Herring in sturgeon...

[AngleThis]

First off, last Sunday, I did a little sturgeon fishing since the salmon bite was so poor. I had no smelt with me but was suprised that I was catching fish on herring... now I know why.

I'm not aware of any Herring runs in the river these days, so all I can think of is that the fish you caught had just made a B-line from the estuary just before you nailed him

[Salmonator]

Or somebody was using herring for bait, didn't want to re-freeze what was left and dumped 'em in the river.

[Rimshot]

O.K. first the report, fished the area below the fishery. We anchored in 65' of water on the Oregon side. First cast on my brand new rod....43" keeper! Then we prceeded to do some research on the juvenile sturgeon population. It's thriving. From the size of fish we were catching I'd say in about 15 years we will have a good crop of keepers . We were on our last 2 smelt when my buddy finally quit playing with the babies and came up with a 45". Great day overall :grin: .
Now to the question...
One of the fish had 3 whole herring in it's stomach. Not too weird except the fish were fairly fresh and in perfect condition. Still had all their scales and fins, hadn't started to digest much at all. My first thought was these were bait from somebody trolling up there but I examined them close and they were in PERFECT condition. No tear maks or even punctures from hooks. My second thought was maybe they were what was left after a days fishing and somebody threw them overboard. But then salmon season closed on the Columbia 5 days ago. Wouldn't they be a little more digested? My final thought was could this fish have been in the estauary a few days ago and swam this far up river?
Anyway I have been puzzled by this and it's driving me nuts wondering how this could be. So, I thought I'd throw it out to the experts here and get some opinions. What do you all think?

[Biteme]

Sturgeon update: This year for whatever reason the sturgeon especially on the willamette have been keyed into herring and will bite it much more aggressively than anything else. I usually dont use herring for sturgeon but one of my good customers called me and told me he caught a 57 and a 59 in the milwaukie area on herring. I was somewhat skeptical about this but on my next trip in the willamette I tried it and may did they hit it. I think that with all of the salmon fisherman discarding old bait that the herring has become a prefered food source for them. I tried it in the columbia with not as much luck. but then again not many people up near bonneville are using herring. Maybe sardine fillets? and in O.C. area pink prawns on the bottom? Maybe there is a relationship between the good keeper sturgeon action lasting later into the summer up in the gorge when the salmon season is open. They follow there food source, when food is available they will stay. Most likely that fish with the herring in it had come from the portland area where the herring draggers are more prominent. if you are having a slow day on salmon put one of those herring down on a sturgeon setup and you just might be suprised.
nwfish.com

[skeezer]

we did good fishing with herring salmon was poor so we started fishing for sturg it was great , we got two keepers and the fight was great useing our salmon rods with 17lb test . The smelt was not doing anything at all for us .....
(we were on the willamette)