Sturgeon love it all !! Some days, I will even use left over tiger prawn meat (grocery store throw away) and use it. The big monster fish love seafood. They are correct that sand shrimp (ghost) are probably the most popular.
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Where can I fish for sturgeon on the Columbia River?
Columbia River Near Portland There are lots of good sturgeon fishing spots right around Portland and Vancouver. The Kelley Point Park area, including off the pilings at the mouth of the Willamette River, has some excellent fishing. Look for about 75 feet of water with decent current to find sturgeon near Kelley Point.
What is the best time to catch sturgeon?
The harvest season runs from late April until early May and early July until late September. The catch and release season runs from early May until mid-May and early October until late April. This means from the second half of May until the end of June you cannot fish for sturgeon fishing.
Is sturgeon fishing open on the Columbia River in Oregon?
Season: Wednesdays and Saturdays from May 11 until June 4, plus Monday May 30 (Memorial Day) Area: Mainstem Columbia from the Wauna Powerlines (near river mile 40) downstream to the mouth at Buoy 10, including Youngs Bay, and all adjacent Washington tributaries.
What fish are running in the Columbia River now?
The Columbia River is renowned for its salmon and steelhead runs. In a year of good returns, over 1 million Chinook, coho and sockeye salmon, and summer steelhead travel up the river to spawn in its tributaries. Less known are the river’s excellent smallmouth bass and walleye fisheries.
What state has the best sturgeon fishing?
Washington, Idaho and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest has the best sturgeon fishing in the world! Columbia River fishing offers us 2 excellent locations for our catch and keep for sturgeon. The McNary Dam marks the upper section of the Lake Umatilla Pool near the town of Hermiston Oregon.
What is the largest sturgeon caught in the Columbia River?
Researchers in Canada have caught a record-breaking sturgeon in the Nechako River, British Columbia. The huge female fish weighs 336 pounds and measures 9.6 feet in length, according to staff at the Nechako White Sturgeon Conservation Centre (NWSCC) who caught the animal in late April.
What’s the best bait for sturgeon?
A combination of a nightcrawler and a baitfish is excellent. Additional baits that can work for sturgeon include lamprey, shrimp and crawfish and several cut-baits with local fish species such as suckers.
Are barbless hooks required on the Columbia River?
Barbless Hooks are required when angling for salmon, steelhead, or trout in the mainstem Columbia River under permanent regulations. All other permanent rules for the Columbia River Zone, as stated in the 2022 Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations (see e-regulations), remain in effect unless modified below.
Are there sharks in the Columbia River?
“It’s not very often we see sharks in that area of the Columbia River, but it does not mean they are not there” ODFW spokesperson Rick Hargrave said. Hargrave says there are likely several contributing factors as to why the shark was in the area.
How many sturgeon can you keep in Oregon?
Sturgeon Regulations Bag limit is 1 per day, 2 per year.
What is the biggest fish in the Columbia River?
White Sturgeon … The “White Sturgeon” is the largest freshwater fish in North America. It lives along the west coast of the United States between the Aleutian Islands to Central California, with the largest number being in the Columbia River Basin.
Where’s the best fishing on the Columbia River?
The gorge plus islands and shelves near Troutdale and farther downriver near Kelley Point in Portland are good spots to try. Smallmouth bass are plentiful around riprap and other rocky structures. Largemouth bass, crappie and other panfish are more common in sloughs and other backwater areas, including Scappoose Bay.
How many sturgeon can you keep?
The recreational fishery for white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) remains open year-round. The daily bag and possession limit is one fish that must be between 40 inches and 60 inches fork length. The annual limit is three (3) sturgeon per person.
Can you keep sturgeon from the Columbia River?
We reserve Sturgeon fishing trips all year long on the Columbia River, with June and July usually being the months during which brief windows come open to keep a limited number of sturgeon. Anglers can keep one sturgeon a day when the keeper season is open.
What is the biggest sturgeon ever recorded?
Several species can grow quite large, typically ranging 2โ3.5 m (7โ12 ft) in length. The largest sturgeon on record was a beluga female captured in the Volga Delta in 1827, measuring 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) long and weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb).
Where are the largest sturgeon?
Owner & operator of Sturgeon Slayers, Kevin Estrada, and guests landed and tagged the Largest Sturgeon Ever Recorded on Rod and Reel on the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada.
How old is a 6 foot sturgeon?
A 3 foot sturgeon is 8 years old; a 4 foot sturgeon is 12 years old; a 5 foot sturgeon is 17 years old and 6 foot sturgeon is 23 years old. Historically the size of white sturgeon exceeded the spectacular reaching 20 feet in length weighing more than 1500 pounds and living longer than 100 years of age.
Do you eat sturgeon?
In general, the entire sturgeon is not commercially used as a food source, though some may use the meat for steaks. Instead, sturgeon have been especially popular for their roe, which is used to make caviar. This luxury food led to a huge market for sturgeon, especially in the United States, Canada, and Russia.
Are sturgeon dinosaurs?
Sturgeon are living dinosaurs. Fisheries biologists have discovered that sturgeon existed as long as 200 million years ago. The scientific name for white sturgeon is Acipenser transmontanus, which means “fish on the other side of the mountains.” Both white and green sturgeon are native to the Columbia River.
What hooks for sturgeon?
J-hooks were the most utilized hook-style employed by sturgeon anglers for many years. Although commercial grade circle hooks have been around for forever, very few sturgeon anglers utilized them. In the last decade, hook manufacturers have been offering circle hooks, and anglers are using them with great success.
What attracts sturgeon?
Lamprey and smelt are other excellent baits for sturgeon, which tend to move to the head of deeper holes and long deep runs to feed. Some anglers also use squid, sand shrimp, nightcrawlers, and various combinations of all of the above.
How do you rig for Columbia River sturgeon?

Is sturgeon meat poisonous?
Registered. Sturgeon meat is OK. Remember the meat is white and anything else is not edible.
Can sturgeons bite?
And yet at other times they hook big bad keeper and oversize sturgeon, so yes some of those tiny bites that you tend to ignore are big sturgeon picking at your bait!