I was on the Columbia recently with a buddy doing some sturgeon fishing. We were after keepers but tied into a bigger fish. Broke the rod holders internal stops and just [peeled line. I thought it was a stump rolling the bottom at first.

We fought it for over an hour in deep and fast water until we got down river towards the shallows. It tail walked 3 times and we had it up next to the boat once. Initial guesstimate for length was close to 14 feet. This is the largest sturgeon I have ever had up to the boat. Usually, we get broken off and never see them.

Never got to lay hands on it as it rolled at the boat and snapped me off. The rod was doubled over and the reels drag was bottomed. It was still taking line and ended up breaking the double braid leader. (280lb test). Unfortunately, no pics. Hopefully next time!

I was done fishing after that. Completely exhausted I had to sit on anchor (a few miles upriver) for a while and my arms still feel like jelly today.

At least I am getting ready for the bruisers to show up!

Dave

 

Hot dog! The biggest I've ever seen was about a 7 footer out of the Niagara river, we were fishing for lake trout, when sure enough my buddy got a "Snag"... After about 5 minutes he could actually start reeling in line, and about 40 minutes later he was at the boat, we left him in the water and pulled the hook out of his snout (It never made it to his mouth ). It was a big fish, but not real scary, a 51" Muskie out of the power authority"s resevoir on the other hand scared the snot out of me... sure as **** when I went to pull the hook out of his mouth he clipped my thumb with his teeth, 9 stitches held me together from that little flesh wound.

 

Nice catch Dave.

 

I'm gonna head down to the river this weekend and try to get into some keepers. Tough to do with all the oversize moving in. Went fishing one day this weekend and I boated 113 fish. 2 of those were slightly oversize (Bigger one was 78") and 1 keeper (58"). The rest were all under 42".

Dave

 

:nopics:

 

thought sturgeon where endangered?

 

Nope, there are bag limits though. Mostly white sturgeon.

 

A fellow BOMBer told me he had seen a report there were 60K balled up below Bonneville.

I'm gonna catch as many as I can!

Dave

 

Dave,

I found the pic of the little sturgeon piglet. teehee

 

That's a good one!

We got into some oversize fish this week. Big fights in the high water. Bonneville was flowing over 400K CFS. Lots of Spring melt.

Spent a few days Steelhead fishing with clients. Mixed bag, but averaging 2 per rod.

Dave