Northwest Fishing Reports

The wife and I are thinking about making a trip to the Columbia River at the Washington/Oregon border to meet up with her brother that lives in Portland. I hear the word river and I think fishing.

We were watching "River Monsters" last night, a show about huuge (and I mean gigantic) freshwater fish, and the host just so happened to be on the Columbia at the border. The dude pulled out a 300 lb+ white sturgeon. I dream about fish like that! That only fueled my desire to go down there and hit that river hard!

The questions:

-Are there any special rules that I need to know about? I'll read the regulation and check the website for emergency rule changes, but are there any other special rules?

-Can I use live bait?

-Can I fish the Columbia from the banks?

-Does anybody have any good stories from the Columbia?

Thanks in advance for any replies. This website has been a great help to me adjusting to a new fishing experience here in Washington.

The regulations for the Columbia river are broken down by sections of the river. You need to specify which area you'll be fishing.

I have no idea where I'll be fishing. I'm thinking somewhere near the WA/OR state line. My brother in law lives in Portland and I'll most likely be meeting up with him.

I know there's spots along by Bonneville Dam that I've seen people using shad for bait and casting out with shore rods for sturgeon from shore. I've seen them do it at some dock that I've shad fished, I have no idea of the name of the dock, some person posted what dock it was when I was talking about shad fishing off that dock about a month or go in the shad thread that was made. I've seen a bunch of oversized sturgeon jump over by Bonneville Dam while fishing there before.

Dude i seen a photo in this months STS, it had a picture of a buildup of sturgeon at bonneville dam. There was literally like 50+ sturgeon pictured. Sounds like that could be some great fishing.

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check this out

Now that's a sweet link. Makes me wanna get the gear together and head down there right now!

That upside down swimming stugeon was weird, never heard of that. If you are serious about sturgeon fishing I would look into getting a guide near Bonneville. It can be kind of pricey but it is a sure fire way to get into some HUGE fish.

If you and a buddy split the fair you might be able to find a reasonable deal, about $175 per head.

Thank you for the video link. That was awesome. I wonder what the numbers look like on the snohomish?

that video was creepy.

SeaBreeze Charters only charge like $120 but i'm not sure that they'll go as far up stream as the dam. I had success with them years ago though.