Astoria/John Day Sturgeon

Whalerman · 05-28-2002, 08:19 AM

Fished Friday and Sunday, Limits both days. Most on sand shrimp, some on smelt. Nice to meet Fish Hunter and wife on Sunday. Jay, glad to see you get into 'em. How was Monday??
Mike

seaell · 05-28-2002, 08:27 AM

Went out of Deep River Saturday and Sunday, three rods on boat. We boated two keepers Saturday evening and three Sunday. All were on smelt

Herring Impaired · 05-28-2002, 09:14 AM

We also met Fishhunter Briefly On monday.
What a great looking boat he has! :-) :smile:

Caught two, a 54" and a 44", for three of us.

I let three 44"+ fish go trying to whip my mothers big fish... Wound up going fishless...

Tacklebuster · 05-28-2002, 10:14 AM

Whalerman,
Glad to hear of your success. Were you fishing in the deeper stuff around tounge point or in the shallows? I want to make a trip up soon but am torn between chasing the peelers for a couple of weeks or hitting the estuary before it becomes a zoo. Were there alot of fish caught ?

BottomFeeder · 05-28-2002, 01:00 PM

Fish Hunter,

So you and your wife will have consumed four keeper sturgeon by the end of the week and are going back for more eh? Please, if you still have 20lbs of sturgeon fillets in your freezer when you go back this weekend consider going in catch and release mode. Sturgeon are a precious resource it is everyone's job to reduce wastage where possible. Besides, there is nothing like releasing a keeper fish knowing it will live another day.

TPM

Fish Hunter · 05-28-2002, 02:52 PM

Not a bad suggestion. One that might be overlooked when fishing sturgeon. We are talking about a naturally producing wild fish run! When the fishing flame really got lit with me in the mid 80's it was all about C&R fly fishing for trout. When I started steelheading, keeping the hatchery fish was a real joy. There is something great about using what you catch, kind of get to relive the memories. It's sure like that with big game for us. I feel good about the fish we eat. We strive to only keep enough fish so nothing stays in the freezer longer than 3 months. Longer than that and sometimes it's not quite as good. It's usually not a problem though, since Renee doesn't fish as often as I do and most times my boat guests take fish with them.

Whalerman · 05-28-2002, 04:33 PM

Tacklebuster,

We fished anywhere from 4' to 25'. All upriver of Tongue Point. Have released quite a few keepers in 5 trips so far. Am fishing tomorrow and Friday, will post results.

Anyone have reports of fishing out of Warrenton or Hammond??

Whalerman

Fish Hunter · 05-28-2002, 11:04 PM

Good to meet Mr. and Mrs. Whalerman out there, thanks for putting us on some fish. You two seem pretty dialed in. Leroy, sounds like you found some good catching too. Mac how did your Sunday trip end up? Hopefully better than it started.

We really did have great time. The B&B was good. Easy and secure boat parking. We had some excellent dinners out in Astoria. Enjoyed the fishing a great deal. I'd give us only a C+ compared to how the other boats were catching. I feel like we're on our way to getting dialed in. We got only shakers on Saturday. Sunday we watched others catching early. We lenghtned our leaders, moved and got into them good. Could hardly finish lunch. My wife got a good bite, got excited and spilled her salad on the boat floor. She got her first sturgeon keeper Sunday. It was 52"! I got a 48" keeper later. Lots of action. One boat I talked to caught 6 keepers for 2 rods. A boat next to us had 4 keepers by 9 am. Monday started slow. We moved three times before we found some fish. Found some pretty consistent action mid morning and my wife caught a 48" keeper. It slowed down some until 2pm when we tried another deeper spot and we got a 42" keeper. Was a great weekend. Plan to fish out there next weekend too.