G
Gulfstream
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GREAT REPORT! FRICKEN BEAST!
Willamette River Fishing Reports
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bass
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Thanks @Gulfstream .
I can tell I am getting older, now it takes my shoulders about 3 or 4 days to stop aching after catching a big one like that. Part of the problem is the 9' salmon rod. That longer rod gives the fish more leverage against me. My 7' Lamiglas big fish rod s the best rod for fighting fish I have ever owned but not quite as sensitive when they are biting softly.
I can tell I am getting older, now it takes my shoulders about 3 or 4 days to stop aching after catching a big one like that. Part of the problem is the 9' salmon rod. That longer rod gives the fish more leverage against me. My 7' Lamiglas big fish rod s the best rod for fighting fish I have ever owned but not quite as sensitive when they are biting softly.
G
Gulfstream
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Yea,Getting old SUCKS!
Casting Call
Active member
I think that you need a new rod. "Strong fish, strong rod". Back in the day no limit and no size restrictions. it was not unusual to catch 100lb to 200lb plus dinos. I will send pic's and specs. of a rod needed to ease your pain. Will also dig in my shed and send my log records and maps of the dino holes in the Sac. delta. Remember to set the hook 3 times over your head and hold, the big ones will slowly bring your rod into play in front of you without any slack involved. I will never muscle in a dino until I have gotten at least 2 runs with a heavy/moderate drag. The third run is game on. I will also strum the line on the 3rd run to make mr. dino turn in a diff. direction after I feel a good head shake. You asked, I told. Tony p.s. more to comebass said:
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bass
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Hey Tony, I totally agree. I have a Lamiglas BFC70H that is a dream for fighting big dinos. It is strong and has a nice parabolic bend all the way to the handle. I even had it with me, but when the bite is slow I tend to switch to my salmon rod since it is more sensitive (and pretty strong in its own right). Since I was catching a mix of shaker and keeper sized fish the salmon rod was just fine - until the big girl came along 
Once they started biting better I should have switched over but I was lazy and tired and cold so instead, I took some extra punishment
Once they started biting better I should have switched over but I was lazy and tired and cold so instead, I took some extra punishment
Casting Call
Active member
Cont'd: 7ft is perfect for a vessel (no cast). Parabolic to the handle will make you wait and drain your limbs before you can get any hauling status. A fast taper (short parabolic)to mid part of the rod will help with line control. Mono line has the stretch, snubber effect needed for any quick movements by your finned advisory. I have used 40lb mono on a spinner reel to LAND my PB of 231lb dino. I did lose a 9 footer under the Golden Gate by way of the POTATOE PATCH on the north side, when I went below to get my .32 snub. I waited too long to go below, when I came back on deck I was 20 feet from the rocks, shoot or cut the line. Shoot and tail snare would have been a disaster to my boat "cut the line I did".That's the one I wanted to mount on the wall just behind my couch so that I could touch it every now and then and smile., Been chasing that dream for a long time, but that's another story. Speaking of another story: feeding habits, salt and freshwater of mr. dino. A spinning reel allows the line to lay crosswise in motion and not cut into spooled line. To be Cont"d. Tony
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Casting Call
Active member
If anyone is interested U-tube "5 giant sturgeon caught on upper Sacramento River) @ 8:47. Columbia river @9:57. Smelt are a fav. of ocean sturgeon but when the smelt are on the Sandy guess what monsters follow. You are right John a boat trip is in order up the C. My power boat can get us up river. What say you? Tony
Casting Call
Active member
I was just told not highjack your thread via pm. So where do go to continue my Delta story? Is there a Sturgeon forum anywhere? Tony
Admin
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Casting Call
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Does that include California? I will post there anyway ok? TonyAnatoliy said:
bass
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Casting Call said:
I have used a heavy action tiger stik that has the action you describe and it is much worse for fighting a fish out of the kayak. Big fish just beat the crap out of me when I fished with a faster action rod. That Lamiglas is leaps and bounds better for fighting fish from the kayak. My biggest taped out at 8'. According to weight charts that would weigh in right around 276lbs. That fish took around 50 minutes to whip. Maybe a faster action rod is a good tool from a more stable platform but it is not the way to go in a kayak.
