I recently headed to Oregon for an opportunity to chase sturgeon through the city of Portland. The Willamette River runs straight through the heart of downtown and then makes it’s way north to dump into the Columbia River. These rivers provide prime urban fishing opportunities to catch North America’s largest freshwater fish, the white sturgeon. I was expecting the northwest to be rainy, but of course I arrived during the biggest rainstorm in the last 3 years. This was going to be a quick trip in and out of the city, so I had limited time and less than perfect conditions to try and land an urban sturgeon.
White Sturgeon facts:
• The white sturgeon is North America’s largest fish. The biggest one on record stretched more than 20 feet in length and weighed almost 1,800 pounds.
• Fossils of sturgeons first appear in rocks dating to the Middle Jurassic Period (about 174 million to 163.5 million years ago).
• Instead of scales, sturgeon skin is covered in bony plates called scutes, which can be very sharp on young sturgeon.
• Like sharks, sturgeon skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone. In addition to its cartilage skeleton, it has a notochord, a primitive precursor to the backbone, which is found in only one other animal, the lamprey.
• White sturgeon can live to be over 100 years old, and grow continuously throughout their lives.
I made it in to town pretty late at night and checked in with Travis of ColumbiaRiverFishingAdventures.com to see if we needed to wait out the storm that was rolling in the next day. He mentioned that the sturgeon bite could slow after the storm clears, so it was still a go to head out first thing in the morning. With the weather forecast showing 100% rain for the next 24 hours, I knew this was going to be one hell of a day.
The next morning, I took a short uber ride from downtown and met up with Travis at a local boat ramp. I jumped in and we headed upstream at full throttle with the rain drops stinging every inch of exposed skin. We marked some sturgeon on the fish finder and anchored up in 55ft of water. The middle of the river was pushing 75ft deep with all the rain, so we were hoping they were hanging out in the calmer water just out of the main current.
Herring and shrimp was the bait of choice on 80# main line with 130# leader to hold up against their spikes. We used almost 1 pound weights to keep the bait on the bottom and hold against the current. Barbless hooks are required for sturgeon as the Wilamette River is catch and release only for all sturgeon.
Once the bait was on the bottom, it didn’t take long for a bite on the herring. Sturgeon will take the bait and run in warmer weather, but tap at the bait in colder conditions. I would need to make a good hookset if I wanted to land my first urban sturgeon. I missed the first two takes, but once I set the hook on the third bite, I instantly knew I was in to the biggest fish of my life.
I have landed a few carp pushing 30 pounds on a flyrod, but this thing was a completely different beast. It was in control the entire time and I was just along for the ride. It was so strong that I just had to hold on and let it take line. I kept constant pressure on the line to make sure the barbless hook stayed in, and eventually the fish began to tire. Once I finally got it up along side the boat, we saw it was almost 6ft long and probably around 60 pounds!
You are not allowed to take sturgeon that size out of the water so we snapped a couple pictures alongside the boat and set it free. It was at this point I realized my jacket was “water resistant” and not “water-proof”. I was completely soaked, but it was completely worth it. We casted right back out and got our baits down to the bottom. The fish preferred the herring and pretty much left the shrimp alone the entire time. I landed about 10 more fish in the 3-5ft range before the sturgeon moved up off the bottom. Once they started holding up in the water column, they were done feeding for the day.
I highly recommend chasing urban sturgeon in Portland if you ever have the chance. Catching 100 fish a day is common with CRFA in summer months with 4 people in the boat, and 6-10 footers are always a possibility. CRFA’s personal best is 12’8″. With easy access to PDX & downtown attractions, a quick trip to catch a monster could not be easier. Urban sturgeon fishing would make for an epic trip with guys or a weekend with your better half. Portland offers something for everyone. You could fight the biggest fish of your life, then head out for a night on the town. columbiariverfishingadventures.com
The rain finally stopped and the sun came out the next morning. I met up with local angler @tristan_b_ucc to do some more urban fishing and for a shot to catch a sturgeon from the banks of the Willamette (pronounced wil-AM-it, not will-a-met, per the locals). Tristan is originally from the U.K., but has been in Portland for a couple of years. He is a consultant for @urbancarpcollective and @ucc_the_americas. We were hoping to go after some urban carp with euro rigs, but the rains from the last week had blown out all the local spots. The storm had even knocked out power in some areas of the city, and caused a few mudslides that closed some local highways. With the river pushing 11ft above normal, he figured our best bet at getting into some fish was to target the sturgeon that liked the high water condtions.
We bounced around the city but the normal spots were under water. We tried a few locations in the heart of downtown but were quickly kicked out by riverside property owners. Once we moved spots and walked a ways down some train tracks, we were able to find a small clearing that was just above the waterline. There was normally about 50ft of beach in front of us that was currently under water. We would have to cast out beyond that to get our baits into the normal river channel.
Rainfall naturally washes in a lot of insects and worms, so we used nightcrawlers and shrimp since we were closer to the river banks. The sturgeon seem to prefer the high, cold, muddy water conditions from the storm so it was less than 15 minutes before we saw the rod tip dancing. After a decent fight, I landed my first sturgeon from the bank. It was a perfect speciman and a beautiful fish. We spent the next couple of hours discussing sturgeon, the joys of urban fishing, and taking turns reeling in multiple sturgeon.
