05
Feb
2011
jloomis

Catch-And-Release Sturgeon Fishing on the Willamette River, Oregon

Instead of snowshoeing on Mount Hood today (due to poor weather), I decided to go sturgeon fishing with my friend John. Experts claim White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) numbers have been declining, so fishing is currently catch-and-release only. No fish for the table this trip. We launched John's North River boat at Meldrum Bar just as it was getting light. We saw a few other boats set on trying to catch one of the first few salmon in the Willamette River. Lucky for us, it was not crowded and we had most of the river to ourselves. Area map.

We picked a spot and anchored in about 80 feet of water. Smelt was our bait of choice this trip, as we still had some left from dip-netting two years ago on the Cowlitz River in Washington.

Sturgeon Bait - Smelt     Elk Rock Island

Shortly after throwing our lines in, the bites began. John landed the first fish, a shaker, but fun nonetheless. The action remained fairly steady for the first couple hours before slowing down. We set a goal for the day of 27 fish.

John and Jason Sturgeon Fishing     Nice Sturgeon Before Being Released

The weather was descent for the middle of winter. The air temperature was in the upper 40's with rain showers off and on. The boat canopy came in quite handy.

Most of the sturgeon we caught were small shakers, but John finally managed to land a couple legal-sized fish. Sturgeon are such amazing fish. They are prehistoric and look as though they came from the dinosaur age. We took care to not harm any of the fish and quickly released them back into the river.

Clouds Over the River     John with a Legal Sized Sturgeon

We beat our goal and landed 32 sturgeon. We probably would have continued fishing if we had not run out of bait. With nothing left to entice the fish, we pulled anchor and headed back to the boat ramp. There were a couple other boats already there who did not appear to know what they were doing (a common occurrence at boat ramps). Finally we were able to slip in and get the boat back on the trailer. We had a great time and I can't wait until our next fishing trip.

Jason with a "Shaker" Sturgeon     North River Fishing Boat
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