Dah, dah, da, da Derby Time!

[cohoho]

Off to pre-fish tomorrow for the Sturgeon Derby on Sat.....  Hopefully we bring home the bacon$$$...............  Myself, M-Ray and Pope will be hard at work at o'dark thrity Sat morning...

[robodad]

Good Luck Boys !!! Wish I was there too !!!  

[ICEMAN]

Good luck, stay safe!

[bowhunterforever]

Sounds like a fun time, Good luck!

[rasbo]

GOOD LUCK HOPE YA SMOKE THEM

[bankwalker]

good luck guys. ill be on the chahelis saturday doing my best to catch sturgeon. to bad i aint in the derby or id be down on the columbia aswell.

[huntnphool]

Go gettum boys

[huntnphool]

Just got off the phone with Pope, they caught several fish today in practice however only one keeper that would have qualified for the derby, around 48". The good news is the checker at the dock said the largest fish measured there today was 49" so they would have been in the money. Good luck tomorrow guys, tight lines!!!!

[billythekidrock]

Make us proud!.

[big iron]

cohoho did you guys get to go or were you blown off the water like here in P.A.?

[cohoho]

Just got back, no keepers today for the money.... Oh well, we had a great time, and got to fish with a couple great guys Pope and M_Ray.  We caught several fish, a couple just shy of keepers status, one was 37 and 7/8ths, Almost made the 38 min for the retention.  A few boats limited out of 287 boats and over 600 fishermen and women (which a girl won the whole event ), seemed like maybe five or six got three and several had two, but more than most didn't even have a keeper, probably 80%,             I would guess from the status board it wasn't as good as previous years, but we had good days leading up to today and weeks prior to getting ready..  As a team we did manage to win a couple prizes in the drawing, some fish bags, really nice, traded for a couple rods with someone else who won them...  I also won a really nice Sturgeon combo rod and reel, probably worth about $180.  Lots of prizes, funny though the same group of people won 1st and 2nd and I think largest fish too?  And to think we passed up the hole they were in, talked about it and thought about it again after a bit...  Oh well...  It was nice to see the alot of guides get shunned also...  They were in the same holes as us...  If you haven't done this before, wow the start is absolutely crazy, I mean really Oklahoma Land Rush crazy.  We were in the first wave out of 87 boats two other waves followed us with 100 and another 100 respectively at 30 minutes intervals...  The boats had to drive by a boat with flashing yellow lights on it they would record your number then most started filtering towards a imaginary line and the count down from ten to one went over the radio.  Holly *censored*, no kidding- it was like bumpers boats on steroids, everyone going like crazed wild people hauling as fast as their boats would go towards their magical holes.  If someone was in a little boat I felt really bad for them it was like serious bad surf conditions right in the middle of the river...  I am surprised if someone didn't get swamped...  The big boats certainly distanced themselves from the crowd quickly.  We only had seven or eight in front of us by the time we hit the bend for the Willamette.  And those in front of us were untouchable, a couple guide boats with big 225 props and the extreme boys running twins 150's or bigger.  Got what seemed like major air several times in the beginning trying to get past the others...  I think we all will have to see the dentist to replace some fillings that came loose...    That in itself was a highlight for my first of MANY more derbies.... I just can't really describe how wild the start actually is.  Too cool.  The funniest part was there was a smaller anchored boat with guys not in the derby fishing just past the mouth of the Willamette, when we went by they appeared to yelling at boats (maybe 8 to 9 went through at this point)...  They must have been outright freaked  by the sight of 80 boats hauling butt straight at him, if he didn't know the derby was going on, he probably about crapped his pants at that sight...  And that went on for one hour with the next 200 boats running towards their spots..... If he knew the derby was on and been there before he was just plain STUPID!....  It was again a great time and one heck of a experience that everyone ought to do at least once.  We are planning our attack for next year....  Pope has some cool pics of the maddness I'm sure he'll be posting..

[bowhunterforever]

Sounds like you guys had a blast!

[robodad]

Did you guys use up all your luck before the derby or what !!!   

Sounds like a total blast, I remember halibut derbys that were similar in that 250 boats running helter skelter trying to cork off anyone they could !!!

[billythekidrock]

Thanks for the update.

[huntnphool]

Last years derby was slow for keepers as well Mike, don't feel bad.