Sturgeon, 2006

Awww, bummer on the young ones...ya know, I think in some cultures, touching anothers pretzel is a felony.

Some folks up here are catching fish, maybe they'll just be late getting down to your part of the river.
 
I know someone who took a charter boat out of Illwaco for sturgeon on Saturday. 18 people, one fish. OUCH!
 
I can't catch a bite to save my butt. Three days fishing - two nights staying on the boat with my grandson (that was cool!), and one shaker. I even broke out the special CatyMae smelt for today. Nuttin'.

The guy who went with us stopped by TackleTime at 4:30 this morning to get some anchovies. He hadn't called but asked them to check the list to see if I had. Nope - I didn't. The owner of the joint told him he only ordered enough bait for his "customers". He may have just lost one. C'mon - if you're going to run a bait shop you should be able to order a few extra dozen for the drop-ins - especially the ones who moor their boat next door and buy many, many bags of bait through the summer and once in a great while forget to call in an order. OK - that's my rant. I guess I am still ticked about him charging eight bucks a dozen for smelt last year. I hear tell there's another outfit fixing to set up bait sales in Warrenton anyhow.

Geez it was nice water out there today.
 
Do you ever fish with squid? That's what Loch Ness took on my rod out on the Desdemona flats....I never saw that fish, but I sure knew he had paid a visit! I broke off at the top swivel -- 120# test is on there, I think. Get squid, young man, get squid!

edit and the sculpin don't like 'em :wink:
 
Yeah - I tried that squid a couple times when guests brought it along. Never did any good with it, but the fish were hitting the normal baits at those times, so maybe the stuff might work when nothing else will. I am usually whining about them lowering the bag limit to five fish by now, and I got zip. Should have kept that legal guy I stumbled on six weeks ago, I guess.

Sand shrimp usually work if anything will, but today my partner was saying he set a new world's record for a baited shrimp in the water. Not even any sculpins or crabs around today. Good thing I have some smelt, thanks to a friend in town. When the fish are in from the ocean, they will hit smelt with a little bit of pharmaceutical doctoring (that's the only hint I'm giving) all season long.

I hope the Olive Oyl crew got something before they took off yesterday. They had a couple shakers on Saturday. I hope they sign up and tell us, too. Nice folks.
 
Last Wednesday at the John Day boat ramp, east of Astoria: about one keeper per three boats; the guided boats did better, said the ODFW fish counter. Some boats down on Tongue Point, a similar number off Lois on the flats.

Sunday, better luck out of Aldrich Point: about one keeper for every two rods, lots of shakers; looked to us like most folks were fishing the flats on the N side of Horseshoe and Marsh, some off the sands downriver from there. We did not fish, so this is just from talking to folks at the ramp. Blustery and pissy conditions. A sub-legal jumped us about 10 feet off the bow, maybe half a mile off JC Point.
 
Sneaks":1nn1p1lh said:
OK, Mike. Here's a goal for ya.

sturgeon.jpg


this Sturgeon ... weighed over 1,000lbs and measured 11'1" and 56" around the girth ... Too bad it wasn't from a C-Dory.
Click to expand...

The biggest feller we hooked was one about 9' last year. Took an hour and a quarter to get it to the boat with 30# mono and a reel with a drag that quickly fried and a backstop that busted about half way through the fight. Pain in the butt. We usually break the big ones off (we only get a few of them) but Kay and the girls wanted to get a look at him after seeing the thing jump about 200 yards out. He didn't weigh no half a ton, but he durn sure outweighed me. We didn't keep him hooked up long enough to float him at the boat for a good picture, though. Those big guys can get internal damage if taken from the water and die some time later. The guys in the pic shouldn't have done what they did to the big fish. The rules just say to not remove them from the water, but they need to stay bouyant or their organs can be damaged. When they jump out of the water on their own they still have all their strength, but after that long a fight it's probably pretty difficult do whatever they do to survive for a hundred years to get that big.
 
About 1975, we took a large one, when the regs were more generous, off Tongue Point. I think it was a shade under 6 feet, the limit at the time. and, like Mike says, we saw some even larger ones jump.

Amazing fish! It is a privilege to see them.
 
I went with a guide about 8 years ago. We landed one that was 9 1/2' and another that was 7' plus a shaker of about 3'. I will never again go after those bigguns! It was fun but I think I would prefer something more along the lines of the shaker to fight. My hands and wrists hurt for a week! We did that on a Saturday. When we were getting ready to leave the hotel Sunday we were talking with some people who went out with another guide the day before. They had hooked a 12 footer that decided it wanted to see what the inside of the boat looked like. It jumped in the boat and totally destroyed it before they got it back in the water! Luckily no one was hurt!
 
As much as I would like to sit here and chat, Jamie and I are spending the night on the boat to get ready to chase fish at daylight. Maybe we can catch another one like the fish in the pic.

Have a good one.
 
OK, that's it. We got two fish today that were about 6" too short, and for the first time since I started fishing sturgeon six years ago, I got zero on my tag for the season. Only got two keepers on the boat this year. Sturgeon fishing sucks, and the boat is on the trailer. I have one week to get it ready to go to the San Juans for our vacation. Maybe I'll try for a salmon when we get back. Maybe not.
 
Tried out our local fishery this past weekend. Hooked into six shakers for the 5 hours we were out. The biggest was 42" and the smallest being a 12" greenie.

The last time out 07/15 we hooked five shakers. We can't seem to find the big ones. They(DFG) discontinued the 46"-56" slot limit so we're back to the 46"-72". I can't break the 42" mark this year so it doesn't bother me too much. :lol:
 
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