Willamette River Fishing Reports

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bass
bass
Awesome day! Great description of your setup as well. Thanks for sharing that.

Since you said you caught crayfish I bet the smallmouth are eating the crayfish that are eating the corn. I wonder if the same is for the pikieminnows or if they are omnivorous. I think carp spawn in the spring and summer. I would be surprised to see them spawning now. Seems like they would not be giving their offspring any chance of survival. I can't find any reference for fall spawning.
 
F
Fred
Damn
 
F
Fred
You like a mixture of Jordan Peele and of the guy from the youtube channel Fishermans life XD
 
I
igquick
@bass

I've consistently caught giant pikeminnows with white bread balls. I catch more bass than pikeminnows with lures that mimic fish. So far studying The Willamette River, I'm learning as the water gets colder during fall, some carp move deeper to feed, some start spawning where they are at, or some move into coves or sloughs where they spawn. In ponds and lakes right now in Oregon, it's a 50/50 spawn and shallow feeders.

@Fred

That made my day ?
 
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bass
bass
igquick said:
@bass

I've consistently caught giant pikeminnows with white bread balls. I catch more bass than pikeminnows with lures that mimic fish. So far studying The Willamette River, I'm learning as the water gets colder during fall, some carp move deeper to feed, some start spawning where they are at, or some move into coves or sloughs where they spawn. In ponds and lakes right now in Oregon, it's a 50/50 spawn and shallow feeders.

@Fred

That made my day ?

Thanks for the information! That is interesting about the carp movements and how there are two very different movements.
 
I
igquick
@bass

Some other people, felt I needed to clarify. A lot of my carp spots, are sometimes 20 degrees warmer than the air temperature, especially more often in winter. Finding warm water discharges are the key for me during winter, because it seems like hundreds of carp will swim miles and miles away to a certain location from river to slough, or the main channel to a cove, etc.
 
bass
bass
igquick said:
@bass

Some other people, felt I needed to clarify. A lot of my carp spots, are sometimes 20 degrees warmer than the air temperature, especially more often in winter. Finding warm water discharges are the key for me during winter, because it seems like hundreds of carp will swim miles and miles away to a certain location from river to slough, or the main channel to a cove, etc.

@igquick , that makes a ton of sense. I could not figure out why carp would spawn in the fall but I had not thought about warm water discharge. Thanks for clarifying that!
 
bass
bass
I had not been fishing in a couple of weeks and my previous trips had been to Hagg. I was torn on what to do and where to go. Then deep inside of me a feeling started to grow, small at first, but it just kept growing. Finally I was totally overcome with a st-urgin' to hit the Willamette. Even then I was not sure whether I should fish upriver or in the harbor. In the end, the thought of pulling my kayak up the old ramp at George Rogers park made Swan Island seem like a really good idea.

I had checked the tides and the outgoing was starting around 7am so I figured I would get there, hit a few spots briefly on the way out but figured I would fish out in the current while it was there. The funny thing is that this time of year the incoming tide has a stronger current than the outgoing but that was not going to happen until the afternoon so I figured I would take advantage of what I could.

I headed out and as I did I started marking fish pretty quickly. Maybe sturgeon, maybe carp, maybe mutants. It is hard to tell in the harbor. I stopped and cast out and waited. I counted to 100 without a bite and moved a few hundred yards further out. Tried again with the same result. I headed out closer to the mouth and this time I started marking more fish and the looked like sturgeon on the side imaging.

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I felt more confident as I cast out at this third spot. Almost immediately I felt some line rubs - that staccato-like twanging on the line that indicates that there are sturgeon in the area. I focused in and tried to block those out and feel for the thunk, thunk, thunk of a fish eating my bait. Within a minute or two my diligence was rewarded and I felt a fish pick up my bait and start to swim off with it. I tightened down and started reeling hard to set the circle hook. Any doubts and fears I had about picking the wrong spot to fish evaporated as my rod tip buried in the water.

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I have to say that when the water is in the 50s and 60s (54 on Sunday) sturgeon fight like demons. That fish pulled me back and forth across the harbor a couple of times while I leaned on it with all my strength. There is a feeling of hopelessness in those battles. I am pulling as hard as I can and I can't move the fish at all. If the fish swims off I can regain line until I am over top of it, but then I am back to fighting an immovable object. There are times when I am fighting an oversized that I think that I am no match for the monster on the end of my line and this was was one of those times. The battle went from being exciting and fun to being one filled with fear and tension. I could do nothing with that fish for a long time. I would pull hard and all I could do was put more bend in my rod, I could not move my rod tip at all.

