Columbia River sturgeon advise?

[BaldTexan]

A buddy and I are heading out Friday to fish for sturgeon on the Columbia at the mouth of the Klickitat. I've only fished for salmon in that area but there were a lot of sturgeon caught there in the fall by salmon bait fishers. Does anyone know if there will be good sturgeon #s in the area this time of year? I assume so, but not sure. We'll probably bring other gear as well (smallmouth, walleye, steelhead?, etc.)

 

[FishOn420]

A buddy and I are heading out Friday to fish for sturgeon on the Columbia at the mouth of the Klickitat. I've only fished for salmon in that area but there were a lot of sturgeon caught there in the fall by salmon bait fishers. Does anyone know if there will be good sturgeon #s in the area this time of year? I assume so, but not sure. We'll probably bring other gear as well (smallmouth, walleye, steelhead?, etc.)

There are sturgeon in there year round but there are better and worst times of the year to go. This time of the year isn't the greatest but you should still do pretty well. I would use blue label herring if you can find it but pink is also good too. I just like using the ones that are a little smaller. If you are bank fishing try the nude beach area. It way better than the regular area for bank fishing. Best of luck and looking forward to your report.

 

[BaldTexan]

Thanks. I saw a lot of oversize Dino's caught there in the fall. Hoping to get my buddy hooked into an oversize. He's never sturgeon fished before. Hopefully we'll have something to report other than 3rd degree sunburn


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[FishOn420]

Thanks. I saw a lot of oversize Dino's caught there in the fall. Hoping to get my buddy hooked into an oversize. He's never sturgeon fished before. Hopefully we'll have something to report other than 3rd degree sunburn


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oh sweet! I haven't ever targeted oversizers before but I hear Chad works the best with the oversizers. You guys will have a blast either way!

 

[rogerdodger]

Thanks. I saw a lot of oversize Dino's caught there in the fall. Hoping to get my buddy hooked into an oversize. He's never sturgeon fished before. Hopefully we'll have something to report other than 3rd degree sunburn
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excellent, I hope you hook some monsters!

for anyone out there new to sturgeon fishing, worth pointing out that oversize sturgeon have special handling rules:

General Regs: Unlawful to "8. Remove oversize sturgeon totally or in part from the water;"

Willamette and Columbia Zone Rules: "Sturgeon over 54 inches in fork length cannot be removed totally or in part from the water"

 

[BaldTexan]

We managed to get out to the Columbia and catch a few. We planned to pull my buddies boat with my truck and leave his place by 5 am to make the trek out to Mayers State Park. We get there and realize we forgot the fish finder. Dang! No biggy. We'll try different spots until we find some hungry fish.

Fish at the mouth of the Klickitat for a bit with no action, so we move to another likely spot and discover He only had his short rope on the anchor from when we fished OC for shad. So we kept searching for likely spots and each time the anchor rope wasn't long enough. Finally get to a fishy looking area we had enough anchor rope to hold. We bait up and toss out. Nothing for about 30 minutes so we're scanning the area for the next likely spot. I eat a banana to hopefully disprove the bad luck BS of bananas on a boat. About that time my rod starts doing the typical sturgeon "I'm.....eating.....your......bait" bounce. The line suddenly starts peeling off the spool as the fish commits. I set the hook hard and tell my buddy it feels bigger than a shaker, probably a keeper. I'm reeling and it feels like a decent fish the suddenly the water erupts as a 10 to 11 foot Dinosaur breaches and we both look at each other like that kid in Home Alone when he puts the after shave on his face! I quickly grab the Gopro and hit the power button and toss it to my buddy to get some video if the fish hopefully breaches again.

I feel the power and weight of the fish now as the fish dives into the current. A few minutes into the fight it rewards us with another big breach. My buddy proclaims that he got that one on the video. Awesome! I finally get the fish subdued after a 30 minute tug of war. It's tail was too thick to get a grip on to keep along side the boat long enough for a photo. It was about 4 to 5 foot shorter than the 16' boat!! Exhausting fun

Now we're pretty pumped, thinking we were going to have some fun tugging in oversize sturgeon all day and hope to get a couple of keepers. Wishful thinking as we only caught shakers the rest of the day but all in all a good day with nice sunny "Texas" weather. I wanted to put up some video footage of the beast breaching but in the excitement, neither of us pushed the record button! Doh!! Ended up with only a phone pic.

 

[rogerdodger]

excellent, nice you got to subdue one monster dino...

 

[FishOn420]

Great report and glad you two got into some fish. I have been meaning to check out the Colombia recently but fishing from the bank is hard because of how strong the current is.

 

[BaldTexan]

I've never fished the Columbia from the bank, but even spots where there seems to be little to no surface current, there is always a strong current at the bottom. We were having to use 8 to 10 ounce droppers where we were.

 

[bass]

Great job!