I fought a monster in the upper river (Newberg) for 2.5 hours before it broke me off. It came up one time and I would guess it was close to 12' long. Not sure I ever could have controlled it enough to unhook it from the kayak.
@minnowmagnet caught one that was 9 or 9.5' from his yak. That is the biggest I have heard of caught from a kayak (from a reliable source). I forget what the weight charts said for that one but I think it was around 400lbs. Crazy. I think that one took him a few hours to land if I recall correctly (I was not fishing with him that day).
Casting Call
Active member
John ur correct, when you hook a monster ALMOST as big as the yak ur fighting a third axis. No wonder ur shoulders need convelesing. Have you ever took a spill/roller under any conditions in the yak. Lost a co-worker on the willy a few years back. He was an very avid and passionate (every week-end) about his sturgeon fishing. I never went fishing with him because I did not care for his seamanship as told by others. I will be starting a thread under "Other species forum" My first topic will be feeding habits of sturgeon. Sounds like I am in good company, minowmagnet and yourself. I would like to see how much of a following of sturgeon peeps are on this forum. Maybe I can learn about Oregon Sturgeon. Maybe we'll tangle lines someday(I mean that in a good way). Tony
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bass
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Casting Call said:
I have had a few close calls but I have been fortunate to have remained upright in all my trips. I tend to keep my drag just medium tight for most of the battle and use my thumb to create the extra drag. That has saved more quite a few times on a late, awkward surges. I have also almost flipped myself trying to pull a stuck anchor in fast water. That was completely my fault but that was probably my scariest moment. I let the anchor line get under the kayak and I was holding it on the downstream side of the kayak. The current was doing its best to try and lever me over. I was eventually able to work the rope up the side of the kayak towards the front until the current spun me around but for a few minutes I was really close to flipping myself.
It would definitely be fun to meet up out on the water some day. I will keep my eyes peeled for you upcoming posts.
bass
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I was trying to decide where to fish on Monday. I thought about Hagg, but I hadn't had great success my previous few trouts (a handful of trout per trip).
I decided I was tired of working hard for just a couple of fish so I decided to hit the Willamette out of George Rogers park for sturgeon. I was figuring I would knock off early, after ten fish or so, and perhaps do some yard work in the afternoon.
I was punished for my cockiness. I got to the launch around 7:20am and looked out over the river. It was churning pretty good and the back eddy was running pretty hard and moving around a lot. I know that makes it harder to fish that area but I was not too concerned.
I got down to the river and launched and started heading upstream to a spot where I have done well when the river was running hard. I was happy when I started marking fish (in about 95' next to some 60-70' water). I dropped my anchor but did not scope out enough line and I started slipping downstream.
I pulled the anchor up (the first of many times) and reset with more scope. I was pretty tensed up waiting for a bite that I knew would be short in coming. After a bit, I was less tense.
I cast all around that spot without getting a bite. It is tough because at some moments the spot was in the back eddy and the current was upstream, then that would shift and I would be in downstream current, and not to be outdone a perfect sideways current was often present.
I moved a few times near that area, each time pulling up 100'+ of anchor line. I was getting tired, not from catching fish, but from not being able to catch them.
Then for fun, I hung my anchor. The scariest part of kayak fishing is trying to free a hung anchor. I spent close to an hour trying to pull in every direction. Upstream, sideways, downstream, straight up. I finally just gave up and pulled out my knife to cut my line. I pulled hard to try to get as straight over the anchor as possible as I reached down with my knife the anchor pulled free.
What great luck I thought. I did not realize that the Willamette just gave me back my anchor back so that I would stay and receive more punishment.
I decided to move across the river where the water was a little better behaved. I was not marking fish there but that is not always necessary. I spent over an hour on that side, moving a couple of times, casting all around, without a sniff.
