Smallies, Sturgeon and Sea Monsters....

[DocSpotty]

It has been difficult to get out fishing the last three weeks……I hate it when work gets in the way of what is really important in life. But good fortune smiled when I, being the ever accommodating significant other, went with my wife to Lewiston, Idaho for some business she had over the weekend. On Saturday we went fishing for white sturgeon on the Snake River. This is quite an accomplishment as my wife KNOWS if she gets on the water anywhere she not only will drown but be eaten by Jaws….even in fresh H2O.

When I told her meet up time was 0600 she nearly clocked me….kind of a grumpy camper at the put in:



But the ride was ready to jet….literally…



Although the river was absolutely gorgeous,



this area had been raining for 11 days and the river was very high and very off color, not the best conditions for our fishing. But we tied up in the first hole to a conveniently located tree in the river and in about 20 minutes I had the first sturgeon…..a nice little 4+ ft fish.

Baiting up was just like fishing halibut at home….we were using big hunks of salmon belly on a rather large hook….which had to be barbless. About half hour later my wife reeled in her first sturgeon and became ungrumpy.

Then we soaked baits for another hour or so without so much as a sniff. Jake, the guide and human cigarette, freshened up one of the baits which was soon eaten by a much nicer sized fish. After about 10 minutes it bolted downstream and I couldn’t stop it even with 150 lbs PowerPro:



The beast beat me up for another 20 minutes before I “thought” it was done and got it close to shore for the first time (having jumped off the boat to beach it so we could keep it in the water):



(Hopefully no one was offended by my profile which my daughter refers to as The Incredible Bulk….;-))



The swirl had me excited about the size of this little critter….this is when it decided to rip off another 50 yards of line and the whole landing process was dragged out another 15 minutes….then we (although you’ll notice the guide judiciously allows me to get wet while he stays dry…smart guy) finally got it tailed and controlled:





My arms were burning, cramping and my hands were shaking but I was one happy camper to look at this 7 ½ foot monster:



I was so stupid giddy my feeble brain actually thought I could lift this thing…..there could have been a hernia in that attempt:



About this time Jake informs me this thing probably weighs around 250 lbs…go figure.

Wasn’t sure I wanted to catch anymore after the muscle cramping set in. We changed holes twice with no luck….sometime into the fourth hole my wife’s line started clicking out and she was hot onto another sturgeon:



It took her into a tree which we finally worked it out then it took off like a bat out of heck. At which time the guide made the unthinkable mistake and hammered the drag down and at 15 minutes into a huge fish it broke off. I was very proud of my wife as she hung in there despite the burning muscles….I’m not so sure she wasn’t happy it got off.

As lunchtime came on we had a few more fruitless stops and finally pulled in to cook some hamburgers for lunch. Of course we had a couple of baits thrown out the back of the boat. As I was condimenting (not sure if that is a real word) my hamburger my palm started burning and I opened it to find 3 deep slash marks in a perfectly straight line….the guide forgot to warn me about how sharp the dorsal spines were, especially on the smaller fish:



As we ate lunch and sipped cold beverages it was getting darn hot. I kept getting little bites but nothing substantial…we figured it was a channel cat chewing on the bait. We started pulling up the lines, which had been soaking for an hour, when mine felt somewhat weighted….turned out a fish had gulped the bait and was stuck in one of the submerged bushes which were everywhere. We managed to free the line and, whoa, it was another nice sturgeon.



After 25-30 minutes of wrestling around this one, again I was in the water beaching it….what did I pay the guide for?



I was getting ready to release this sucker when I had to go looking for my pliers:



They weren’t there ;-) ….odd sensation though…and the fish silently slid back into the depths.

It was time to head back downstream to the corral but we had time to stop in two holes on the way back. The first was where my wife broke off “the beast”. We hadn’t been sitting there for 5 minutes and my wife’s reel started screaming again as a behemoth just swam off with the bait. We pulled anchor and took off after the beastII. She hung on by herself for the first 10 minutes then I started to help her out a bit:



Pretty soon I had the rod and this thing was a whale it ran a lot of line out and I absolutely couldn’t move the creature:



We were 30 minutes into this fish and my wife wanted another whack at it….while helping her work the rod I was staring downstream when, incredulously, this monster fish nearly cleared the water…it was truly unbelieveable….it was in the 10 foot class, an enormous beast. Unfortunately, this was to be our only look at the fish…..with more than an hour into the fight we were looking for someplace we could work this monster onto a beach and “POP”…..the hook pulled. Would have loved a picture of the beast but I just gave it a silent salute as the slack hook and line came in. Across the river it seemed as if even the wildlife was giggling at us:



