What do you mean "oversized"? That seems a little strange to apply to a potential fish one might catch. Sturgeon that are too small to be retained are called undersized. There is also a limit on how large a sturgeon you can keep for your smoker. The oversized sturgeon (which can live for 80+ years) are anything over 54 inches long. They can be caught but must be released.
Sturgeon have always seemed a bit alien to me. I have sat on the bank of the Coquille river at my Grandpa's farm and told myself that I was sturgeon fishing. In reality I was more likely fishing for sculpin with my undersized equipment and bait. Wanting to fish for a fish is a feeling that festers in a person. You can ignore it for a while but you know, deep down, that you've got to do something about it. And I finally did. I saved my spending money and I booked a day fishing with a guide, one who specialized in fishing for oversized sturgeon.
We met at 5:00 am at the boat launch near Camus, Washington on the Columbia river. The guide indicated that we wouldn't be launching right away; we needed to catch our bait first. So I loaded up into his truck and we drove 26 miles up river to the Bonneville dam. The water levels were so high that the dam was dumping water over into the Columbia creating churning whitewater. This is where we launched from. As we put the boat in and climbed aboard I felt an excitement in my stomach one only gets when you do something that matters. This was serious water and we were going in; man vs. nature. It was awesome.
The danger of casting yourself adrift on a maelstrom of a river was felt only by me, my guide apparently didn't have a care in the world. He maneuvered the boat about a half mile downstream and cast the anchor at a spot he knew. It must have taken him a lot of work to locate this spot and he used the anchor and a water anchor with precision to make sure I'd be fishing in the exact spot he wanted.
The rod's were set with a crank bait with the hooks removed and a dropper leader ending with a small spoon. It struck me as a great way to fish that I will have to remember. The crank bait pulled the spoon down in the current keeping it where the fish were. The spoon's were a Northwest standby; wee Dicknite's. I mentioned that I've heard the best color is the half silver half brass but my guide assured me that any color would catch us all the bait we would need. We let the lines out and let the river current do the work. Our first hit came within minutes. I reeled in a 15 inch Shad. It put up a great fight. The fish must have weighed between 1 and 2 lbs. It was a lot of fun. This is the size fish I normally fish for. This was to be our bait. Oh no... not for the day, for one cast. We planned on fishing for sturgeon with these fish whole. It took us maybe an hour and a half to fill the coolers with shad.
We probably had 60 lbs of bait as we headed back down the river to the spot where we would relaunch in pursuit of sturgeon. Downstream the river is still huge but I was more at ease because the water had mellowed. We motored to another exact spot and set the anchor. Our set up here was a bit different. We used 100 lb test line tied to 200 lb test leader tied to a big old hook. The hook went through the head of a shad and then the leader was carefully wrapped around the fish in three or four places to hold the bait on in the current. A ball of lead the size of a baseball was then clipped onto the line. Before hooking the shad on it was stabbed multiple times to let some nice juicy fish/blood smell escape. The bait was lowered into the water and then we began to wait.
Fishing for sturgeon reminded me of fishing for catfish. It's a slow pleasant experience that allows you to soak in the surroundings and ponder your life. Fishing for oversized sturgeon can be even slower because the giant bait you are fishing with prevents smaller fish from joining the party. I knew that if my rod tip moved, it would be because something the size of the boat was messing with it. I remember thinking about the smell of the shad wafting through the river and calling the huge beasts towards us.
The tip of the pole started bouncing. Time started to slow down. Could something really be pulling that much weight off of the bottom? Could it really be big enough to eat my bait? The guide grabbed the dancing rod and set the hook. The drag came to life with a scream. The guide handed me the pole and I felt the raw power on the other end. The fish was so strong that I could barely hold on. The drag was set as hard as it could be and this fish was stripping out line as fast as it wanted. My guide was shouting that "this was a hot one" and that he "couldn't believe that it had already gone through 150 yards of line". Me, I was trying not to get pulled into the Columbia river. It was one of the most exciting moments I can recall. I wanted to brace one of my feet against the edge of the boat but I was so precariously hanging on I didn't dare lift one of my feet up. My arms started to ache. The fish still pulled line whenever it wanted in between my feeble attempts to slow it. The fish broke my line. One hundred lb test snapped like nothing. The guide said it was the biggest fish his boat had been into in two years and he fishes there every day of the season. He estimated that it was between 400-500 lbs. I never got to see it but I will never forget it. The charge of adrenaline left my hands shaking and my legs soft and rubbery. Fishing for a fish that is an equal physically or in this case, my better, is an another thing entirely. I smiled the whole way in.
Paul Amdahl
author of
The Barefoot Fisherman; a fishing book for kids
http://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Fisherman-fishing-book-ebook/dp/B005DN1IRI/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1194531986&sr=8-1
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