To make things more fun a humongous Stellar Sea lion started hanging around me. It would get pretty close then seem like it was going to go away only to turn around and come right back. That is really unnerving when you are one foot off the water. The only joy I got I was laughing at how stupid the sea lion was being. Ha ha, you can't steal a fish if I don't catch a fish.
At that point I decided I wanted to get some legwork in so I pedaled up and around Hog Island. On the way up I marked fish in a quite a few spots. On the way back I tried to anchor at a few of these spots. The bottom is like a smooth basalt rock in the areas I was marking fish and I could not get my anchor to hold in any of them.
Again and again, drop 200' of anchor line out and just start dragging down the river. Pull in 200' of anchor line. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I finally went back to where I started the day to complete my skunking full circle. I was not disappointed.
I fished the entire day on the Willamette without a single bite. I don't think I have ever been skunked that hard. There needs to be a stronger term to describe that level of defeat
I did spend some time looking for smallmouth, and got skunked doing that as well, but that was more or less expected when bass fishing this time of year.
My reward for all that extremely lonely time on the river was the pull up that steep, potholed, steep and torn up ramp. An older lady watched me pull up my kayak up the ramp and quipped, "That will keep your legs in shape".
They still haven't found her body so I think I am safe
Even though it was about as bad of day of fishing as you can have: I probably pulled in 3000' of anchor rope over the course of the day, harrassed by a sea lion, fighting a hung anchor for an hour, etc I still was happy to be out on the water.
Days like that one are necessary to help remind me that being out on the water is nice in and of itself. I was still glad that I went and spent the entire drive home thinking about how I could have fished different and getting psyched up for the next trip.
I decided I was tired of working hard for just a couple of fish so I decided to hit the Willamette out of George Rogers park for sturgeon. I was figuring I would knock off early, after ten fish or so, and perhaps do some yard work in the afternoon.
I was punished for my cockiness. I got to the launch around 7:20am and looked out over the river. It was churning pretty good and the back eddy was running pretty hard and moving around a lot. I know that makes it harder to fish that area but I was not too concerned.
I got down to the river and launched and started heading upstream to a spot where I have done well when the river was running hard. I was happy when I started marking fish (in about 95' next to some 60-70' water). I dropped my anchor but did not scope out enough line and I started slipping downstream.
I pulled the anchor up (the first of many times) and reset with more scope. I was pretty tensed up waiting for a bite that I knew would be short in coming. After a bit, I was less tense.
I cast all around that spot without getting a bite. It is tough because at some moments the spot was in the back eddy and the current was upstream, then that would shift and I would be in downstream current, and not to be outdone a perfect sideways current was often present.
I moved a few times near that area, each time pulling up 100'+ of anchor line. I was getting tired, not from catching fish, but from not being able to catch them.
Then for fun, I hung my anchor. The scariest part of kayak fishing is trying to free a hung anchor. I spent close to an hour trying to pull in every direction. Upstream, sideways, downstream, straight up. I finally just gave up and pulled out my knife to cut my line. I pulled hard to try to get as straight over the anchor as possible as I reached down with my knife the anchor pulled free.
What great luck I thought. I did not realize that the Willamette just gave me back my anchor back so that I would stay and receive more punishment.
I decided to move across the river where the water was a little better behaved. I was not marking fish there but that is not always necessary. I spent over an hour on that side, moving a couple of times, casting all around, without a sniff.
To make things more fun a humongous Stellar Sea lion started hanging around me. It would get pretty close then seem like it was going to go away only to turn around and come right back. That is really unnerving when you are one foot off the water. The only joy I got I was laughing at how stupid the sea lion was being. Ha ha, you can't steal a fish if I don't catch a fish.
At that point I decided I wanted to get some legwork in so I pedaled up and around Hog Island. On the way up I marked fish in a quite a few spots. On the way back I tried to anchor at a few of these spots. The bottom is like a smooth basalt rock in the areas I was marking fish and I could not get my anchor to hold in any of them.
