Fishing Report: Willamette River Sturgeon

Met David Pyle, “Fishing with David Pyle”, at St. John’s boat launch at 8:00 a.m. Sunday 1/28/2018. We fished out of his boat. See YouTube Video First location tried was between the bridge and the railroad bridge, which is upriver of the ramp. Tried for about 30 or 45 minutes, few very light “taps” which we do not think were sturgeon. We then anchored above the railroad bridge, and fished for another 30 or 45 minutes, not even a “tap” at the second location. Motored up to entrance to Swan Island Lagoon, and joined several other boats in very close to the ships in the shipyard. The Yaquina Dredger was docked there, and was looking like new, maybe some new paint, (see photos online). I have never fished this location, it was very entertaining to watch. Every few minutes a sturgeon would jump out of the water, ranging in size from keeper size to six or seven feet. I have been told they do this to clean out their gills of sediment from the muddy bottom. We caught three sturgeon, nice but still in the shaker category. Did watch several boats battle several large keeper and oversize sturgeon. It was a beautiful day, and I think I got a little too much sun, awesome for January. Water was running very fast, and very brown, of course this does not matter to the sturgeon, but one needs to keep a watchful eye for debris, and logs which may tangle in an anchor line. Watching the ocean forecast for the weekend now, looks like Saturday may be doable for bottom fishing, keeping my fingers crossed.