The Great White Sturgeon

I like fish that can inspire awe and fascination among the most stalwart non-anglers I know. These fish tend to be large, or cool looking, or have any desirable trait that makes them interesting to those not normally involved in the sport. As you might guess, I have caught very few of these kinds of fish. The fish I generally target tend to be small and from some muddy ditch next to an inner-city freeway. To be honest, there aren't many species in the Pacific Northwest that can really inspire "awe." Salmon and Steelhead are recognizable and beautiful, but people are used to seeing them in grocery stores on a daily basis. Bottomfish look like Spongebob rejects. Many freshwater fish are colorful and/or fun to catch, but tend to fall in the "cute" category. Except one.

I honestly cannot fathom pictures like the one above. To imagine that a predominately freshwater (many live in saltwater for parts of their lives) fish can grow to the size of a small whale is absurd. True, the White Sturgeon cannot be truly considered "the largest." There are two larger species of sturgeon found in Russia, but they have been overfished to the brink of extinction and are now extremely rare. Their caviar has become a worldwide commodity fought over by the Russian mafia and other desirables. Today, they are critically endangered and legally fishing for them has effectively ceased. It's not exactly like they could be caught from a kayak by a complete spaz like me.

Call the Russian mafia. 

The White Sturgeon has not suffered such a fate. Due to extensive fishery regulation and management across the West coast, they remain common and readily catchable. Much to my chagrin, the years leading up to my first sturgeon were filled with looking at pictures of others alongside massive armored fish. Although the vast majority of Sturgeon these days are in the 2-5 foot range, there are still many individuals that grow to be much larger. 

Or much smaller.

Sturgeon are also some of the coolest looking fish you can catch without having to leave civilization and basic sanitary services. These shark like fish have remained relatively unevolved since the Cretaceous period, and early fossils of sturgeon ancestors have appeared in the fossil record as long as 200 million years ago. They have an informal status as "living fossils" and have a unique prehistoric appearance that few other fish resemble. It's one thing to see pictures of these fish in magazines and on fishing guide websites, but to see and touch these things is a whole another matter. For instance, on each of the many scutes lining a sturgeon's dorsal spine and lateral line, there is a razor sharp two inch spine. Of course, I did not know this until after I pulled an angry one into my boat,

I'm smiling because the fish stopped thrashing.

To be honest with you, when I first started sturgeon fishing, I thought they would fight like rocks. They look as if they can barely move, let alone run. I figured fighting one would be like lifting wet laundry or pulling a giant snag from the bottom. I remember referring to them as "giant catfish" in a previous post. The first few I caught were shakers and fought hard, but weren't much of an effort to pull in and were pretty similar to most bottomfish I've landed. I figured larger ones were about the same.

It's generally not advisable to target fish that are able to pull the boat 100 yards downstream.

Not exactly the case. My first hookup with a big sturgeon started with the trademark subtle tapping as the fish sampled my bait. After setting the hook, it immediately took off downriver.

"Sleigh ride!" my dad and our friend Steve shouted as they disconnected me from the anchor and left me to my own devices.

Note: These pictures do not correspond to the story.

After being pulled back and forth across the river for fifteen minutes, I changed my mind about these fish. They use their size and strength to their advantage, uncorking surprisingly strong runs and even leaping out of the water. An average five footer can take over fifteen minutes to land, especially in fast water or on light tackle. Oversized fish in the seven foot range and up are like trucks. Fishing for these things out of a kayak is nothing like fishing out of a large boat. The small kayak is attuned to the slightest changes of the fish's movement. In order to land the sturgeon, the angler needs to work with the fish, as opposed to against it. Unless it jumps, in which case the best course of action is to duck and pray like crazy. 

The fish was hooked directly beneath the bridge in the background.

Notice the rapidly approaching barge beneath the lower left hand side of the same bridge.

After what seems like (or actually has been) hours, the moment of truth comes. You begin to gain ground on the fish. Bubbles begin rising to the surface, and the silhouette of a giant fish begins to form in the murky water. Soon after, the prehistoric features and scaly armor of the giant fish come into view. This is usually when the fish goes completely nuts and snaps the rod like an effing toothpick.

Something's gonna give in the next five seconds.

Eventually, the fish can be grabbed by its rubbery mouth and swung alongside the boat. In most places, sturgeon over five feet in length cannot be removed from the water in catch-and-release fishing. I have no problems with this, as the last place I want to be with a angry armor plated fish is in a small plastic kayak. Keep in mind that Jeremy Wade himself, the angsty yet lovable host of the popular show River Monsters- which is currently in its sixth season (and ran out of river monsters halfway through the third)- devoted two episodes to tackling monster sturgeon, the "Alaskan Horror" (the only "horror" is how much a sturgeon tag costs these days). 

The "Alaskan Horror" in the flesh!

If you believe Jeremy Wade, these things routinely jump out of the water and eat people.

Sturgeon fishing is also extremely simple. As opposed to salmon and steelhead fishing, which requires familiarity with an overwhelming array of techniques and ridiculous lures that look like badly designed parrot toys, sturgeon fishing requires the simplest of tackle. Bait can range from anchovies and herring to small household pets and fully grown salmon.

Here's a picture of me with that same fifth grade teacher.

Parent teacher night..

Sturgeon are truly fascinating fish. The notion that a living fossil can be caught in downtown Portland, grow to the size of a Buick, and have eggs worth hundreds of dollars per gram is absolutely absurd. Legends of twenty foot sturgeon are still alive today, and bigger ones probably swim in our rivers as we speak. Catching one of these things was something I've wanted to do since I was a toddler gawking at the monster sturgeon milling around in the Bonneville hatchery aquariums. It took a few tries, but once the first one ascended to the surface from the murky depths of the Willamette, they just kept coming. Now to go and see if that twenty footer's still out there.