LOOKING FOR STURGEON & SMELT REPORTS

riverrat007 · 01-26-2003, 10:10 AM

thinking of fishing tomorrow around sauvie island/st helens area.
any reports of sturgeon in the area or smelt in the lewis?

Small Fry · 01-26-2003, 10:24 AM

I can't speak personaly about sturgeon other than what i've read seems to be fairly good in the Willemette. The smelt have been in the Sandy for a couple of days.

Drachir · 01-26-2003, 10:31 AM

Went out to the Sandy last night. It was pretty slow to say the least. We spent 3 hrs, and got 15#. We were doing a bit better than most. We found them in pretty close, and most people were out too deep and not doing too well. The river was on the rise fast last night, it came up a good 6"-9" while we were there.

A fellow couple of I-Fisher's were Gator fishing yesterday. They said there was lot's of bird activity, and every Gator came in w/ fresh smelt hanging out of the mouth. Good Luck!! :grin:

fishchaser · 01-26-2003, 02:04 PM

Yesterday we were out gator fishing w/the Smelt I dipped the day before. We saw a lot of birds working the smelt, the Sea Lions really working and we saw the Gators were eating them too.

We pulled in @ least 4 fish where our hooks were buried deep inside, but they had fresh wiggling smelt hanging out of their mouths. So we cut our leader and pulled the live smelt from their mouths and let them go.

Nothing like stealing candy from a baby.

fish Addict80 · 01-26-2003, 11:09 PM

I fished near the sellwood bridge area and had no action so moved near the mouth of the Willamette. We anchored and on my first cast I caught a 55" keeper. After that only 2 shakers to the boat. Talked to some other people and no one was having much (good) luck, a few shakers and that was all. I have never fished for sturgeon but using all the info I have learned on this site I was able to catch fish my first time out. Thanks to everyone, this board is awesome. [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]