Both of us were exhausted but we were going to stop for 15 minutes at the first hole we had caught fish at near the launch. About 5 minutes in my line started clicking, I set the hook, and felt only a moderate little tug and handed it to my wife. The pull kept getting stronger and then it was off to the races downstream….she had had enough and practically threw the rod back at me muttering…..”yeah….sure….little one…uh huh”



It was another 20 or so minutes and I was on the shore again:



My wife got a great shot of it on top of the water….no wonder people long ago thought they were river monsters:



The creature was finally beached with no help at all from the guide, pics taken and released:





Jake walked by and I just looked up and said “We’re done”. No way could I have brought in another fish…they had beaten the holly heck out of us. So I waddled back into the boat, enjoyed a few more minutes of beautiful scenery:



and we were at the boat ramp. The next day both of us were so sore we could hardly move….I figured during the 9 hours of sturgeon fishing I was actually buttoned to a fish for nearly 3 hours of that time…it was a great trip. Next time I will have to do some working out before fishing sturgeon again. The fish are NOT supposed to beat the heck out of you.

We had a days respite on Sunday to recover….come Monday my wife had to teach so I headed over with the same guys to drift fish the lower section of the Grande Rhonde River for smallmouth bass. The GR is a big steelhead river and runs into the Snake River…it is actually just into Washington, not Idaho. It was a bit of a drive to the put in but the scenery was great…pheasants, chukars and quail running around everywhere, but when we got to the river it was very high and off color:





It was overflowing the banks with lots of bushes in the water….not the best conditions for catching our quarry. But, heh, it’s not like I wasn’t going to try anyway. Water was very chilly and we went all day working tube jigs VERY slowly. We hadn’t had much of anything for the first hour until we approached this fine spot:



Lee, the kid rowing the drift boat, said that they encountered 3 rattlesnakes sunning on these rocks 2 days before……great. Then he informed me we were going to beach and fish from them there rattler rocks…he’s walking in front with a big stick beating the rocks….I know how this works, he wakes them up so the little ankle biters get me. But it did bring me my first GR smallie:



I caught half a dozen in that back eddy then we were off in again drifting…..always with the great scenery:



We started catching smallies with regularity….mostly from 8 to 13 inches but occasionally we tagged a nice one….this one was 19 inches:



Came across a juvenile bald eagle which fell out of its nest but couldn’t fly….do you want to try to pet it? Not me. Then there was a young elk just felting out which kept staring at us:





Smallies were coming with regularity and a few nice ones….this first one was 18 inches and the second the big one of the trip…20+ inches….although I missed one at the boat which was bigger (I know…another fish story):





At this point I was informed we needed to put everything into the lock boxes and get our vests on…..I said……”uh, what?????”. The reply, “Didn’t we mention running the narrows?” I think not…no, not at all, surely I would have remembered…..but it wasn’t like I had an option. We came around the corner and the river just kind of disappeared, then we were through the 1st part:



We pulled into the shore to study the nasty part of The Narrows and pick a good path through so as not to lose the client (I hadn’t paid them yet…hehe). It also occurred to me at this point maybe my wife might have made other arrangements with them….



Managed to get through with only 1 wet leg and a somewhat scary 360 spin in a whirlpool at the bottom. We had to cruise down to the launch but, naturally I had to cast all the way and tagged this big Snake River walleye (squawfish….i.e., northern pikeminnow):



All counted probably about 30-35 smallies during the day, not bad for the conditions. We headed back in and the next evening my wife and I were on our way home. Had to take this picture in the airport at Lewiston….you just have to love “airline” math:



Somehow we were boarding at 6:20pm when the flight wasn’t arriving until 6:25pm…the airlines are really looking out for our comfort.

Let me conclude this chronicle with a picture of an Alaskan easy rider and his companion canine…also riding easy….don’t know how that dog managed to stay on while at freeway speeds:



Great fishin,

Brian

[smokehound]

Dude awesome trip. 10 feet. My god.. Imagine an angry tail-whack. Good thing they dont have bones!

[Fishbones]

Amazing report, you two had a great great fishing trip, two points for the wife hanging in there, congrats on the toad sturgeon and smallie, thanks for sharing such a great trip,

[Swank909]

This was an amazing report and I love that picture of the dog on the bike at the end. How does he not fall off!!!!

[elevated]

awesome report, the sturgeon won the battle but you won the war!

[ldsaylor]

Awesome job!! Those sturgeon are some crazy looking beasts! Sure looks like you had a good time. Looking forward to more summer and fall Alaska reports from you as well! Your posts are always a great read with excellent pics! Thanks for sharing.

[Mondo21]

Nice looking Fish, thanks for the vivid report and pics. Cindy

[Troutman65]

Another Great report Doc. Thanks for sharing with us .

[City Dad]

Nice! I grew up in that area and your report and pics sure take me back to those chocolate-colored June rivers. Thanks! ...and that squawfish!!! Trophy of a life time!;)