Our Story, So Far...

I went fishing with R several weeks ago in the Multnomah Channel. It splits off from the Willamette River and takes the long way around Sauvies Island to hook up with the Columbia River further down stream. It was cold, raining and we didn't get a bite. At least R's boat has a canopy so we were able to get out of the rain most of the time. We went again yesterday. The conditions were a bit better: dry, overcast and in the mid 40's when we put into the water around 7. It just got better from there. The sun burned off some of the clouds around 9:30-10:00 and kept on burning them off until we had a beautiful sunny afternoon. A very nice day to be on the river. We were fishing for salmon. The spring run fishing season is open from March to the end of May at various sections of the rivers. A week ago, further down stream in the Columbia, R caught a couple of keepers (hatchery fish that have had their adipose fin clipped to distinguish them from the native or wild fish) as well as a couple of wild salmon (with their adipose fin intact) that he had to release. They were all good size fish, 20+ lbs. That was a good indication that the fish were running. Our first bite, yesterday was a 14" sucker fish or chub. A bottom feeder, a waste of bait. Around 1:30 - 2:00 we got our second bite. This one put up a bit of fight and took a while to get to the boat. It was a sturgeon, around 4 feet long. I had the presence of mind to grab the camera:

Sturgeon can get up to 12 feet long, over 1000 lbs and live for 100 years. R called it a pre-historic fish. They have to be bigger than 42" and less than 60" to be keepers. It wasn't what we were looking for and neither of us have any experience with them: catching them, preparing them or cooking them. So we released it. About 45 minutes later another sturgeon, bigger than the first, took the bait and played with us for a few minutes before spitting the hook out and taking off. This one acutally jumped out of the water trying to get rid of the hook. Quite a sight seeing over four feet of fish come out of the water! I wasn't able to get a picture of the second one, so you're just going to have to take our word for it.

R and I are scheduled to go fishing for a couple of days on the Rogue River the first weekend in June. Until then I will be joining R on weekends to hone my technique: "I Swear! It was thiiiiissssss big! But it got away."