Northwest Reel Life April 2023 Volume 2 Issue 10 - Flipbook - Page 8
watch
now
Most folks think of the S & P 500
as a stock market index, but on a
recent trip to the Columbia River
Gorge, I realized it had a fishing
meaning as well. Namely, the
opportunity to catch 500 shad
and pikeminnow over the course
of a week!
My friend Rusty Johnston and
I spent a couple of days fishing
on the Columbia River between
Rufus and The Dalles. Our first
goal was to catch a bunch of shad,
not just for fun, but also to use
for crab bait this summer. Our
second goal was to catch some
pikeminnow and turn them in
for money through the Northern
Pikeminnow Sport Reward
Fishery Program.
This program is administered
by the Bonneville Power
Administration along with both
the Washington and Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The northern pikeminnow is a
native fish, but fish nine inches
and longer feed on outgoing
salmon and steelhead smolt,
impacting the survival of both
species.
In this program, anglers are paid
anywhere from $6 to $10 a fish
8 | NWFISHING.net
for any pikeminnow turned
into a designated station along
the Columbia or Snake River.
The more fish you catch, the
more they are worth and if you
catch a tagged fish, it is worth
$500. You can find out more
about this program, designed
not to eliminate, but control the
population of pikeminnow, at
www.pikeminnow.org.
Rusty and I decided to start our
trip fishing for shad below the
John Day Dam. You can fish
below the dam on both the
Washington and Oregon side of
the river, but we decided to buy
a non-resident license at Gorge
Outfitters Supply in Rufus and fish
the Oregon side at Giles French
Park.
We were using Shad Killers, a
local jig sold at Gorge Outfitters
Supply, and the hot color for us
was red and white. The Shad
Killer is a 1/16-ounce jig with a bit
of flashabou on it. We tied the jig
onto a two-to-three-foot leader
which we tied to a barrel swivel.
Above the swivel we had another
swivel which held a ½ ounce lead
weight. Other lures that work well
with this set up are shad darts and
Dick Nite spoons.
We cast our offering from the
bank, let it sink a few seconds,
and the reeled in with a slow to
moderate retrieve as the lure
drifted downstream. We were
soon rewarded by hook ups
with a whole bunch of shad. The
American Shad averages one
to three pounds in size. They are
scrappy fighters and up to six
million of them make their way
over Bonneville Dam between
the end of May and mid-July,
all heading up the Columbia
to spawn. I have enjoyed good
days on the water catching shad
before, but this day was epic!
Rusty and I hooked into some 50
shad in just two hours of fishing.
We lost a few (they have a nasty
habit of throwing the hook) but
reeled in some three-dozen fish,
getting more than enough crab
bait for the summer.
Speaking of uses for shad, the
oily fish is also a favorite bait for
sturgeon, and some even cut
them up into chunks to use for
catfish bait. Still others will eat
them. We met one angler at a
cleaning station at Maryhill State
Park who carefully filleted out the
shad he caught. He told me he
brines them and puts them in a