07-06-2003, 08:03 PM
Washington Fishing Report updated July 03, 2003 [left]Sturgeon fishing: [#ff0000]Astoria Sturgeon fishing is Closed. [/#ff0000][#000080]The quota has been reached We have been catching lots of nice keepers while fishing for oversized below Bonneville dam. [/#000080][#000000]The Columbia river below Bonneville dam to the Power lines at Wauna including the Willamette river from the falls at Oregon City to the mouth reopened for keeper sturgeon retention on Tuesday July 1.[/#000000][#000080] The sturgeon fishing action for keepers in the Columbia river gorge below Bonneville dam is quite good and a surprising number of keeper sized fish are still in that section of the river. The Willamette river also has good numbers of keepers still present. [/#000080][#ff0000]The Bonneville Pool sturgeon fishery will close for retention at 1201 am on Monday July 7[/#ff0000][#000080] so if you want to fish above the dam Sunday is the last day you can keep sturgeon. I am not sure why we went from about 65% of the quota above the dam 10 days ago to all of the sudden it has been reached. I smell some politics here.[/#000080][/left] [left][#0000ff]Don't let the Astoria Closure ruin your early July sturgeon fishing plans I can still put you on to some nice keepers upriver in the Portland area. Give us a call we still have some openings for keeper sturgeon from now until buoy 10 opens on Aug 1.[/#0000ff][/left] [left]Oversized sturgeon fishing: Oversized sturgeon fishing is still going strong. The bite is somewhat spotty but at some point during most days it turns on. The shad run is still going strong so the big sturgeon some days are a little full and don't bite all day long like they do early in the season. If they aren't biting go shad fishing for a while and come back in an hour or two, most likely they will be on the bite then. [/left] [left]I still have some open dates if you are interested in tying into a huge sturgeon or two.[/left] [left]IMPORTANT OVERSIZED STURGEON FISHING NOTICE: There is a battle still going on about catch and release fishing for oversized sturgeon. It seems from the information I have is that all of the scientific studies and research indicate that catch and release fishing for oversized sturgeon is not having a significant impact on sturgeon mortality or spawning. Even though the data shows no need for changes The state of Washington if they were managing this fishery alone would close all catch and release fishing for oversized sturgeon. Oregon on the other hand is going along with what the data tells us and do not wish to close the oversized sturgeon fishery. As we all know it was primarily Washington that fought to close our keeper fishery during the peak time upriver in the Portland/ Vancouver area. Washington bases its management decisions on whatever the Ilwaco charter fleet and the commercial fishing industry wants and are obviously bought and paid for with the money and contributions coming from those two groups and could care less about upriver guides, sport fishermen, or other fishing related businesses. If we don't stand up to these mis-managers and tell them that all decisions with regard to sturgeon need to be based on data and NOT the economic interests of a very small percentage of the resources users. I urge all of you that like to fish for sturgeon to get involved in a big way to ensure that all of us can still enjoy this fabulous fishing resource, and especially Washington residents -- write letters --- make phone calls --- ask them to prove it and provide the data that does prove the need for their actions.
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