However, one advantage humans have is our endurance. I can only hope that the beast on the line feels an equal level of helplessness. That is the mantra I repeat in my head during these battles. The battle rage for a god 10 or 15 minutes, but eventually I was able to prevail. The fish was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet long and fat and healthy.

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After that fish I thought, maybe I don't need to rush out to fish in the current after all. I had found a good-sized school of sturgeon and they were biting! It is so frustrating to find a big school of sturgeon in the harbor that don't seem interested in feeding. I was thrilled that I had found biters that easily. The morning was epic. I would cast out, filter out the line rubs, feel a fish pick up my bait and then it was off to the races again, and again, and again.

The fish were all decent sized. That first was my only oversized from that area but almost all the others were either large shakers or keeper sized. I have to admit that after a while it was getting a little boring. The morning was broken up by a visit from Mr. Whiskers though.

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A really nice and healthy looking channel cat!

Eventually, there were a few other boats in the general area but they did not seem to be on biters like I was. I finally decided that my arm were getting tired and that I needed a change of pace and wanted to try some bass fishing so I pedaled out to the closest boat and told them that there were a bunch of hungry sturgeon over where I had been fishing. They seemed like they were having a fun time but were happy for the tip. They insisted that I take a bump of their whiskey - it would have been rude to refuse. I am not the biggest whiskey fan in the world, but out there, on the water, talking with those guys, it was just down right amazing. I hope the bite stayed hot for them.

So I pedaled out to the river and started throwing some soft plastic lures along any steep rock I could find. I worked my way all they way down to the RR bridge. I spent about 2 hours getting casting practice, but some days I can't make the bass bite by just wanting them to. Man, that makes me mad!!

I was thinking of just heading home for the day and started pedaling back when I started marking fish out in the current. By now the incoming was under way and it was that magical combination of marking fish and current that I just could not resist.

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You don't mark the numbers like you do in the harbor but when you are marking fish like that out in the current you know you are in for a good time. I dropped anchor and cast out and immediately hooked into my second oversized of the day. After another long and grueling fight. I had the fish almost there when the hook ripped out. I was just stunned. All that work for naught. Hey, that is fishing - the part that sucks :)

I went back to my buoy and tied off again. The bite was really good in that area. I could not even count to 60 before having a fish chowing down on my bait. For me, catching them out in the current is just so much more fun than in the harbor. I am not worried about hanging up, breaking off, catching disease. It is just mroe pleasurable! Finally it was getting to be a bit after 4pm. I said to myselft, "This is your last bait".

I cast out and immediately caught a decent fish, but it was hooked right in the lip and my bait was completely unmarred. I had to cast out one more time. Let's just say it was a great (and painful way to end the day).


After that I could barely pull my anchor up. I was done for the day. I pedaled back and as I entered the harbor there was a boat getting ready to leave and they told me I should try to fish there because they had just caught 6 oversized. I just told them straight up that I could barely life my arms. I was not sure I was going to make it up the ramp at the end, but I put my head down and just took it one small step at a time, just like fighting those oversized.

I took a fair bit of video and trimmed it down but this is still pretty crappy. This is like 43 minutes long, but if you like root canals you might be able to watch the whole thing. Thanks for reading and I hope you at least enjoy some of it. I need to figure out how to improve the quality with my camera.

 
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EOBOY
EOBOY
@bass nice! Your gonna get a hernia LOL!
 
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bass
bass
@EOBOY I am still sore from that workout. I don't think there is any point in ever retiring because it takes me a week to recover from one of these trips anyway :)
 
troutdude
troutdude
EOBOY said:
@bass nice! Your gonna get a hernia LOL!

There's mesh for that! <I speak from experience...lol>
 
Markk
Markk
Well done! Thanks
 
bass
bass
Thanks @Markk, but the real stars are the sturgeon who agreed to participate :)
 
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Bob Budesa
Bob Budesa
I've never fished for sturgeon. What is your preferred (or their preferred) bait?

What's your rigging look like. Sinker at the bottom with lateral hook? Spreader?

Just curious.
 
bass
bass
Bob Budesa said:
I've never fished for sturgeon. What is your preferred (or their preferred) bait?

What's your rigging look like. Sinker at the bottom with lateral hook? Spreader?

Just curious.