Again and again, drop 200' of anchor line out and just start dragging down the river. Pull in 200' of anchor line. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I finally went back to where I started the day to complete my skunking full circle. I was not disappointed.
I fished the entire day on the Willamette without a single bite. I don't think I have ever been skunked that hard. There needs to be a stronger term to describe that level of defeat
I did spend some time looking for smallmouth, and got skunked doing that as well, but that was more or less expected when bass fishing this time of year.
My reward for all that extremely lonely time on the river was the pull up that steep, potholed, steep and torn up ramp. An older lady watched me pull up my kayak up the ramp and quipped, "That will keep your legs in shape".
They still haven't found her body so I think I am safe
Even though it was about as bad of day of fishing as you can have: I probably pulled in 3000' of anchor rope over the course of the day, harrassed by a sea lion, fighting a hung anchor for an hour, etc I still was happy to be out on the water.
Days like that one are necessary to help remind me that being out on the water is nice in and of itself. I was still glad that I went and spent the entire drive home thinking about how I could have fished different and getting psyched up for the next trip.
bass
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You all are mean, liking it when I don't catch fish
G
Gulfstream
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Man..... That sounds like an ass kicker of a day!
troutdude
Moderator
Nah...we feel ya man......all too well!
fromthelogo
Active member
And we really appreciate these early season reports.
bass
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@Gulfstream and @troutdude , if it weren't for days like those we would lose appreciation for the good days!. I definitely spend more time replaying the bad days in my head than the good ones.
Happy to give the reports @fromthelogo , just like it better when they involve fish
Happy to give the reports @fromthelogo , just like it better when they involve fish
bass
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I hit the Willamette out of Willamette park in West Linn on Sunday hoping to find some smallmouth. I had not been fishing in nearly a month and I was chomping at the bit to score some tug (as in tug is the drug).
I started fishing near the mouth of the Tualatin, casting, reeling, switching it up. Wondering if this was going to be my last trip, was fishing going to close, what did the future hold. The water temp was round 50-51 degrees and I was cycling through a jerkbait, swimbait, drop shot, Ned rig, squarebill and rattletrap. I made a few casts with each and then moved a little. I did not have a ton of confidence since this was pretty early in the year for me to be fishing the Willamette.
Normally this time of year I am mostly at Hagg trolling for trout. I was concerned about crowds there which is why I decided to hit the Willamette. At first the smallmouth were respecting my social distance. Dang it, governor Brown had gotten to them.
It took about 45 minutes before I felt a solid smack on my rattletrap! My first 2020 bass, a solid pound a half, was subdued after putting up a good fight!
I had felt the lure ticking off of something right before he smacked it. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. If I did not get another bite I would have called the day a success. The water is interesting in that area because the current is constantly shifting around due to the interaction between the Tualatin and the Willamette. The exact same cast can be in an eddy, in the main current, or in the Tualatin current.
I now fished the rattletrap a larger percentage of the time but kept rotating some. A short time later I could feel the rattletrap ticking off something and I felt a bite. I jerked and missed, turned the handle a couple more times when BAM, I had a really hard hit. That fish fought great. Breaking the surface once and jumping clear of the water later in the fight. I was able to corral it into the kayak. A 1lb 13oz fish. This is getting good!
I fished that area for quite a while longer but could not pick up a 3rd bass. Both fish had come from the pretty shallow water so I decided to work my along with the rattletrap for a bit to see if that might be the deal for the day. A little further up the bank I hooked an even better fish. Woo hoo! The fish was not well hooked so I carefully worked it close to the side of the kayak and was able to grab it. This fish was a solid 2 and a half pounder. I quickly put my rod in the holder and went to quickly unhook and weigh the fish.
It is important to note at this point that this point I did not have much line out and my rod was bent pretty good while I was unhooking that fish. I worked the hook loose and it slipped through my fingers. The lure basically bow and arrowed straight into my ball of the thumb of my left hand. I just stared at it, not believing. I tossed the fish back and just stared at my hand.
