Who Was More Tired – The Sturgeon or Me?
I spent all day Thursday teaching a Tax Advisor Update in Nampa, Idaho. On Friday, several staff from the Nichols Accounting Group (who sponsored the session) took me on a fishing trip to Hells Canyon on the Snake River.
First, it takes you close to two and half hours to drive to the river. Idaho Power built three dams (Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon) on the Snake River upstream before the main entrance to Hells Canyon. You spend close to an hour driving by or over the river before reaching where the jet boat was docked.
Eric was our guide for the day in about a 28 foot jet boat. We spent the first couple hours fishing for steelhead which means we also caught some trout (a steelhead is an ocean going rainbow trout that is longer than 20 inches) and bass. We both trolled for steelhead and did some bank fishing using worms (brings back my childhood memories of fishing in lakes near where I grew up).
Right after lunch we anchored the boat to the bank and Eric baited up for Sturgeon fishing. The pole is about 7 feet long with 150 pound braided line. Sturgeon are bottom feeders and have no teeth. They simply hang out on the bottom of the river and suck up anything good to eat (at least to them).
It was only a couple of minutes after throwing out the hook with bait that the cry of “fish on” rang out and it was time for me to reel this critter in. Eric thought the fish was perhaps 5 feet long based on how it hit the hook. I started to reel the fish in, but every couple of minutes it was strip off about 20-50 feet of line as it fought my efforts to bring him in.
After perhaps 20 minutes of working the fish it became apparent that the fish had wrapped the line around a rock on the bottom of the river. Eric did a great job of moving the jet boat around the area and ultimately we got the fish started toward shore.
We could tell the fish was getting close to the boat since the line went straight down into the water but at least three times it then ripped about 50 feet of line back into the river. I finally got the fish close to the boat and we could finally see it.
Eric had me bring it over to shore where we took some photos and tried to get a tape measure on it. As far as we could tell, the fish was slightly longer than 90 inches. It was tough to get an accurate length but based on my estimate, I would say right at about 92 inches.
Sturgeons can grow very old. Some of them are over 100 years old. I checked the internet and based on a fish length of 92 inches, the estimated weight is about 235 pounds and the estimated age would be around 41 years. Many sturgeon get over 10 feet long so I guess I ended up with a “small” one but after at least an hour of trying to get this fish to shore, it was big enough for me. After taking a few photos we sent the fish back into the river where it is sucking up food as I write this (all Sturgeon are catch and release).
Here is a photo of Eric and I with the fish. I brought the fish in but without Eric it never would have made it to shore. My left arm is still recovering.
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
Old people usually turn reeling in over to the boat crew. After all of the concerns about Snake River dams by Idaho residents I didn’t realize there were some in Idaho. See recent UB letters.