Keep checking back, you'll get a lot of info pretty soon. When you see the trout like bite, I have been told thats when they're spitting it out. You want to hit em when they start pulling down. It works OK for me. Do a search, there will be lots of good info that you can get without waiting for responses. :cheers:

 

Hit them when you think you've got em. I usually wait untill their pulling pretty good. Some of the guys I've fished with set the hook hard enough they don't have to reel them in they just come flying out of the water. (kodiakfisher) :tongue: Just practice a bit you'll get the hang of it.

 

I think they bite a little bit different depending on what time of year it is and where you are fishing. Below Bonneville they seem to bite a little more aggresively, but it can be just a tick. Above Bonneville, I hit as soon as the rod nudges on second or third nudge. Below Bonneville and down in the estuary, I wait for a slight pull. Either place, you usually have time to pick up the rod, take out the slack and wait for the trigger. If you think they have it in their mouths, by all means set the hook... :dance:

 

A good Sturgeon bite is a pumping action as they suck in and out. Get 'em on the downstroke and the bait is furthest down their throat.

 

A quick tap, tap, tap is usually a bullhead or crawdad. I agree, some days they slam it, other days they just mouth it. It's ok to wait a little. If they want it, they won't leave a free meal. Make sure you reel in all your slack, but don't put tension on the line they can feel. Sometimes you will have to put your finger on the line to feel the bite. All depends on # test and how much weight. LOL

Green Machine

 

I think I learned more about a sturgeon bite using lighter gear. I struggled at first with the heavy gear. They called me "Whiff Boy". Then I fished a bunch around Kelley Point with salmon gear (12-25 rod spooled with 50# Tuff Line). The lighter gear really let me get the feeling of what they were doing. You can feel every move as they pick it up and drop it. When you get those first taps, carefully remove the rod from the holder with minimum movement of the tip. When you feel the pick up, hit them. Once I got the feel, it was no problem switching back to the heavier gear I use up in the gorge.
Keep at it. You'll get it.

 

The feeding habits on that particular day have a lot to do with it for me. Sometimes they are very sensitive to any movement on our end. Sometimes they are so agressive they just inhale the bait and buckle the rod.

Very light bite:
At first sign of the bite I like to very gentally remove the rod from the holder. I then like to reel down on them ever so easily, rendering any slack. The bite generally comes in sets. tick tick tick.........tick tick tick tick.......
It's a matter of timing. You want to be ready to stick them at the begining of a set.
On these days you want to be certain you are using only enough lead to stay on bottom. This way when the fish picks up the bait he is less likely to feel the lead.

Normal bite:
Retreive rod from holder. Wait till you feel a constant pressure as though your bait is being swam away with. Then Nail'em!!!!

Aggressive bite:
Hope you can remove the rod from it's holder without it becoming two peices!
On these occassions ( usually when smelt is in ) you will want to attempt a hookset rather quickly to reduce the number of deeply hooked fish.

Hope this is helpful. Keep on trying. It's a learned method just like steelheading.

 

What I like to tell people on my boat that are first time sturgeon fisher"people" (PC) :

When you see the bite, slowly pick up the rod so as not to disturb the line, as the fish bites...tap tap tap...slowly lower the rod towards the fish. Upon each set of taps continue to lower your rod tip until you reach a good hookset position. What you are doing by lowering your rod tip is you are allowing a small amount of line to travel thru your sliding weight which helps feed slack to your bait, which in turn helps the sturgeon inhale the bait. Typically, by the time your rod is in good hookset position the bites become more intense and when they do........Tag'em!

One way to add some "slop" in the rod is to use monofilament line. Most people use Tuffline because there is no stretch and you can use less lead in faster current however, when possible, using mono seems to help take out some of the error on the hookset, especially when using heavy gear like Uglysticks.

Once you get the hang of it though you'll increase your hit rate alot, not perfect, but much better. I find that most of the time when I'm having trouble hitting fish it's because I'm parked over a school of little fish. The smaller they are the harder they are to get hooked.

 

If you want to see how Sturgeon eat go to the Sturgeon pool at bonneville Dam, you will see Herman 9 footer and others 42 to 6 footers. My wife and I went up on a Saturday morning and they were feeding them the dead smolts and old trout(for the big ones). The small one took the head only and slowly sucked it in( the slow bite per BRSHOOTER), The large ones sucked it like a vacuum, it was very interesting to watch and promptly went home and applied knowledge and caught keeper......... :grin: :grin: :grin:

 

I could not agree more with Sturgeon 42. I watched those fish eat and came away with a whole new outlook on hooking them. Sturgeon have a rough plate on the roof of thier mouth that they grind thier food against. They do this by sucking in and spitting out the food repeatedly until they have eatin all of it. I guess I'll repeat what was already said, but try to get most of the slack from the line and set it when you feel a tug downward on rod. Don't wait or they will have spit it back out. I really like tuff-line or power pro for sturgeon fishing beacuse there is a lot less stretch in the line and I think you get a better hook set...just my $.02 though.

