JEM Watercraft

Afternoon off: Check
Below Freezing Temperatures: Check
Wide open wind swept body of water: Check
Frozen hands, a$$, and thighs: Check

Worth it? As they say in the land of my birth, "Ya, you betcha!"

I got off work later than I had hoped and got on the water at about 2:30 ish. I saw another NWKAer up river from the launch, so I paddled up to say hi. You can see him behind me in the orange kayak. As you can see, he chose a sunny spot out of the wind. He was much smarter than I.


Due to the fact all the nice holes on the sunny side of the river were taken, I paddled back to the west side of the river by the launch. By the time I was set up and anchored it was 3:00. I was getting nibbles, missing hook sets, and feeding several sand shrimp and night crawlers to something. Finally, at about 3:45 pm, I hooked into this friendly little shaker. I was actually disappointed when he surfaced because he fought very hard for his size, so I expected him to be larger. Luckily, I had turned on my GoPro video camera just before catching him so I could pull some photos from the video.







I called it quits a little after 4:00. By the time I got up to the parking lot my wheel ez straps were frozen to the yak.

Here you can see the water drops that had frozen


I may brave it again tomorrow. They only are allowing 2550 fish to be harvested this season and last weekend (the opening of the season) well over 1000 were caught. Tomorrow may be the last day.

Despite the cold it looks like you had a good day.

1000 fish in 1 weekend. How many fishermen????

1000 fish in 1 weekend. How many fishermen????

Probably at least that many. The limit is one keeper size (38-54 inch slot) per day/ person. The fishery is easily accessible to 1.7 million people (of course, not all are fishermen) because it flows down the middle of the Portland metro area with many boat launch sites on each side of the river.

I had a blast today. Now I just have to convince myself to get up early and try again tomorrow. I have never caught a keeper sized fish when it was legal to retain one. You can catch and release 7 days a week year round. They are supposed to be one of the best tasting fish, so I would really like to catch one and try it.

Just Googled the river on the net & looks like quite a big river.


Where I live it would be lucky to be 500 000 people in the whole state.

G'Day Craig, good luck with catching that 'keeper'. You will have earned it. It's hard to contemplate the temperatures you fellas in the southern and northern climes deal with to go fishing. ‘round here we generally put clothes on to stop sun-burn

Hope you get one soon….

PiratePete wrote:Just Googled the river on the net & looks like quite a big river.


Where I live it would be lucky to be 500 000 people in the whole state.

It is one of the larger tributaries of the Columbia River. It has a very diverse fishery. There are salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, small mouth bass, walleye, and shad (herring). When it warms up, I try for some bass. Next, on the agenda is the Spring run of salmon. At least I will be warm for that since it is all trolling/paddling.

Whirly wrote:G'Day Craig, good luck with catching that 'keeper'. You will have earned it. It's hard to contemplate the temperatures you fellas in the southern and northern climes deal with to go fishing. ‘round here we generally put clothes on to stop sun-burn

Hope you get one soon….

I forgot the wool socks today and after seven hours, I couldn't feel my feet.

And all I got for it was one fish that was even smaller than the one I caught yesterday. Still beats working.




It was so cold, I had to throw another coat on over the life vest.

Mate, you're dedicated, I'll give you that....it's gotta pay off one of these times.
They are a wierd looking fish- what poundage line do you use? I know those things can get to a monsterous size and some of the close-up shots show what looks like cordage, or braid line- is that for a leader?... and by the way, who took your pics this time? or did you set up a camera out-rigger

As for line size, I have been using 50 pound braid with a 100 pound dacron leader about 18 inches in length. Sturgeon are not leader-shy, which is helpful. They were pre-made leaders tied to barbless hooks (too lazy to tie my own )which is why they are so much heavier than the line. Also, the bottom is pretty rocky. I have been using a larger saltwater spinning reel. I have a heavier set-up with 65 pound line, but I wasn't targeting the over-sized sturgeon so I went with the lighter set-up.

I had called it quits and paddled back to shore to load up. My kayak fell off the wheel-ez cart when another kayaker I knew had caught one. He yelled at me at the launch and I decided that the Sabalo did not want to go home, which is why she jumped off the cart. I went back out and hooked up next to him on his anchor and we started getting bites. That's when I caught the little guy. The other guy took the picture. Here is one of him with his little sturgeon. They appear to be smiling at each other.

Also, I plan on making a camera out -rigger for when I am by myself. I will probably start on it today.

I sure envy you on the fishing but not on that weather , this old southern boy would be frozen. Probably not even be able to be thawed out till the end of summer.

Chuck.