OK, Don't believe it.....

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
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As some of you may have read I had plans to go salmon fishing on Thursday and I did. We salmon fished for about 3 or 4 hours with no luck at all. Steve the fellow I went fishing with said we may even try sturgeon fishing if the salmon fishing wasn't any good. After about 3 hours I asked Steve about the sturgeon. He said he didn't bring any bait and that we needed to keep our eyes open for a dead shad and we'd use that for sturgeon bait. After one false alarm we did finally spot one and then moved to sturgeon hole on the Columbia River. He then cut several strips off of the shad and baited our hooks. Dave, the other fellow that went with us caught a small one about 2' long shortly after we started. There are real strict rules on the sturgeon. A legal fish can only be kept if its over 42" and under 60". Everything else is released. Guess it was a half an hour untill I finally got bit. I knew right away this was a large fish. The outfit I was using had 100 yards of 80# test and was spliced with 110# test. In no time this fish had the first 100 yards off. For the first 15 minutes or so it was pretty much give and take. The fish would gain some and then I would gane it back. Steve asked if I would like him to spell me and I gave him the pole. As soon as that happend the fish went for a run and gained at least another 50 yards if not more. This was on top of having the boat unanchored. After around an hour and few more exchanges with the pole we finally got the fish along side the boat. When it gave up it rolled over on its back. Steve had me release pressure on the line and he undid the hook. What a great fish! It had to have been 8 to 9' long and over 300 pounds. I've heard of fish like this being caught but never thought it would happen to me especially since it was only the second time I've fished for sturgeon. I hope sometime later today that Steve will be sending me the pictures and I'll get them posted. I know its sounds hard to beleive but it really did happen.
 
Raymond,
I was a fly tyer and fisherman long before becoming a knifemaker.
I know Striper28 is a tyer as well.
Drooling on keyboard at the moment :D

One of my older fly tying books is called Steelhead Fly Fishing and Flies by Trey Combs.....page 9 has an old photo of a large sturgeon that was caught in the a Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia River.
Scary looking fish!
Thanks for sharing,
 
Thats the good thing about Oregon and Washington..The FISH!!! :D
 
Ray ahhhh another one to add to the fish storys :D

make sure you get that picture posted :D you didn't happen to get a few eggs from it did you? :D do you happen to like caviar? :)
 
Dan, On the size fish I got the only thing you allowed to do is unhook and say goodbye. I was really surprized with the amount of respect I had for this fish after it was all fought out. Releasing it came very easy.
 
Raymond Richard said:
Dan, On the size fish I got the only thing you allowed to do is unhook and say goodbye. I was really surprized with the amount of respect I had for this fish after it was all fought out. Releasing it came very easy.
Click to expand...

and the pictures right, :)
they last a lot longer than the meat anyway..
and if you stuffed it , what wall would you put it on anyway.. :eek: :D
memories are forever, :) ,,
 
Hopefully that big old guy recovered well. Probably not the first time he's tussled with a people. They're really awesome fish, so ugly they're beautiful in a primordial way. That fish was almost certainly well over a hundred years old. :)

I really like the part about respecting the fish, Ray. Bravo! :)
 
Actually, Fitz, that would be "big old gal"!!! :D

Sturgeon are one of those freaky fish that are male up until they reach a maturity that corresponds to about 5-6' in length, and then their female sex organs take over and they start making the babies.

The upper limit used to be 6', but then people started catching fish in the upper 5' length that had eggs. So they shrunk the upper size to 5'

I used to work for a fishing guide and most all of our trips were for sturgeon... all up and down the Columbia. Mostly at Napton, right near Astoria, OR.

Well, that AND my dad and I have gone out about 300 times or so.

The smallest sturgeon we ever caught was 13" and the biggest one was 12'!!! :eek:

There are few things in life as exciting as the give and take fight... and then the moment when you finally see that fish.

Most folks have the misunderstanding that catching a sturgeon is like realing in a log. We caught several in the 6-8' range in shallow water that came COMPLETELY out of the water and "tail walked" just like people think of a steel-head doing.

Now that is something to experience!

Your story reall really really makes me want to go get the boat ready and head down to the river Ray!!!

Glad to hear you caught a big one!!! I had been fishing them for about 4 years before I landed an oversize.

-Nick-
 
An 873 lb blue fin tuna was recently caught off the Delaware coast. It was taken with a bluefish filet on an 80 lb line and it took 1 1/2 hours to get it to the boat !!!.......In the 1800s they harvested large amounts of sturgeon from the Hudson River, they called it Hudson River Beef .
 
My shoulder wouldn't allow me to reel something like that in, but I would love to be in the boat when someone caught one.

Maybe next year, I'll be a rich fulltime knifemaker by then and can afford a boat and gear. :)
 
Hey Mark, When you become a rich full time maker let me know and I'll go fishing with you on your boat.

Still haven't gotten the pictures from Steve but as soon as I do I'll get them posted.

Nick, About the fish jumping out of the water for some reason this one didn't. I think its butt was to big. Steve was really expecting to see it jump and I sure was hoping it would but no go.
 
Still sounds like one hell of a fight Ray!!!

I think the jumping just makes your heart skip a couple more beats. A fish the size of the one you caught is an unreal experience. By the time you're 10 years older, that fish you just caught will be remembered as about 30 feet long! ;)

-Nick-
 
Tales like this allow all of us that have had the pleasure to hunt or fish to remember what a good catch or a good rack felt like. It is a primordial quickening of the heart, and absolute joy. I miss the opportunity in my current situation, as I have no local friends who hunt, or fish, but I look forward to the opportunity again, someday before I die.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
Steven, I would love to see your hard-ass, San Diego/Seattle tattoo guy self battling it out with an oversize sturgeon!!!

I could imagine a lot of, "F'n Yea this is fun!" :D

-Nick-
 
Damn Ray that's a great story! Felt like I was in the boat with you. I can't wait to see the pics, but really, I can feel that big bad momma pulling the boat along right now... :cool: That is seriously cool, congratulations!
 
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