aye fsh
07-08-2001, 04:32 PM
Once again had a wonderful day fishing for the estuary gators with my son and a friend of his, Joe. Nothing warms my heart like taking young fellas out and getting them into these leviathans!
The day started out at 3 a.m. when I had had enough of waking up every 15 - 20 minutes for it to "be time", packed the cooler with the sandwiches and goodies the lads had prepared the night before, then woke them up about 15 minutes later. Got all the gear and clothes and such loaded and fired up the powerstroke and hit the road at 3:45. My neighbors love me I'm sure! Had an enjoyable trip talking fishing technique, launch procedures and the like with Joe, who is already a fishing fanatic of the first order at the age of 11. This was his first outing for the sturgeon so I tried my best to fuel his imagination for what was to come. My son Erik has quickly become a veteran sturgeon fisherman and he helped by giving his perspective on the good times to be had chasing gators. The 3 hour trip passed fairly quickly and we arrived at the John Day ramp a little before 7.
I was concerned about what the parking situation was going to be and fretted about the scenario all the way up there. This was the first time I had been to a high pressure ramp situation without an adult present and was worried about dumping the boat and leaving two 11 year olds to handle it at the dock. Turns out my worries were unfounded, I had a couple of experts with me and it all went like clockwork. A fella with a red crew cab must have seen what my situation was because he very kindly let me slip my rig and trailer into the spot he had parked in and went and parked in a shorter slot; thank you for that. The parking lot was full and I didn't really want to park out on the highway in front of the no parking signs. Anyways, the launching went great and we were on our way out to fish by 7:30 or so.
There were soooo many boats on the water I was really suprised. Most were sitting in the mouth of the John Day and north out into the main river. There had to be 50 or 60 in that group and then another 20 or so east of there where we were intending to fish. We made our way to the east side of the mass and got about 150 - 200 yds away from them and dropped the anchor. Absolutely beautiful morning with the water all glassy and calm. We quickly bated up with sand shrimp and just as quickly got bit. Unfortunately it was the mudcats. Fed them a couple dozen shrimp and then switched to smelt and anchovies so we could keep a bait out more than 30 seconds. Fished this way for a while with no sturgeon bites, just gut sucking sculpins, then about 8:30 I rigged up another shrimp and gave it a try. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes and I hooked what felt like a pretty good sturgeon and handed it off to Joe. He had his first sturgeon and it turned out to be a dandy 45 incher. Handled it like an old pro he did. Nice short pumps and no slack on the reel down part, well done. We all switched over to shrimp and proceeded to have ourselves a ball wrangling another 20 or so to the boat. Erik tagged himself a fat fish that was the twin to Joe's and had the hot rod of the day. He was even kind enough to offer the rod with a fish on it to his poor 'ol Dad a couple of times! I didn't get my keeper but that was my own fault. I had caught several fish and neglected to check my line for abrasions. When I did hook into a good one that was easily over 50 I lost it during one of the aerial shows when the line broke. Moral of the story - Check your mainline for abrasion after every fish!
We started running low on bait about 1 or so and the wind had started up and the sculpin were returning so we called it a day. Headed back in and actually had to wait to get to the dock for about 20 minutes due to congestion, primarily caused by the sheriff tied up there checking folks out I think. We only had half a dozen folks if front of us when we got there, another ten or so arrived and were stacked up behind us by the time we got to the dock. Loaded up and pulled completely out of the way of others trying to maneuver to the ramp. Made ready to travel and hit the road about 3 p.m. Had a good time reliving the days action with the guys till just south of Longview then had a real quiet trip till the rest area on the Santiam. The boys had a big day I think!
I have been fishing the same basic area for the last several weeks and have been doing quite well. Fishing the shallows just east of tongue point 2 hrs before through 2 hrs after the ebb. Single sand shrimp, 3' wire leader, 1 - 3 oz. weight depending on current. I was there 2 weekends ago for both days and didn't get around to posting about it, which really disappointed my Son because he got his biggest ever, So I'm mentioning it now. Sat. 4/4, Sun. 3/4, one of which was Erik's 48 inch prize.
Here's a couple of pics from yesterday of my first rate crew, doubled up in the first one and showing their trophys in the second. What a great day!