The lure was buried straight in and deep. No way close to being able to attempt the trick with some line around the bend of the hookd and the quick jerk. I realized after a bit of fussing that I would need to push the hook through. This happened to me a few years back so I knew how this would go. I grabbed my pliers, gritted my teeth and rotated the hook back out my palm.
At first I tried to pinch the barb and work the hook back through. I futzed with that for a while but I could not get the barb mashed down well enough to be able to back it back into my palm. After a while I gave up on that and decided I need to cut the hook. The problem was that with the hook being buried deep to start the barb was barely protruding. I had to kind of use the pliers to slide the meat down towards the bend so that I could snip it below the barb. I tried with my normal pliers (which have a cutter on them) but there was no way I could get the cutters below the barb.
Fortunately, after the last accident I had bought a pair of diagonal cutters for just such and emergency. They were behind me in my tackle bag. As I turned to reach for them I tangled my foot in line and jerked pretty hard on the lure. That was even less fun than it sounds. I second more careful attempt and I had the diagonal cutters. I was able to get below the barb easily with the small cutters and I gave a good squeeze. I could not cut the hook with those cutters.
At this point I was imaginging trying to get back to the ramp, pull my kayak up the ramp, unload everything and pack up with a rattletrap in my hand. I was about there when I remembered I had one more set of pliers with cutters in my hatch. They are nice rapala pair but I had relegated then to the hatch since they were a little slippery. I got them out and they looked promising. After a couple of tries I was able to cut the hook below the barb and slide it back out. Brings a whole new meaning to barbless on the Willamette.
That was a good 30 mintues or more with that lure hanging from my hand. My kayak was covered in blood and my hand would not stop bleeding. I once again called on the healing powers of the Willamette. I alternated putting pressure on the holes and dipping it in the water to chill it and stop the throbbing. I used the time with my hand in the water to wash my kayak off.
When the bleeding had finally stopped (slowed to barely a trickle) I sat and tried to decide what to do. I was already worried that this was going to have to be my last trip for a long time and there was no way I was going to end it like that.
So I sucked it up and went back to fishing. Every once in a while I would have to stop and put some pressure on to re-stop the bleeding and my hand hurt like a toothache but some days are just going to be like that. I did not do a very good job of capturing video for the rest of the day but the fishing stayed kind of slow and steady for the rest of the day.
I ended up catch 6 more bass, none as big as the second or third. I caught 5 of those on the now 5 hooked rattletrap and one on a Ned rig. I also caught a pretty big (2lb 15oz) pikieminnow on the rattle trap. All the bass I caught were pretty shallow, near current and not too far from deep water. The bite was never terrible and never great. In addition to the fish I caught I lost another handful. I was a little gunshy in landing them
Here is some terrible video of the day. Don't worry there is nothing graphic. I deleted all the gross stuff and only have a little bit of video of me landing some fish.
Thanks for reading!
I started fishing near the mouth of the Tualatin, casting, reeling, switching it up. Wondering if this was going to be my last trip, was fishing going to close, what did the future hold. The water temp was round 50-51 degrees and I was cycling through a jerkbait, swimbait, drop shot, Ned rig, squarebill and rattletrap. I made a few casts with each and then moved a little. I did not have a ton of confidence since this was pretty early in the year for me to be fishing the Willamette.
Normally this time of year I am mostly at Hagg trolling for trout. I was concerned about crowds there which is why I decided to hit the Willamette. At first the smallmouth were respecting my social distance. Dang it, governor Brown had gotten to them.
It took about 45 minutes before I felt a solid smack on my rattletrap! My first 2020 bass, a solid pound a half, was subdued after putting up a good fight!
I had felt the lure ticking off of something right before he smacked it. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. If I did not get another bite I would have called the day a success. The water is interesting in that area because the current is constantly shifting around due to the interaction between the Tualatin and the Willamette. The exact same cast can be in an eddy, in the main current, or in the Tualatin current.
