Shake it up baby!

bass
bass
I had by far my best day ever for numbers of sturgeon this past Sunday. It was a shaker-fest to be sure. Brian (minnowmagnet) and I met up at Swan Island since we were a bit fearful to take our kayaks out in the heavy current upriver. I got there a bit before Brian and fished a few places where I marked fish but did not get a sniff. I did not spend much time in any one spot.

Eventually I worked my way out to the current edge and quickly caught two shakers. I thought it was going to be on, but then the bite died down. Brian showed up and we fished for a bit but then decided to divide and conquer. I went downstream to get some exercise and look for fish while Brian searched in the harbor. I picked up a fish here or there, but no spot was producing numbers or quality.

Eventually I made my way back up to Brian and he had found the mother load of biters. The fishing was just ridiculous. We rarely went 30 seconds without hooking up. There were so many fish around that both of our depth finders kept losing lock on the bottom and locking onto the dense school of sturgeon beneath us. There was some kind of fish throughout the harbor at about 20' (not sure what) and the sturgeon where in 40-60'.

LCi8oWR.png

Funny thing is that while there we could mark a ton of fish over a pretty big area, it was a relatively small area in which they seemed to be feeding hard. No idea why, but kudos to Brian for finding the dinner plate!

Overall we each caught 50-60 sturgeon. We each only caught one keeper-sized (mine was 39 1/2" and Brian's looked to be in the mid 40s), the rest were shakers. As soon as we realized the bite was super hot we became very stingy with our baits. I was using 1/2 anchovies and a ton of stretchy thread, Brian was using 1/2 herring. My best 1/2 anchovy caught 6 sturgeon. The last one was caught on little more than bones, but they still wanted it. We would not change baits until they were completely gone. I averaged 3-4 fish per 1/2 anchovy, Brian was doing about the same on his herring.

We spent most of the afternoon getting doubles, it was really a blast for a long time. Eventually we got bored with catching so many small fish - probably 2/3 of the fish were two footers - that we decided to abandon the honey hole to see if we could find any better fish.

We tried a few other spots but they produced very little. The spots had plenty of fish on them, but they just were not feeding (at least not on the bottom). I did try suspending a bait for a short time at mid-depth, but it did not receive any love.

I will have to say that even though the fish were small, they were really fighting like crazy in that 45 degree water. They had a lot more energy than the ones we were catching earlier when the water was in the upper 30s. I used my salmon rod most of the day and they did a good job of putting a bend in it. Any fish in the 30's would rip out a bit of drag. I thought I had a good one on for a minute:

PW1VxPn.jpg

But it just ended up being this guy:

0gIqvxL.jpg



Overall it was a great day to be on the water with a friend just soaking up the fantastic bite.
 
M
mosd
ive heard the smelt are running, so it couldof been what was at the 20' mark???
 
T
Throbbit _Shane
Sounds like a great day of catching! Could be smallies at 20ft?
 
G
Gettin' Jiggy Wid It
What a mass of fish...that's was very cool to see the two types of fish stratified like that on the FF. Kudos to another great day on the water.
 
bass
bass
Thanks guys.

The fish at 20' are a mystery. The harbor is loaded. I mean that school of fish is at least 1 mile long and hundreds of yards wide. My first thought was smelt as well. I did see some small fish come up and splash but I did not think that they ran up the Willamette. Is it possible that these are baby shad heading back out to sea? Not sure what time of year that occurs. Maybe they are the missing winter steelhead :) Perhaps they are really tiny sturgeon. I think I will bring a small rod one of these days and some small jigs and worms to see if I can figure out what they are. I hope Modest Man reads this - he may know.

Other guesses I have are suckers that are congregating to spawn. I am not sure if they spawn in still water or out in the current, but I know that MM said that they are the most abundant species in the river.
 
M
Moe
I was also thinking shad, not sure tho. My heart wants to believe they were a massive school of springers :D
 
M
Moe
Great job Bass and MM, I was sturgeon fishing earlier this week and they were def. fighting hard. I also only got one keeper and many shakers, but that keeper was making my reel scream. I love it when the sturgeon are aggressive and actually willing to fight
 
T
TimberTodd
Wow what a day Bass. Thanks for posting the report.
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Wow! Great day and great report!
 
I
igquick
I'm totally jelly (jealous)
 
M
mikeee2362
Awesome report, I was shakin' a little reading it, will definitely stay tuned to find out more about the "mystery school"!!
 
M
minnowmagnet
igquick said:
I'm totally jelly (jealous)
Thanks for posting that John. As always, it was a totally awesome report that made me feel almost like I was there. Wait, I was there. No wonder I'm not feeling jealous! It's always great fishing with this Bass character, if you guys ever get the chance.
 
bass
bass
minnowmagnet said:
Thanks for posting that John. As always, it was a totally awesome report that made me feel almost like I was there. Wait, I was there. No wonder I'm not feeling jealous! It's always great fishing with this Bass character, if you guys ever get the chance.

Thanks Brian, but you are the man. I was lucky you came out because you found the biters. I just rode on your coat tails. This summer though I will repay the favor and turn you into a bassin' assassin :)
 
R
rowlison
Great report bass!!! This is my first year that I got a sturgeon tag so its still all new to me so thanks for your post. Is there any locations around Wilsonville that I would have a chance to hook in to one of these monsters? I have only lived in OR for a few years so like I said I am still putting this all together. Everyone on OFF has been great with helping me out but I really want to catch a sturgeon!!
 
bass
bass
rowlison said:
Great report bass!!! This is my first year that I got a sturgeon tag so its still all new to me so thanks for your post. Is there any locations around Wilsonville that I would have a chance to hook in to one of these monsters? I have only lived in OR for a few years so like I said I am still putting this all together. Everyone on OFF has been great with helping me out but I really want to catch a sturgeon!!

The sturgeon above the falls are still a bit of a mystery to me. I have fished up there a handful of times and the last time out I hooked a monster that I lost after a few hours. The area where I have had some bites is upstream from Rogers landing in Newberg. troutmasta is the expert on that area!

I have read that there are some good holes around Wilsonville, but I have never fished that area. My best suggestion would be to look at the river charts and look for holes and then try to find them with your depth finder (I am assuming you are fishing from a boat). If you are banking it then the dock at Rogers landing or at Hebb park would be places to start. I have read of sturgeon being caught at both of those places.
 
R
rowlison
Thanks bass I will be out friday so I hope I will be able to report back with news of a catch. Again thanks for the help everyone on this page has been great with helping out a new fisherman to the area.
 

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