 

5-Cents .02 :grin:

First of all I would suggest using a braided line if you are not already. I recently switched to a braided line and their is a huge difference in feel. You can feel te bite much better.

This being said I was using heavy 1 piece salmon rods (25-50lb line) and we missed a lot of fish. I switched to Ugly Stick Tigers (medium action) and used them for the first time last time out and we darn near nailed every fish that bit. You can feel the bite much better with these rods combined with the braided line and that directly impacted the hook up ratio.

Using this setup when you do get a bite you can feel when the fish is sucking in the bait because the line immediately tightens. One mistake that I think a lot of people make is hitting the rod WAY to hard and pulling the bait away from the fish.

Remember that these fish dont see too well and they are using their nose to find your bait. If you set and dont feel the fish let the bait sit there, 9 out of 10 times the fish is waiting to finish the meal. A lot of times when I miss a fish I will bounce the weight a couple of times to make sure that I have all the slack in and wait for him to come back. When they do most of the time you get a more aggressive hit.

Just so you know I have caught huge fish that bite light, huge fish that bite huge, little fish that bite huge and little fish that bite light. There does not seem to be a real pattern. The one thing that does seem to make a difference is the more current you are fishing in the bigger the bite. I think the fish can not rest as easy and eat when the current is moving at a good rate. I love to fish in a good current!

If you do see one big bounce then nothing it is usually a fish spitting the bait out or hook out. You really have to be watching to see some fish bite, thats why they got big. It could also be a fish rooting around looking for your bait. Let it sit and see if he comes back. If not check your bait.

If all else fails when you pick up your pole and you are missing the fish, hold your pole and close your eyes. When you feel a tug set the hook

Hope this helps.

:cheers:

 

5 Cents I like this one.

(If all else fails when you pick up your pole and you are missing the fish, hold your pole and close your eyes. When you feel a tug set the hook)

But I have to agree somethime thats all that works.

 

Small Fry

from the reports of your last fishing trip you might give the closing your eye and waiting for the tug thing a try. :tongue:

Although you did anchor your boat on a nice fat keeper for your wife that was really nice. :dance:

I used to set the hook hard enough that sometimes all I would reel up are lips. Now I have managed to hook more fish with light hook sets if there is no fish set it down 9 out of 10 will come back to take it.

Kodiakfisher.

 

Kodiak

Man in just 30 plus days you have become a pro at this sturgeon thing. :wink:

If I catch all the fish what will the others on the baot catch. I have to make sure Lori catch's fish once in a while. If you say anything to her I'll have to hurt you!!!!!!! :wink:
( Bad Doug no bait)

 

I think you should set the hook when the rod is getting hit a bunch. Like if the rod tip is going tap, tap, tap, tap fairly fast then you should set the hook. But if the rod tip goes down really slow then it's probaly not a bite. This is just how I seem to hook most of mine. And sometimes you may have to wait a while to get a good bite.

 

Originally posted by corrirod:
[QB] What I like to tell people on my boat that are first time sturgeon fisher"people" (PC) :

When you see the bite, slowly pick up the rod so as not to disturb the line, as the fish bites...tap tap tap...slowly lower the rod towards the fish. Upon each set of taps continue to lower your rod tip until you reach a good hookset position. What you are doing by lowering your rod tip is you are allowing a small amount of line to travel thru your sliding weight which helps feed slack to your bait, which in turn helps the sturgeon inhale the bait. Typically, by the time your rod is in good hookset position the bites become more intense and when they do........Tag'em!

Good advice Rod, this method works very well. I have gone as far as "feeding" some line back to a soft biting fish, to help them inhale the offering.

But, the last two times I have fished with "Pilar" we were raining death from above. No soft bite about it, if your line was in the water, it was getting hit, HARD. :dance:

We had six poles in the water, with six fish on at one time. Three of witch were keepers. And yes, we had six people fishing. :tongue:

Peace, Tom

 

Sometimes what looks like a short bite is your boat drifting around (and subsequently dragging the weight around). Make sure you walk your bait back a good bit and use sea anchors to stabilize the boat, sometimes even that's not enough.

