sturgeon, salmon, steelhead, etc.

[leverfan]

I'm kind of bummed that none of the popular Northwest fish made the cut to have their own forum.  My favorite fish to go after is the sturgeon, because of its size and the excellent fish and chips that follow a catch.  The biggest sturgeon I've brought to the boat was a 9' white near Astoria, OR.  For those unfamiliar with local fishing regs, the biggest ones have to be released to continue breeding, so my biggest keeper was just under 6'.  I'd love to hook one of the 14' monsters that swim the Snake and upper Columbia.

After that, for sheer fishing fun and good flavor, chinook salmon, followed by steelhead, are the runners-up.  Does anyone else here fish buoy 10 near the mouth of the Columbia?  Anyone cross the bar and fish the big water for the fish coming in?  It beats bass fishing, IMHO, but maybe I just need to do more bass fishing.  If there's any kokanee or trout to be had in a lake, I don't even gear up for bass, so maybe I'm missing out.

Bottom fishing for halibut and ling cod is pretty good fun too, even if you end up spending more than half the time reeling in dogfish instead of the intended catch.  I suppose that fits into the salt water forum, along with crossing the Columbia bar after migrating salmonids, but it sure seems like it's enough fun for its own forum.

Just my rambling $.02 worth.

[Ol' Man Mountain]

Hey Leverfan,

My favorite fish is also the great white sturgeon (Acipenser Transmontanus). In my opinion, the white sturgeon is one of the greatest game fish in the world.
I have been fishing the sturgeon up here on British Columbia's Fraser River for a little over 45 years.
To date the largest fish I have managed to get along side the boat was an estimated 11-foot monster that would have weighed somewhere around 800 pounds.
While guiding, we hooked one sturgeon that was thought to be larger, but after a four hour battle and four very tired anglers, we lost the fish when the line snapped due to circumstances beyond our control.
Now believe it or not, two days before the above-mentioned battle, I personally saw a sturgeon that surfaced not 50 feet in front of boat in the same location we hooked the fish above that I estimated at roughly 20 feet in length. I have also had three other reports over the years of sturgeon that were estimated at over 20 feet in length.
I have also fished (both sport and commercial) for all species of salmon, steelhead, trout and halibut throughout British Columbia and Alaska.
However, once you tie into a monster sturgeon, nothing else seems to compare.

[Wrong Way]

I used to fish off of the rock jetty with a bobber for silvers. Did pretty well. Saw some big Lings caught off of it also. My favorite was shad fishing up by the dam. Good eating stuff. :grin: I went over to the Copalis the other day and pitched in a sand shrimp and got a nice pile perch and a two pound silver jack. He was tastey.

[encore31]

wow! those are some monster sturgeon i fish in northern minnesota were we catch lake sturgeon the biggest i've caught is only 32 pounds just a baby for the ones you guys are talkin about but man oh man are they ever good to eat!!!! i would love to go fishing for the white sturgeon if either one of you guys could tell me were to begin to start looking for one of these fishing trips i would greatly appreciate it thanks! i couldn't amagine hooking into a 10ft or bigger fish the 32 pounder i caught took me a half hour to get in i cant imagine what one of these thing could do!