Sturgeon

A guy sent me some info at work about the annual sturgeon spearing season back in Wisconsin or some place like that. I'll get the stuff next week and tell you more about it. Here's one line out of his email, just to get you thinking:

"A guy also speared a 143 pounder as well which would have been in the news more if it weren't for the guy who speared the 188 pounder."

Holy smokes, B~C, these guys don't even need smelt!
 
Hopin' them smelt make up to the Sandy river again this year. We don't do the sturgeon thing, but, we cut em up into bit's for some of the best crab bait we have ever used.

Mike, we use zip-locks. Hard to beat that kinda' reusable space age technology.

Jon
 
Iconoclast, I take it you want to catch some smelt. Take one long handled net and a five gallon bucket and head for the Cowlitz or Lewis river when the smelt are running and just dip away. I believe the limit is 3/4 of a bucket full, when they're running a couple of swipes with the net and you're limited out.

Where's home port?
 
There are several ways to catch smelt. By far the easiest is to not shower for a few days. The next easiest is to invite B~C over to your house in March sometime. Make sure you have plenty of freezer space.

The way B~C gets the smelt is by assigning his students the task of bringing them to class. I think they get extra credit for them.

The smelt make their yearly run in from the ocean to spawn this time of year. Ours come up the Columbia River headed for any of many smaller tributary rivers. A couple of hot ones are between Longview, WA, and Portland, OR. To catch the critters, you take a small meshed net with a real long handle and dip them out of the river. I think the limit is 10 lbs. per person per day, and when they are thick, you can get that in just a couple dips. One sure way to find where they are is to head for the flock of seagulls that are on the river way inland.

Several years back, before DEQ made us put in a $30 million intake screening system at the paper mill on the Columbia, we could get lots of smelt out of the sump at the water intake house. The guys had made a large stainless steel basket with no top that they lowered into the sump on ropes. As soon as it hit bottom, they would pull it back up. When the smelt were thick in the river, the basket would be full by the time it reached the surface.

A lot of folks eat the things. My dad used to fry them heads, guts, fins, feathers, and all. He ate most all but the head, too. Made me sick to watch him. I have tried them fried, but only after they were cleaned. They didn't seem good enough to me to bother cleaning too many. Now all I want them for is sturgeon bait. And B~C's institutional smelt are by far the best we've used. And using his smelt helps the young adults, too. Shoot, there are kids from Ken's class that can't even spell their names, yet they are state certified diesel technicians. Just thinking about that makes me regret buying the Cummins Dodge.
 
Good luck on scratching that C-Dory itch, they sure are a fun, functional boat. There is usually some pretty good smelt info (and general fishing info) at www.ifish.net
Mike gives a pretty explanation of the smelt thing, and, yes, the easiest way to get um is to make it a homework assignment :) ...
Mike, Thought those Dogdges didn't break down.....had some students that applied for employment at that paper mill down the river. They where given an apptitude test that required them to do something with four steel orbs. One guy soldered them into a fancy pattern, they made him an electrician. Another guy welded them up all nice so they made him a welder. The third guy machined them into fancy gadgets so he was turned over to the machine shop. The fourth guy broke three of the orbs and was caught trying to steal the fourth so he was assigned to the millwright Dept.

:) :) BTW, I have great respect for millwrights but I love that joke
 
OK Mike & Ken,

I think it's time for some DNA testing on you two guys. There seems to be a paternity thing here cause you're both starting to sound like a matched pair.

Tim
 
You have to have a smelt net. Most rivers that have a smelt run, have many places where you can rent a smelt net. After obtaining your net, and asking where the best place to go is, you simply dip your net slowly sweeping downstream near the bottom. at the end of this sweep you should have smelt to dump in to your bucket/cooler/Safeway bag/.

TyBoo Mike, I know you are experienced at smelt, but do not try to dump directly into the ziplock bag :wink.

Last year on the Sandy river, it took 3 dips to fill a 5 gallon bucket, and each person could take 2 buckets per day. When the smelt run, go get a net and catch smelt, they may not be there tomorrow. We went almost 20 years without a run in the Sandy :cry.

If you have children, go catch smelt. They will never forget it.

Jon

Jon
 
That the truth, there was, what was thought, a pilot run several weeks ago and then nothing. Worse comes to worse, I still have a bunch in my freezer I could part with.
 
Head's up, B~C. There's a school of smelt headed your way. At about 4:00 pm today they were about 15 miles down from the mouth of the Cowlitz.
It appears the experts were wrong, the run is not over yet.
 
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