Biederboat

 

I sturgeon fished the Willamette for a number of years since I was working right beside the river. I learned alot about the bite of a sturgeon. Like it has been said already, you never can tell if its a big or little fish . But thats half the fun ! I did notice that sometimes when the fish were biting very light sometimes they would "scrub" the line several times before they would bite again and sometimes they would stop after feeling the line {weird}. I also have seen some fish when I have tried to set the hook and miss .come to the surface and roll as if to look and see if there is somebody up there!..NO lie ! :grin:

 

Re: 5-Cents .02 :grin:

So..... now you can quit your day job, give it to me and start "Sturgeon Guiding." Huh.

:tongue:

They bite like Carp, dang it, unless they are an oversize taking a whole shad, then they bite like great big Carp. :laugh:

If you rip and miss one, bounce the weight a few times and leave it in the exact spot. If you have not had a bite in awhile, take a couple turns on the reel, bounce the weight a few times and try this spot for a bit. Secret sinker call em' in tip. :wink:

Another reason I tie pieces of bait on (yes I know the whole smelt is the only ticket sometimes) is that you can keep on rippin' and your bait keeps on tickin' with multiple hook ups, without the long reel up and changing bait every rip or fish.

Some good tips in this thread. :smile:

Rick

[ 01-08-2003, 09:50 PM: Message edited by: Nanook ]

 

Small fry
I wouldn't be busting my chops how many people do you know that can hook a rod and reel in the bottom of the Willamette and fight it all the way to the top. Talk about a light bite!! :grin: :grin: If I remember correct I seemed to have hooked more fish than you the only time I was in your boat. :shocked: I can only hold back soo long.

I still use this rod and reel combo today. Thanks small fry for hooking me up on the invite for that trip. Yes it was small frys rod that I hooked my sturgeon rod on. It did meet the min 42inch requirement it now sits in my garage. The rod and reel that is :wink:

You forget small fry I grew up fishing in Alaska as a young one catching Halibut same gear same technique. I will say that any oversize will kick the @#*& out of any halibut up there. Setting the hook on a bottom be it halibut or sturgeon is the same. It is actually easier to detect sturgeon bites due to no ocean swell constantly moving your rod tip while halibut fishing.

Kodiakfisher

 

hook them right before you think there gonna drop it. when you feel the doink doink then thats after they drop it and the weight hits the bottom. sometimes they hit three times in a rown when they hit a second time then wait a sec and hit umm. its confusing. :whazzup:

 

Holding your rod rather than putting in a rod holder may eliminate mistakes while "carefully" removing the rod from the rod holder.
It also allows you to steady the rod in windy or boat wake situations.
This may force you to enjoy your favorite beverage with only one hand.

 

Ah yes.... Welcome to the chess game I call sturgeon fishing. First off, there is a lot of good tips thus far and you can't go wrong with any of them. Different people have different techniques that help them hook and land fish. The one thing that I think everyone will agree with is that the stronger the current, the better the bite.

I have seen sturgeon bite different day to day, hour to hour, spot to spot. The smaller ones will usually give your pole the "bang, bang" in the rod holder. It also depends on what you are using for bait. When I fish the estuary and use shrimp or anchovies for bait, 70 percent of the time the sturgeon will inhale this bait and you will get a steady pull or the drag will be peeling out of the reel before you can get it out of the rod holder.

Around the Kelley Point area, I have found the fish not as aggressive and will take their sweet time when eating a smelt. Unless of course the smelt run is in full force then they will sometimes hammer the bait like down in the estuary. Bottom line is you need to put a lot of leg work in and find your niche.

I personally will not even look at an ugly Tiger stick unless I am targeting Hogs or if the current causes me to use more than 8 ounces of lead. I fish one of either two poles rated 10 to 20 or 8 to 17 spooled with 30 pound tuff and as little weight as I can get by with. Have your reel spooled with 300 yards of line cause with the light stuff, your going to need it. I also cast and then bounce my weight as far back from my boat as possible when fishing.

I will weight for something steady at the end of my line before I try a hookset. It will take you some time but eventually you WILL know when to lay the meat to them in a certain bite. Sometimes you have to hit them right off the bat when the bite is fast and aggressive, other times you will have to "feed" them the bait for awhile. I like to fish in the heavy current with the lightest gear possible. I am a firm believer that you will hook and land more fish that way. I will put my technique up against any others on any circumstance and not change a thing.

The best thing to do is fish different types of water, current, bait, and conditions until you get comfortable. For me, the challenge is getting into a pod of feeding fish and getting the hookset.

Good luck and post your results :wink:

[ 01-09-2003, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: Tacklebuster ]

 

Small Fry,

Some times to catch a fish you have to act like one :wink:

Shane

 

I will put my technique up against any others on any circumstance and not change a thing.

The problem with you Chris is you have no passion for what you believe. :tongue:

Summer Steelhead trip, my treat? Bring the Jolly Roger.

:grin:

[ 01-09-2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: Nanook ]