Mike LaSota and I skipped fishing yesterday because of a hard rain and strong wind. But today we had window. We still had some clouds but wind was nearly nonexistent and temperatures topped off at a welcome 53°. Off we went around 9 AM to the Columbia River from Mikes White Salmon, WA house.
We ran straight upstream in Mikes big boat to where we stuck a few walleyes on Sunday. Our goal was a couple more because Sundays tasted delicious. Mike dropped his nightcrawler tipped jig on a spin rod, I went to work with the heaviest fly in my box on a sinking line. The bottom was exactly 19 feet down.
It didn’t take long for action. I landed two quick smallmouth bass. Both were smaller than any of the ones Sunday. Then Mike set the hook and his fish didn’t move. In fact, from my point of view, it looked like a snag. That is until his rod made a couple violent pumps.
Mike had a sturgeon. At first, we thought it might be a big one. This fish wouldn’t budge from bottom. But Mike kept the pressure on and the fish gave in. After a few minutes Mike brought a beautiful white sturgeon to the net. These prehistoric fish are one of the coolest fish on the planet.
It wasn’t long after and Mike lassoed another sturgeon. And after that one, he landed a common carp. The Columbia River is known for its huge numbers of carp but their primetime is summer. This one was frisky though and ate some type of spoon that Mike was jigging off bottom.
The fish kept coming. Mike jigged up another baby sturgeon. Then I landed a walleye. Anywhere in the Midwest this would be a nice walleye, but here on the Columbia, this one is average. We tossed him in the cooler nonetheless as he is perfect size for eating.
The last fish we caught today was the pesky northern pikeminnow. These guys are natives yet considered pests because of their voracious appetite for other fish – usually salmon and steelhead smolts. After I dislodged my jig fly Mike cracked a couple pics and I released it.
We originally planned a short day of fishing but it was good and we went till late afternoon. We not only got a good day of action but we landed five species as well. You know that any multispecies day is a great one to me. Bad weather is heading up the Columbia Gorge for the next week so tonight we left White Salmon for Mikes place in Portland. We’ll base out of there the next few days and plan some more fishing from there.
Dang, I definitely need to get some sinking lines in my repertoire!