I always use 1/2 anchovy. My friend who does just as well uses 1/2 herring. Neither of us thinks that the particular bait matters very much. The key is to move if you don't get a bite. Don't sit in a spot waiting for them to bite, go find the biters!

I made a short video a few years back on rigging.

 
bass
bass
I decided it was high time to give Jurassic Park (sometimes known as Swan Island) a try. I had not been there since October and I was looking forward to a fun-filled day.

I was also excited to try out my knew FF, a Garmin 106SV. A couple of the main reasons I upgraded are because I wanted to get a bigger screen for my old eyes, plus it was a huge increase in resolution, an extra SD card slot, better maps, BT connectivity. Just a sweet unit through and through.

I launched around 8:15 am and started heading out. As I passed through the harbor I marked 3 separate schools of fish. I decided not to stop and fish in the harbor first thing because I really wanted to spend a good bit of time cruising around with the new sonar and I was hoping there would be plenty of fish out in the current like there were back in October.

I made it to the mouth of the harbor but I was not marking any fish so I decided to just keep going and head down towards the RR tracks. Back in October I marked tons of fish down that way. I took my time, zig-zagging back and forth looking for some arches. All I got was a bunch of exercise.

I kept searching for quite a while but I just could not find anything. One of the cool things I did get to witness though was the big military boat that had been in the harbor heading off to sea.

Here it is being pushed and pulled out of the harbor:

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Here it is underway on its own power:

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That was really cool and all but I really wanted to catch some fish. I decided I would run up to the deep hole off the Daimler building. That is a fair ways upstream (I had never gone that far upstream in my kayak before) but I was in the mood for some exercise.

That is a nice looking hole and I was marking a ton of fish there but after 3 hours up there, moving 1/2 dozen times, I only had two shakers to show for my efforts. A cool thing that happened was that when I was pulling my anchor the one time I had a couple of fish follow it up:

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Perhpas I should leave the rods at home and just put a hook on my anchor :)

Eventually, I decided that perhaps it was time to head back to the harbor and hit some of the schools I saw on my way out that morning. I made my way back to the harbor getting, getting there around 1:30pm. So up to that point I had a total of 2 shakers for over 5 hours on the water.

When I got to the first school there were a couple of boats fishing one side of the school. I moved to the far side and started fishing. It did not take long to start catching fish. That felt sooooo good after the long drought earlier in the day. I never anchored up but instead just used my paddle to hold my kayak in position on the edge of the school. I feel that I do a lot better fishing the edge. Fish seem to bite better, fewer line rubs to distract me and when I hook a fish I can usually fight it away from the school which seems to help them keep biting.

Here is a screen capture of what I mean. There are tons of sturgeon to the left of the kayak and none to the right. There are some small suspended fish to the left (dots on sideview). I am guessing either shad or steelhead smolt.

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Once I get myself in that position, I rotate the kayak 90 degrees and make a short cast to the edge of the school. If you do it right you can keep them bitiing indefiinitely without spooking the school.

I caught a fish every 10 minutes or so for the two hours I fished before heading home. Here is one of the many I caught.

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The fish ranged from large shaker size up to a little over 4'. No monsters, but my shoulders were OK with that! I measured where I went on Google maps and I had done about 7.5 miles on the kayak for the day. I got my good workout in and ended up with with some great fishing.

Here is a video of a few of the fish that I caught in the afternoon:

 
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my2labs
my2labs
I enjoy your write ups and videos. I have never targeted sturgeon before, though I’ve hooked a couple while fishing for SS. Looks like a blast!
 
4labs
4labs
Great pic . Never have seen the new destroyers upclose.
Going to upgrade to the sideview and cause myself more frustration.
Thanks for the report
 
bass
bass
It appears that there is some secret tie between lab owners and my write ups :)

@my2labs , sturgeon fishing is a lot of fun. They really fight amazingly hard. It is hard to see but in the picture I posted the there is a curly line coming out of the sturgeon's mouth. That is an old broken off leader. The hook was right there and easy to remove. I kind of felt extra good defeating a fish that was 1-0 coming into the bout :)

@4labs, sideview is the way to go. I love having good sideview it helps some to find fish but it really shines at finding structure. Being able to scan a 200-500' swath is really useful. The destroyer was really cool. It had been in the harbor since at least October. It was really exciting getting to watch it underway.
 
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G
Gulfstream
I would like to try that area some time.I caught a bunch of sturgeon in S F bay and have not fished them in 15 yrs.Looks like fun!
 
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