Sturgeon in Hell's Canyon

Homer Brown owns Hammer Down River Excursions in White Bird, Idaho. And if you need an outfitter to get you a very special fish, I think this guy is the guy.We do jetboat tours and fishing trips and Hells Canyon and on the salmon River. Steelhead fishing right now, fall and winter months. And then in the spring we start sturgeon fishing. Sturgeon, bass and trout fishing usually get a shot at the spring Chinook as they come through. And then we're just wrapping up our fall Chinook season. Got some fall Chinook still beating around. They're fun to catch. That's mainly what we do as an outfitter in Idaho. We do have a big game outfitter that we partner up with. Sometimes. If we have a big group that wants to go in. Speaker1: Any fun stories about guys that were sturgeon fishing. Speaker2: Man, we have so many good stories about folks that sturgeon fish. I've had the Idaho State record three times and Hells Canyon looking for a fourth on that one. The biggest fish that we've landed over there was nine foot 11, and that was the state record for quite a while and then went to ten foot. And I think it's ten six now. Probably the best sturgeon fishery. I think as far as being away from the public, being away from the highways, having a lot of bycatch as far as bass, trout, catfish, I think our sturgeon fishing here is probably top of the line as far as the western United States goes. Speaker1: When you tie into a ten foot sturgeon, is that fish a hundred years old? Speaker2: They seem to grow pretty quick up until about 4 or 5 foot somewhere in there, and then they grow about a inch a year past that. So yeah, that fish could easily be a hundred years old. Speaker1: Buddy of mine caught one, fought it for about 2.5 hours. Then of course, let it go.