I now fished the rattletrap a larger percentage of the time but kept rotating some. A short time later I could feel the rattletrap ticking off something and I felt a bite. I jerked and missed, turned the handle a couple more times when BAM, I had a really hard hit. That fish fought great. Breaking the surface once and jumping clear of the water later in the fight. I was able to corral it into the kayak. A 1lb 13oz fish. This is getting good!
I fished that area for quite a while longer but could not pick up a 3rd bass. Both fish had come from the pretty shallow water so I decided to work my along with the rattletrap for a bit to see if that might be the deal for the day. A little further up the bank I hooked an even better fish. Woo hoo! The fish was not well hooked so I carefully worked it close to the side of the kayak and was able to grab it. This fish was a solid 2 and a half pounder. I quickly put my rod in the holder and went to quickly unhook and weigh the fish.
It is important to note at this point that this point I did not have much line out and my rod was bent pretty good while I was unhooking that fish. I worked the hook loose and it slipped through my fingers. The lure basically bow and arrowed straight into my ball of the thumb of my left hand. I just stared at it, not believing. I tossed the fish back and just stared at my hand.
The lure was buried straight in and deep. No way close to being able to attempt the trick with some line around the bend of the hookd and the quick jerk. I realized after a bit of fussing that I would need to push the hook through. This happened to me a few years back so I knew how this would go. I grabbed my pliers, gritted my teeth and rotated the hook back out my palm.
At first I tried to pinch the barb and work the hook back through. I futzed with that for a while but I could not get the barb mashed down well enough to be able to back it back into my palm. After a while I gave up on that and decided I need to cut the hook. The problem was that with the hook being buried deep to start the barb was barely protruding. I had to kind of use the pliers to slide the meat down towards the bend so that I could snip it below the barb. I tried with my normal pliers (which have a cutter on them) but there was no way I could get the cutters below the barb.
Fortunately, after the last accident I had bought a pair of diagonal cutters for just such and emergency. They were behind me in my tackle bag. As I turned to reach for them I tangled my foot in line and jerked pretty hard on the lure. That was even less fun than it sounds. I second more careful attempt and I had the diagonal cutters. I was able to get below the barb easily with the small cutters and I gave a good squeeze. I could not cut the hook with those cutters.
At this point I was imaginging trying to get back to the ramp, pull my kayak up the ramp, unload everything and pack up with a rattletrap in my hand. I was about there when I remembered I had one more set of pliers with cutters in my hatch. They are nice rapala pair but I had relegated then to the hatch since they were a little slippery. I got them out and they looked promising. After a couple of tries I was able to cut the hook below the barb and slide it back out. Brings a whole new meaning to barbless on the Willamette.
That was a good 30 mintues or more with that lure hanging from my hand. My kayak was covered in blood and my hand would not stop bleeding. I once again called on the healing powers of the Willamette. I alternated putting pressure on the holes and dipping it in the water to chill it and stop the throbbing. I used the time with my hand in the water to wash my kayak off.
When the bleeding had finally stopped (slowed to barely a trickle) I sat and tried to decide what to do. I was already worried that this was going to have to be my last trip for a long time and there was no way I was going to end it like that.
So I sucked it up and went back to fishing. Every once in a while I would have to stop and put some pressure on to re-stop the bleeding and my hand hurt like a toothache but some days are just going to be like that. I did not do a very good job of capturing video for the rest of the day but the fishing stayed kind of slow and steady for the rest of the day.
I ended up catch 6 more bass, none as big as the second or third. I caught 5 of those on the now 5 hooked rattletrap and one on a Ned rig. I also caught a pretty big (2lb 15oz) pikieminnow on the rattle trap. All the bass I caught were pretty shallow, near current and not too far from deep water. The bite was never terrible and never great. In addition to the fish I caught I lost another handful. I was a little gunshy in landing them
Here is some terrible video of the day. Don't worry there is nothing graphic. I deleted all the gross stuff and only have a little bit of video of me landing some fish.
Thanks for reading!
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