easier on a kayak. You can't remove them from the water so being lower its easier to get the hook out and the kayak is like a built in drag system. You just reel yourself to the fish rather than muscling it back to the boat. I guess people don't realize that the Inuit used to whale off these little boats.
Here are three oversized that some fellow NWKAs have caught up here in the Oregon and Washington within the last year.
The waves hit me broadside and I never once felt like I was going into the drink. Of course I leaned into them a bit, just in case.