Fishing Washingtons Columbia River...Page 2

Contributed By John Wells

Basics

It is useful to learn a few basic things before fishing for Sturgeon. The two things to know are location and preferred feed. This fish is an opportunist and migrates to take advantage of the various anadromous fish runs present on the Columbia River. It is also found in some of the bays and rivers along the Oregon and Washington coast. In almost every case the presence of this fish in a place will coincide with a run of migrating fish. Shad, Smelt, Herring and Salmon are all preferred feed for the White Sturgeon.

So, location is almost always dictated by the food supply. I cannot overemphasize location. If you fish in the wrong spot, you wont even get a bite. A boat 100 feet away may catch limits of legal fish and you will not change your bait all day. The first and most important tool to use for this fish is a good set of binoculars. Observe successful boats and try to understand the location where they have success. The fish will frequent the same areas, year after year so locations are valuable information. A GPS is ideal for storing the exact location for future use.

The best places to find this fish are typically where a tributary river joins the main stream, or near a major change in depth. People assume that a deep hole in the river is the ideal place. This is not always true. The slope where the river bottom drops away to the deep hole is the best spot. The fish will wait for food to fall down the slope and lurk where they can get it as it comes to them. You can spot the successful fishers as they will be standing up and working their rods. The guys anchored in the wrong spot will be sitting down and falling asleep.

The method used to catch this fish is pretty much the same everywhere. You simply plunk a bait in the right spot and wait for the fish to sniff it out and eat it. The typical rig includes a baited barbless hook, a soft strong leader, a lead weight, and a slider. I have heard of Sturgeon biting plunked spin and glows with bait oils or WD-40 on them but I don't believe it would be productive to use hardware. The smell seems to matter more than any other thing for bait selection. Fresh bait that matches the current feed is the ideal choice. There is one exception. Columbia river Smelt is always an option for bait. The White Sturgeon gorges on this bait fish every spring and will always bite this bait any time or any place.

Since this fish has no teeth, they swallow their food whole. Just like a snake they swallow baitfish head first. For this reason all baits should be rigged head down with the hook in or near the head of a whole bait fish. The soft leader prevents the fish from feeling anything but the bait on pick up. The fishes barbells are sensitive touch and smell organs and the fish will shy away from stiff Monofilament leaders. A sliding weight rig prevents the fish from feeling any drag on the bait as it swims away with it. A Sturgeon bite is almost never like a train wreck. They will very tentatively pick up the bait and then immediately spit it out as they try to get it head first. What the fisher sees is a series of soft tugs or tension and slack on the rod. The bite is very different from any other fish you may be used to. The trick is to have the rod in your hands, all the slack out of the line and set the hook while the bait is in the fishes mouth.

Sounds simple right? The only sturgeon that just eats it and swims away are the Peelers. I guess they just don't care. At an average age of 100 years these giants probably realize that it's a fishbait and that they will get away or get released. The Peeler bite is a reel smoking sight to behold. The rod bends to the water, the line flies off the reel and the fish comes flying out of the water somewhere behind the boat.

Target the Size

The size of the fish you catch is dependent on the area you fish. Figure out what you want to catch and go to the right spot. The time of year matters a great deal also. The rule is to go where the migrating anadromous fish are. So if we start in January of a typical year and go to December we would follow the fish to these places. In general faster water produces bigger fish. The shakers don't seem to be as plentiful in fast moving current. The biggest fish are found in the 4 knot currents below Bonneville dam.

In January and February the fish can be found in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers from Astoria to Bonneville dam and up to the Oregon City falls. This time of year is immediately prior to the appearance of the annual Smelt run on the lower Columbia River and its tributaries. All of the fish in the Columbia system are migrating to the vicinity of St Helens and the Cowlitz river to gorge on this huge run of bait fish. Any where on the Columbia River on the migration path will put you on fish moving through. The Shakers and Keepers predominate with an occasional Peeler found also. If you can obtain fresh Smelt before the big Smelt run appears in the Columbia system you can do well these two months.

Once the Smelt are in the river in great numbers, the bite falls off for a few weeks. For the rest of the Spring until May,the larger Sturgeon move back to the Bonneville Dam. The smaller fish are still available in the lower Columbia from the Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean. In a few bays like Nehalem, Tillamook and Yaquina, Feb., Mar. and April produce a few nice keepers. These fish are feeding on clams, mud and sand shrimp. Mud shrimp is the preferred bait.

The Shad run marks the next major fishery at the Fishery. This is a boat ramp located just down from Bonneville Dam on the Oregon side of the gorge. Peelers are plentiful here from May through August. Fresh shad is the preferred bait. During these same months smaller sturgeon are caught in the estuary at the mouth of the Columbia near Astoria. The fishery near Portland is pretty slow as the river levels drop and flows slow down for the summer.

From August to December, Salmon is the major food source for the sturgeon. The large fish can be found at most of the places where tributaries enter the Columbia river. Smaller rivers like the Lewis and Wind have hatchery supported runs of salmon. These fish return in one huge run in the fall. The hatchery at Bonneville Dam on Tanner creek attracts Peelers in good numbers as they feed on dead salmon at the creek mouth.

Good Luck!