jkratz5
Well-Known Member
About 10 years ago when I was in grad school in IA I was suppose to take this trip and had to bail last minute due to some other commitments. This year when work decided they were sending me to Seattle in June I made sure that I wouldn't let this trip slide by me a second time.
I ended up doing some homework and got hooked up with NW HawgHunters out of Oregon City, OR to do some giant (oversized) sturgeon fishing on Saturday June 2 and all I can say is it was freakin awesome. We fished the Willamette River in Oregon City, which dumps into the Columbia river which is the oversized sturgeon capital of the world. The Columbia was actually closed for oversized right now so we fished the next best thing and were not disappointed at all.
We landed 3 dinosaurs over 8ft, with the largest being somewhere in the 9.5 ft, 500lb range. We also landed several other smaller fish (3-5ft) and admittedly put a couple bad hook sets on a few and let a couple hawgs get away. The highlight of my trip was a 9footer that I hooked up with midday that was just an absolute handful to land. After about 45 minutes I had him all the way to the boat when he came completely out of the water, nearly landed in the boat and then took off for another battle. 30 minutes later I had the big boy by the mouth and we worked him to shore to get some full body pics. Wouldn't you know it as I got out of the water and my hands on him, he decided to run again and I ended up fighting him for another 15 minutes from shore before the ol girl finally gave in.
I have caught some monster fish in my life including some 10-12ft sails down in Mexico but these fish put all of those to shame in terms of fight, stamina, and just knowing that the are prehistoric. If you ever get out west this is a trip that you have to take, I know if I ever get back out this way I will be jumping back in the boat.
Here are some pics of the fish, it is against the law to remove the fish from the water for protection purposes so the pics don't do these fish justice in some cases.
Me fighting my biggest from shore after the hour plus fight from the boat
Me with a hawg part way out of the water, it was all I could do to get her out that much
One of the big ones up in the shallows for better pics. Oh and she pulled me in up to my chest, was pretty funny
One of the smaller fish after she was wore out
My buddy Zach with the big fish of the day he had a bit more adrenaline then me
Gotta thank Bill Gaither of NW HawgHunters for putting us on some fish of a lifetime.
Kratz
I ended up doing some homework and got hooked up with NW HawgHunters out of Oregon City, OR to do some giant (oversized) sturgeon fishing on Saturday June 2 and all I can say is it was freakin awesome. We fished the Willamette River in Oregon City, which dumps into the Columbia river which is the oversized sturgeon capital of the world. The Columbia was actually closed for oversized right now so we fished the next best thing and were not disappointed at all.
We landed 3 dinosaurs over 8ft, with the largest being somewhere in the 9.5 ft, 500lb range. We also landed several other smaller fish (3-5ft) and admittedly put a couple bad hook sets on a few and let a couple hawgs get away. The highlight of my trip was a 9footer that I hooked up with midday that was just an absolute handful to land. After about 45 minutes I had him all the way to the boat when he came completely out of the water, nearly landed in the boat and then took off for another battle. 30 minutes later I had the big boy by the mouth and we worked him to shore to get some full body pics. Wouldn't you know it as I got out of the water and my hands on him, he decided to run again and I ended up fighting him for another 15 minutes from shore before the ol girl finally gave in.
I have caught some monster fish in my life including some 10-12ft sails down in Mexico but these fish put all of those to shame in terms of fight, stamina, and just knowing that the are prehistoric. If you ever get out west this is a trip that you have to take, I know if I ever get back out this way I will be jumping back in the boat.
Here are some pics of the fish, it is against the law to remove the fish from the water for protection purposes so the pics don't do these fish justice in some cases.
Me fighting my biggest from shore after the hour plus fight from the boat
Me with a hawg part way out of the water, it was all I could do to get her out that much
One of the big ones up in the shallows for better pics. Oh and she pulled me in up to my chest, was pretty funny
One of the smaller fish after she was wore out
My buddy Zach with the big fish of the day he had a bit more adrenaline then me
Gotta thank Bill Gaither of NW HawgHunters for putting us on some fish of a lifetime.
Kratz