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/094914188.jpg
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/005014188.jpg
The day started out at 3 a.m. when I had had enough of waking up every 15 - 20 minutes for it to "be time", packed the cooler with the sandwiches and goodies the lads had prepared the night before, then woke them up about 15 minutes later. Got all the gear and clothes and such loaded and fired up the powerstroke and hit the road at 3:45. My neighbors love me I'm sure! Had an enjoyable trip talking fishing technique, launch procedures and the like with Joe, who is already a fishing fanatic of the first order at the age of 11. This was his first outing for the sturgeon so I tried my best to fuel his imagination for what was to come. My son Erik has quickly become a veteran sturgeon fisherman and he helped by giving his perspective on the good times to be had chasing gators. The 3 hour trip passed fairly quickly and we arrived at the John Day ramp a little before 7.
I was concerned about what the parking situation was going to be and fretted about the scenario all the way up there. This was the first time I had been to a high pressure ramp situation without an adult present and was worried about dumping the boat and leaving two 11 year olds to handle it at the dock. Turns out my worries were unfounded, I had a couple of experts with me and it all went like clockwork. A fella with a red crew cab must have seen what my situation was because he very kindly let me slip my rig and trailer into the spot he had parked in and went and parked in a shorter slot; thank you for that. The parking lot was full and I didn't really want to park out on the highway in front of the no parking signs. Anyways, the launching went great and we were on our way out to fish by 7:30 or so.
There were soooo many boats on the water I was really suprised. Most were sitting in the mouth of the John Day and north out into the main river. There had to be 50 or 60 in that group and then another 20 or so east of there where we were intending to fish. We made our way to the east side of the mass and got about 150 - 200 yds away from them and dropped the anchor. Absolutely beautiful morning with the water all glassy and calm. We quickly bated up with sand shrimp and just as quickly got bit. Unfortunately it was the mudcats. Fed them a couple dozen shrimp and then switched to smelt and anchovies so we could keep a bait out more than 30 seconds. Fished this way for a while with no sturgeon bites, just gut sucking sculpins, then about 8:30 I rigged up another shrimp and gave it a try. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes and I hooked what felt like a pretty good sturgeon and handed it off to Joe. He had his first sturgeon and it turned out to be a dandy 45 incher. Handled it like an old pro he did. Nice short pumps and no slack on the reel down part, well done. We all switched over to shrimp and proceeded to have ourselves a ball wrangling another 20 or so to the boat. Erik tagged himself a fat fish that was the twin to Joe's and had the hot rod of the day. He was even kind enough to offer the rod with a fish on it to his poor 'ol Dad a couple of times! I didn't get my keeper but that was my own fault. I had caught several fish and neglected to check my line for abrasions. When I did hook into a good one that was easily over 50 I lost it during one of the aerial shows when the line broke. Moral of the story - Check your mainline for abrasion after every fish!
We started running low on bait about 1 or so and the wind had started up and the sculpin were returning so we called it a day. Headed back in and actually had to wait to get to the dock for about 20 minutes due to congestion, primarily caused by the sheriff tied up there checking folks out I think. We only had half a dozen folks if front of us when we got there, another ten or so arrived and were stacked up behind us by the time we got to the dock. Loaded up and pulled completely out of the way of others trying to maneuver to the ramp. Made ready to travel and hit the road about 3 p.m. Had a good time reliving the days action with the guys till just south of Longview then had a real quiet trip till the rest area on the Santiam. The boys had a big day I think!
I have been fishing the same basic area for the last several weeks and have been doing quite well. Fishing the shallows just east of tongue point 2 hrs before through 2 hrs after the ebb. Single sand shrimp, 3' wire leader, 1 - 3 oz. weight depending on current. I was there 2 weekends ago for both days and didn't get around to posting about it, which really disappointed my Son because he got his biggest ever, So I'm mentioning it now. Sat. 4/4, Sun. 3/4, one of which was Erik's 48 inch prize.
Here's a couple of pics from yesterday of my first rate crew, doubled up in the first one and showing their trophys in the second. What a great day!
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/094914188.jpg
http://www.ifish.net/uploads/005014188.jpg