Catching Sturgeon on the Columbia

Have you ever been sturgeon fishing? Neither had I until last until this trip. In fact last year my buddy Brandon offered to take my whole family after I helped him do some work on his boat. I figured October on the Columbia, sounds kind of cold and miserable, and since my family isn't a big fishing family I turned him down. This year he offered again only this time it was me and some other basketball buddies. Since I turned him down last year I figured I'd better go this time around... If I had only known how much fun it was going to be!

Sturgeon have to be within a certain size range to keep. They can't be too big or too small.

Here's a baby... too small.

And here's a keeper... just right.

But here's where all the fun is... OVERSIZE!!!

Ralph reeled in the first whopper of the day. He did not realize what he was in for, and still had all his early morning cold weather gear on. He had sweat pouring off of him by the time he was finished.

Here is my first big fish.

This fish is about 7 feet long and weighs an estimated 400 lbs. It took me about 25 minutes to fight him to the boat, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after watching Ralph take almost twice as long struggling with his monster.

Then I hooked into this beast which took me at least 45 minutes to fight in and completely wiped me out!

This fish is about 10 feet long and weighs an estimated 700 lbs. This was the biggest fish we measured... but not the biggest fish of the day.

We all agree that Loren's dinasour was even bigger. This fish had not only size, but attitude. Several times it surfaced near the boat to take a look at us and let us know who was really in charge.

Here it is mocking us!

Loren did get him up to the boat, and we flipped him on his back, but before we could measure him it soaked everyone on that side of the boat with a huge splash and took off again.

Look how fat this guy is... it is enourmous.

The hook was still in, so Loren started reeling him in again...

... but apparently it had had it's fun with us, so it shook the hook out and headed back to the bottom of the river. What a Fish!