Willy Sturgeon Season

Fished hard yesterday at GR park with little to show for it. One shaker and a squawfish. I fished one general area and moved 6 times during the day looking for fish. I fished from 30' to 95' deep. The sturgeon came out of about 80'. The number of squawfish/bait nibbler bites was incredible. I kept thinking that if I could wait them out a sturgeon would eventually pick up the bait. Note to self - this does not work.

On the plus side, I did get to meet up with some folks I knew and some folks I had not met before. Also got to see Willbd's fish. What a beauty!

Spooky thing. Towards the end of the day I was sitting on anchor when a furbag pops up its head about 50' from me. Then it swam straight at me with its head out of the water. When it was about 20' away it lifted itself out of the water pretty high. I think it was looking to see if I had a fish it could try to steal. It stayed like that for about 15 seconds (felt like an hour). I started reaching for my paddle when it dove and disappeared.

Here are some highlights n case you missed them...

"Gary Waterhouse  at Great American Tackle Co. in Clackamas, quickly sold out of his week's shipment of 90 dozen sand shrimp, a popular sturgeon bait. He wasn't sure Friday he would get any more in the near future because he was told the person who pumps most of the shrimp for his supplier in Willapa Bay was arrested Thursday evening on an outstanding warrant.
 
"Not much I can do about that," he said."

"He said officers wrote numerous citations for undersized sturgeon, no licenses and/or tags and failure to record catches. Compliance -- the percentage of those checked who were within the law -- was higher than he expected between Milwaukie and Oregon City, but fell to about 50 percent farther downriver, Allori said."

Great job hammering the Dino's guys..

I've got to send a big thank you out to Noah. He kept telling me that Kayak fishing would change my life and to be honest I was a bit skeptical. Not about fishing from a kayak, but more along the lines of life changing. WOW, was I wrong. After heading out to GR last weekend for a lesson in how to fish for sturgeon and Friday with no sleigh rides, I was a bit bummed out. Getting out there Saturday I jokingly said to Noah that if I didn't land anything I wasn't ever coming back. Well, just like the keeper I pulled in I'm thoroughly hooked. My first Oregon fish, my first fish from a kayak and my first sturgeon all in one day, can't wait to get back out there again.

I really wish I had signed up for AOTY before heading out there. Lost out on a solid 150+.

I didn't get many pictures of Willbd's fish but here are the best ones.

My first Oregon fish, my first fish from a kayak and my first sturgeon all in one day, can't wait to get back out there again.

Yeah, I think he's hooked!  Nice work Noah!   

Nice fish Will!  Way to make it happen.  I saw your truck still there when I left on Friday and I thought man that guy is dedicated!   Nice Job!

Nice dinos guys!

Way to go noah, way to make the old mans day!

Ron, How big was that piggy? I expect to be munching on some tasty smoked sturgeon treats at ORC this year!

As everyone else as been saying...way to go get em Dinos!

Welcome to the madness Langcod

Nice fish Will!  Way to make it happen.  I saw your truck still there when I left on Friday and I thought man that guy is dedicated!   Nice Job!

Ron,

I don't know if dedicated is the right word. I told the wife that I don't know if it the right thing fish for sturgeon for the first time on a shot season that will bring every boat in the state to the Willamette for 2 days of fishing.

I have never used an anchor from a kayak before. I was worried that I would have issue getting the anchor set right.
It all worked out in end.

I did learn a lot on Friday.
I learned more on Saturday.

It was nice to meet you and all the other NWKA members on the water.

willbd

I had a great time fishing with everybody Friday and Saturday.  I caught two shakers 36"+ on Friday and nothing on Saturday (I had to pull off the water about 12:30 to head home).  It was great to meat some more NWKA'rs and see some familiar faces.  Willbd I guess you were right I should have hung out longer you did catch a nice keeper.

Congrat's to everybody that caught a keeper.   

Noah your dad has to be one proud and happy dude.   

It was really nice to meet you Dana. Thanks for the left over sandshrimp too! I had a great time this weekend, hopefully it will remain open for next weekend. I doubt it though.

Did someone's anchor line get hit by a tree? I saw this posted on ifish and was wondering what the rest of the story was. I saw the little boat tow the tree away, but we were down river from it a bit.

"To the Kayaker that took a tree into your anchor line Friday. Please do us all a favor and move out of the way when we warned you a little sooner than when the tree is 50 feet from ya. You had plenty of time to move when we first warned you when the tree was headed your way when it was a good 1/4 mile down river. Thats a good way to end your season real fast. I really dont want to see someone get into that situation again. Thank god for the guy in the little boat that was able to help you get out of that mess and was also noce enough to tow the 25+ foot tree to shore. Real props for that guy."

I noticed that post too.
I saw that thing go by since I was upriver from the rest of the kayak crew.  It was HUGE.  The couple of power boats I was anchored next to struggled with it considerably since it ended up deciding to go right between them(and they were pretty close to each other).

Yeah, that boat was making me really nervous, as it was towing the tree right toward us.

It seems you're getting a little famous on Ifish too! It is a good photo.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=396323&highlight=kayak

Nice dinos guys!

Way to go noah, way to make the old mans day!

Ron, How big was that piggy? I expect to be munching on some tasty smoked sturgeon treats at ORC this year!

50.25"...  I saw a lot of really nice fish caught.  At least 1/2 dozen+ fish in the 50's in the immediate area I fished.  I rolled the dice and released a just legal fish (40") in hopes of a bigger one. Folks around me had some real hogs in the box and I wanted a big one too! A little over three cold wet hours (and a few shakers) later it payed off.  Smoked it today, canning it tomorrow.. I'll save you a jar for the ORC!