Took a crew out today, my wife and two kids and a friend and his wife. You need that many adults to keep up with our kids-lots of energy. Launched at Cathedral around 12:30 and fished within spitting distance of the St John's bridge. There's a nice hole there with a sharp drop from 50' to 60', fished right on the front lip. Beautiful day with a bit of wind, but always on our bow. Thank goodness for the cover. Fished for 3 hours, about the limit for the kids when there isn't much happening.
Pretty slow fishing, the bites were soft and they wouldn't stay with it. Managed to get my friend's wife her first sturgeon and first keeper at the same time
. Was 43", but really surprised her with the amount of fight it put up. I love to see people bring in their first good sized fish. Of the 9 keepers I've brought into my boat of 1 year, 5 have gone to people who have never caught one before. I love it, now I just have to get my wife into a keeper
. I'll post a pic later, but she said she wanted to see it before posting
A few details, as this is still all pretty new to me. We fished mostly smelt with sturgeon feast on it. Tried squid a little with a few nibbles. With the kids, we weren't going to move, so after a while, let out another 50' of rope to put us further back in the hole. This helped with more bites. A couple sea anchors really helped to keep the swinging down, but still had to keep the lines tight. When we moved up past the lip of the hole, you could see a sturgeon on the fish finder just hanging on the lip, about 3' down from the upper edge. Surprising how they just hang there. Should one fish just above the hole or right in it? As I said, it seemed to better when we were further back into the hole. The 43" fish weighed 16 lbs and we got 5.5 lbs of fillet off of it. We do a lot of trimming, so you might be able to get a little more out of it.
Did see one boat in the middle of the channel get several 5-blasts from a tug/barge. They pulled out at last minute, backing out of the channel and pulling anchor. You really have to be ready if you're out in the middle.
Hope the action picks up a little soon. Seems like it's been real slow for most people.
Here's the pic.
[ 02-24-2003, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: fishitis ]
Willamette Sturgeon - One keeper - pic
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