Columbia River sturgeon reports August 2010

With very little pressure below Bonneville Dam for sturgeon i have had the river to my self. The keeper fishery shut down the last Saturday of July and go figure that's when we start getting a few. The over size fishery still continues to produce up to 6 fish days when the bite is good. The last few weeks we have been targeting the flats 25-35 feet of water with very good action. There are plenty of fish in all size ranges to keep you on your toes all day. A special thanks to Ed and Drew for taking time out of there vacation to see what sturgeon fishing is all about. We decided to through squid all day on the light rods and ended up landing close to 20 fish. Drew landed a nice keeper in the 50 inch range and then put the icing on the cake with an acrobatic 105 incher. Ed being the wiser Dad let the youngster do all the hard work and took care of all the small guys. It was a great summer day and there will be more of them to follow. Thanks and see you on the water

Charlie
503-820-1189

Saturday October 10 2009

I fished the Columbia by Bonneville Dam last Saturday. The bite was very slow with one over size and 5 shakers for 5 rods. This prompted me to head to the Willamette river on Sunday for some catch and release. The bite was quite a bit better but still not a lot of big fish. We did 25 shakers 1 keeper and 1 over size for three rods. Well i am getting a little tired of this so i headed for the Bonneville pool with high expectations. The water could not have been any calmer on this beautiful fall day. We managed 35 shakers and 4 legal sturgeon for 6 hours of fishing. The fish were hard to find but once we located the pattern the bite was on. I headed back to Bonneville Dam Thursday October 8. The bite was better but still no keepers. We ended up with 35 shakers and 2 over size. All fish this week were caught on squid. We are going to get some rain next week so lets cross our fingers and hope it dumps. Until next week keep on keeping on.

Charlie Foster

Northwest Sturgeon Adventures

http://www.nwsturgeonadventures.com/

503 820 1189

Columbia River below Bonneville Dam
Over-sized sturgeon fishing trip
Video today's videos at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPdXhj6MVrM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z457SagKpU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW2O0rWEhLg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UmvqCPyXk

Today we hooked up four over-sized BIG sturgeon that measured between 6 & 8-feet long and weighed 175 to 250-pounds! N.W. writer/photographer, John L. Beath also hooked up a really big sturgeon while fishing with his favorite small reel, an Accurate Boss 270 single speed precision reel loaded with #30 pound braid. Beath played the fish for quite a while and wanted to put the small reel to the test.

Beath tightened the drag all the way to the maximum setting and hung on tight as the big sturgeon continued to peel line from the small reel, even though the drag was set at about #30 pounds of drag. As Beath noted, "This reel can handle any fish in the N.W., but the angler and the line might not be able to handle as much as the Accurate reel!"

The small Accurate reel worked perfectly, but eventually the light line broke under the constant hard runs of the huge sturgeon. If only he would have backed the drag off just a few pounds of drag, we might have seen the fish.

In addition to catching four "over-sized" sturgeon today, Beath also landed and released two legal sized fish that fell on the "barely legal" length and "almost over" size. During August anglers must release all sturgeon. The term "legal size" refers to a sturgeon that falls within a length range set by the Oregon and Washington Fish and Wildlife departments.

In late fall and early winter I'll be guiding anglers for these legals and should have excellent results. Beath will be back on the boat in November to once again test his Boss 270 Accurate fishing reel, but he says next time he'll load it with #50 or #65 pound line.

Keep watching for new blog posts and if you want to book a sturgeon trip be sure to visit our website at: www.nwsturgeonadventures.com or e-mail me at: cfoster569@yahoo.com or call us at: (503) 820-1189