Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I moved from Reston VA to Vancouver WA in 2010. Sometimes I still look at this site and write a post about fishing out here... mostly on the stretch of the Columbia River that is the border between the states of Oregon and Washington.

Bonneville Dam is about 30 miles upriver from my home. A lot of the bigger sturgeon in this river like to hang out in the stretch below Bonneville Dam durng the summer. But, from May 1 to August 31 we are not allowed to fish for sturgeon in the first 9 miles downstream from Bonneville Dam. It is closed as a spawning sanctuary.

However, after Aug 31 we are allowed to do catch and release sturgeon fishing there using barbless hooks. That makes September a good time to go for some catch and release action. We are not allowed to keep any sturgeon during September and we are never allowed to keep any over 54 inches long.

I joined three other folks on a September trip with my favorite guide and we had some great luck. Each of us ended up getting TWO monsters as we took turns bringing EIGHT of them to the boat.

The fish pictured above and below was caught on my first turn. It was about 8 ft long, approx 275 lbs.



Here's a video snip of it being released.

http://s450.photobucket.com/albums/qq22 … My1st3.mp4

Here's some video snips of the fish I caught on my second turn.

http://s450.photobucket.com/albums/qq22 … =My2nd.mp4

Here are some video snips from some of the other folks action.

http://s450.photobucket.com/albums/qq22 … Action.mp4

Here are some video snips of the big fish of the day. It was about 9 ft long, approx 390 lbs.

http://s450.photobucket.com/albums/qq22 … hofday.mp4
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