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After a spectacular, sunny, spring, rhododendron-studded drive along the Washington shore of the Columbia River, we arrived at the launch, and were in the water in 10 minutes. This was my first time on the Columbia, and as it turned out, it couldn't have been a better day. The wind was blowing, but I was told not as strongly as most days. The sun was out and it was relatively warm, and I was ready to fight not only my first oversize sturgeon, but my first sturgeon altogether! Yes, I've been sturgeon fishing before, but I've never been lucky enough to hook one. |
Dan was oozing with confidence because there had been reports of scattered shad showing, and as Dan said, "They're sturgeon candy. They just can't stay away from the shad." So our first stop of the morning was at Shad Shack, the shad hole, to see if we could fill up the bait cooler with sturgeon candy. Dan tossed over 3 lines with 3 different colors of Dick Nite spoons to see which color they were biting on. We were jigging off the bottom using a 2 ounce cannonball sinker on a 1 ft dropper with a 2 ft leader attaching the spoon. Dan had red on his line and hooked up immediately, and being the gentleman that he is, handed me the rod to reel in the first shad of my fishing career. What fighters for such small fish (reminded me of catching blue runners in Florida to make bait for Amberjack)! He tossed the same line over and, WHAM, another shad, so he handed me the rod one more time and said "Catch us some bait while I change the other 2 rods to red." In less than an hour of non-stop action, Richard, Dan and I had probably 25 shad in the cooler, and we raised the anchor and set out for the big boys.
As it was the last day of the Salmon season, we pulled up next to one of the hog lines to see how the salmon anglers were doing. There were fish being caught, but I was certainly glad I was going for sturgeon rather than salmon, based on their reports. I was ready for this, or almost..., so we made a quick stop back at the dock, and while I was powdering my nose, Dan and Richard stayed on the boat and prepared bait. Just for giggles, Dan flipped on the fish finder and there was probably a 200 pound fish right there under the boat!
We stopped, collected our anchor and buoy, turned to look at the rods, and don't you know, there was ANOTHER fish on the line. I was determined this time to do it right, so I planted my feet and stuck the rod where it belonged and reeled like there was no tomorrow. This was a two-hands-on-the-rod sturgeon. It was his strength against mine as he dove to the bottom and swam downstream, and then up he came, lumbering into the most graceful jump a 400#+ fish could possibly make. I reeled again while he was air born, and then held on for dear life as he dove once more. Well, this guy must have had his Wheaties that morning, because up he came again for yet another jump, this time trying desperately to shake me loose. On the third (and what ended up to be the final) dive, I noticed my hands starting to numb and my arms shaking, so after 20 minutes of fighting this marvelous fish, I reluctantly handed off again to Richard...about 2 minutes too soon. My fish had given up at the same time I had and up he came, only to be thanked, kissed and released again.
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To contact Dan Ponciano, visit his website at ColumbiaRiverFishing.com or call him at 360-573-7211. Remember: The best oversize sturgeon fishing months are May, June and July. You need to book early to be one of the few that experience it! |
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So off we went, about 3 minutes downriver, to one of Dan's "secret" sturgeon holes. Now in my opinion, here was another high point of the day, we didn't have to travel 2 hours to find these fish, NO they were right here! Dan tossed out the anchor and I asked him if he was going to use the fish finder. He said, "Hell no, we got candy!" and proceeded to rig up the most outrageous contraption I've ever seen fishing in my life. It was a downrigger release attached to a what looked like a crab trap buoy on a sturgeon rod attached to a second sturgeon rod with a tailless shad hogtied to a huge (9/0) barbless hook. Richard and Dan released both lines simultaneously and let the float take the bait 100 yards or so downriver, at which point he shook the shad loose of the release, explaining that you could never cast that far, duh. He went through the drill with me...watch for the nibble at the bait first, then slowly remove the rod from the holder, put your thumb on the spool, wait for the takedown, and set the hook hard. I asked, "Will I feel the takedown in the line?" He grinned and said, "No, you'll see it, you'll know."
So I watched the first rod, while Dan loaded up the second rod and got it in the water. And sure enough, tap, tap, tap, nibble, nibble, nibble, lift slowly, and wait, wait, wait..kinda like sturgeon zen. And then BAM, down it went. He was right, I knew I had one on and it was time to set the hook and do battle. I wasn't prepared though for the strength and weight of this dinosaur. Dan ripped the gloves off my hands and kept yelling REEL, REEL! I reeled and reeled and the fish dove. I reeled some more and he started to come up. Dan yelled, "He's going to jump! Don't let him shake you loose." And the next second he broke the water and I got my first glimpse of what I'd been waiting for. It was a monster! Unfortunately, I pooped out in about 10 minutes, trying to fight the fish like a trout, with the rod under my arm, mittens on, sitting on the side of the boat. Trust me this is not the way to bring up these babies! You've got to face them off squarely with both feet planted and the rod between your legs. I handed off to my husband and he continued the fight with "fish"zilla as Dan worked the boat closer to the fish. Finally we saw him just below the surface of the water about 20 feet behind the boat. Richard brought him in, Dan gently removed the hook, I kissed the fish and we let him go. What a trip!
Dan dropped the baited line in for our second go-around as he was motoring back up 2 miles to our anchor where we had started the first fish. One of the salmon anglers hollered over, "You guys really like that fishing?" as he sat without even one salmon in his boat. I thought to myself, hmm, sitting in a boat twiddling my thumbs vs. fighting these sturgeon, yeah, I really do like this!
We continued for the next two hours to repeat this again and again, the difference being that Richard fought all of his fish to the end. I must say humbly, although there is really no way of telling but sight, that Richard had the largest sturgeon of the day. He looked about 9 feet long, and probably weighed in at over 600 pounds, according to Dan. After waging this contest with five spectacular sturgeon, Dan asked, "Ready for another?" to which we both replied, without a moment's hesitation, NO! It was 2 o'clock, the sun was shining, our faces were a healthy shade of pink from the wind and exhilaration, and we were pleasantly exhausted! We had a six hour drive in front of us, so we said our goodbyes, but not until we had booked a trip for next year, same time, same place. This had been one of the most remarkable fishing trips I had ever taken, and next year start to finish I'm bringing at least one fish to the boat! So excuse me, I need to sign up for weight training now.
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