Giant Fish

  My wife and I went to a dinner/auction with our Small Group from our church. It was sponsored by our high school kids. Well, Steve won the bid at $250.00 for a day fishing trip for 2 people with lunch and snacks furnished. The gentleman giving the trip was kind and offered 2 trips if I wanted to do it. I agreed and paid the church.

   I told the guide I wanted to do a sturgeon fishing trip. I chose a buddy I hadn't gone fishing with in years. On the day chosen we got there early in the morning and went up the Columbia River to what is called the Hanford Reach. I was very quit and a beautiful morning. It took about half an hour to get where we wanted to be.

   We fished for a couple of hours with little to no action but that was ok because we were enjoying the beautiful day and good conversation. Suddenly my friend hooked a sturgeon and finally landed it. It was 1 inch short of legal. Well, we took pictures and let it go. Perked up the morning and we continued fishing hoping to hook a legal fish. This is how the rest of the morning went.

   We ate lunch with no other action. Later that after noon my friend hooked another fish and when landed we measured and it was just short we thought. Mark released it too. I asked the friend who took us fishing if he had a fishing regulation guide and he looked around and found it. I looked thru the regulation and discovered that Mark's last fish was legal. Oh well, our fault for not knowing the regulation.

   Well, it was getting late afternoon and I still hadn't had a bite even. I was setting there eating the snack when my rod jerked so hard in the pole holder, I thought it was going to bounce out of it and into the water. Boy did that start the adrenalin. I grabbed the rod and when I felt the weight on the rod I was sure the fish was legal.

   I want you to know that when a big fish wants to go in another direction there is nothing you can do to stop it. I continued to put pressure on the pole and he continued to fight back. My arms were getting very tried and after about 30 minutes I gave my fishing pole to my friend. I gave my arms a rest for about 5 minutes and took to pole back. The fish still strong, I kept putting pressure on him to come to the surface. He finally came to the surface and I about fell out of the boat. This was a giant fish to me. The fish took one look at the boat and went back to the bottom. I continued to put pressure on him and he finally gave it up and came up to the boat and we hooked his tail and went to the bank and took pictures and measured him. He was 6'10" and was 150 pounds. This is the biggest fish I have ever caught in freshwater. But he was to big to keep, so I released him.

   The Columbia River produces sturgeon much bigger then this. I know of people catching sturgeon well over 12 feet. This was my biggest fish caught on the Columbia and it was a great day. The captain took us on a trip up further up the river and we ran into a group of foru mule deer. Three of the had four points on their antlers and one deer had five points. Beautiful day and thanks to the captain.