Our hotel was right on the Willamette river. The guide picked us up at the public dock right below the hotel.
This is our guide Charlie. Charlie has spent most of his life on this river. All he does is fish sturgeon. His boat was name the Sturgeon General.
At 5am in the morning, my ability to take amazing creative shots is severely limited. This is what you get at 5am.
We did most of our fishing lest than five minutes from the hotel. Our hotel was never out of site. The best Sturgeon fishing is right in the middle of Oregon City.
We fished between two paper mills. The mills have been on Willamette Falls since the 1800 and have steadily been built out since then. It was strange to be fishing with the sounds of industry around you.
Robin works on landing his first keeper. these fish are big and put up a good fight.
Success! 51 inches and 40lds. A beauty of a fish.
Work'n my fish
There's dinner for a week...maybe two.
My keeper was a 51 inch beauty as well.
Hard to describe what it feels like to fight a 300 pound 8 foot fish. We had 165 pound line and the drag set at 120 pounds.
Fighting the big ones is hard work. Robin and I would trade off as we reeled them in. Our hands, arms, and backs were not use to this type of battle.
That's as far as we could lift it out of the water. A truly amazing animal.
Robin went eye to eye with the other big one caught.
I had an incredibly fun day.
The classic picture of fishermen with their fish. By this point, Robin and I are exhausted. Went back to the hotel for a nap. I am relieved we only caught 8 footers and not something larger!
Willamette Falls from the top side.
The next day on the way home, we went up to Johnston's Ridge Observation site to look at Mount Saint Helens.
For once, we had a clear view of the crater.
