Kicking Off 2023 The Right Way with Boat Limits

Going fishing the 1st day after the New Year celebration can be challenging, but every now and then, it pays off big time.

A couple buddies of mine talked me into fishing the sturgeon opener above Bonneville Dam this year. I managed to temper my New Years celebration a little and got to bed by 1am. After a short 4 hour nap, it was time to get up. Made the coffee and threw some snacks in a bag. We were on the road by 6am and made it to Hood River for a 7:30am launch.

Being the first time I have had my boat on the upper river, I needed to pay extra attention to the chart and nav aids as there were plenty of shallows to avoid. On the way down to our planned spot, there was no mystery to the popular sturgeon spots. Boats were stacked up on anchor over all the deep holes.

Landed on our planned anchor spot and got our lines out before about 8:15. We watched the boat next to us hookup to a couple shakers. It took us a little while before we started to get bit. After a couple shakers ourselves, we finally landed a nice keeper. It measured to be about 46″ in length.

The bite was pretty slow. Got another shaker before our next keeper. This one was about 41″ in length. We stayed in this spot till about noon before we decided to pull anchor and try another spot. Held the next spot for only about 45 minutes without a bite before we decided to move again.

We moved back toward the ramp and dropped anchor below a group of boats in about 90′ of water. Within 10 minutes, we hooked up. A second rod went off and we thought we had a double. After a little fight, we realized it was just one fish that tangled our second rod. Landed our third keeper and our boat limit for the day. This one was only about 40″ in length.

While reeling in the last rod to pack up and head in, a fish started to fight. Unfortunately, it came loose after a few tugs. We found a sweet spot, unfortunately, we were all tagged out. I marked this spot for the next time. 🙂