The Northwest's Premier Outfitter offering guided fishing trips on Idaho's Clearwater and Snake Rivers, American Falls Reservoir, CJ Strike Reservoir, Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir, and the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon.
The days are getting shorter, hunting seasons are open, and temperatures are dropping. This means one of the best times of year to chase sturgeon is upon us. Fall is one of the absolute best times of year to catch sturgeon as they feed heavily to stock up on critical fat reserves that will get them through the cold winter months ahead.
All of our sturgeon fisheries fish great during the Fall. Now is prime time for both our Southern Idaho area’s and Hells Canyon. Fall is also one of the best times of year to add some additional fishing opportunities onto your Sturgeon trip. In Southern Idaho Crappie and Perch fishing can be done on the same day with sturgeon, and in Hells Canyon we can easily do a sturgeon and steelhead combo trip. We can’t think of a better trip then catching world famous Snake River Steelhead in addition to battling huge Sturgeon.
We currently have openings in both Southern Idaho and Hells Canyon, so if you have been thinking of a sturgeon trip with us it’s not too late in the year, and you may end up on one of our best trips of the year.
On Friday Idaho Fish and Game announced that on August 5th, 2022 the State Catch and Release Record had been broken. This amazing fish measuring 10’4” and was caught by Jones Sport Fishing customers Greg and Angie Poulsen who were on board Brett Jones’s boat on CJ Strike Reservoir. This is the second catch and release state record Brett Jones has been a part of. He is also the record holder rainbow trout for a beast of a rainbow caught out of American Falls Reservoir.
This record fish was just icing on the cake for an already incredible day. In addition to landing the record fish Greg and Angie also landed a 9’11”, 9’1”, and multiple other fish over 8 feet.
Brett, who has boated hundreds of sturgeon said this fish was like nothing he had ever seen before, and was just in awe by its overall size. Fish like this one are extremely rare, as this is the only 10 foot plus fish that Jones Sport Fishing has ever landed.
Sturgeon fishing in Idaho is an incredible experience and is a bucket list trip for many. At Jones Sport Fishing we offer sturgeon fishing year round in several locations throughout Idaho. Covering the Snake River in Southern Idaho, as well as the lower end of Hells Canyon. If you are interested you owe it to yourself to give our office a call at 208-669-1569 and Dani will get you all set up and answer any questions you may have.
Just wanted to take a chance to share with everyone a recent video we uploaded to our YouTube Channel. In this video guide Joe Weisner, one of the fishiest dudes we have ever met, give a quick rundown on how he rigs up for sturgeon on the Snake River in Southern Idaho. Keep in mind we are fishing from boats, and this rigging may or may not work well for bank anglers. We have landed hundreds of fish with this set up, and it works very well for us.
We often get asked what our favorite thing to fish for is, and I bet if you asked all of our guides you would get a different answer from each of them. One thing though that we all agree on is that Sturgeon Fishing on the Snake River in the Spring is an awesome experience.
Spring is a time of revival. The river canyon is waking up from its winter sleep and life is all around. Green grass can be seen on the hillsides where in only a few short weeks summer will be set in and the canyon walls will be locked into their dry brown look again. Just like the grasses and the birds, the sturgeon are waking up too. These fish have spent most of the winter in deep holding water feeding on whatever merger resources they can find, and now with the warming water they are on the hunt for food. Along with a search for food is an urge to spawn, and many of our fish are traveling the river system to find their spawning grounds.
Spring is definitely a movement period for these fish, and every day is an adventure in finding fish. It’s amazing how much some of these fish can move day to day, and equally amazing how some seem to stay in certain holes, content to live their lives in one sweet spot.
During the spring we often see some of our best fishing of the year in our Hells Canyon Fishery, as for some reason this time of year tends to concentrate a large number of fish in the general vicinity of Heller Bar. Spring is also a great time of year for our Southern Idaho fishery’s, but it tends to just mark the beginning of an awesome season.
If you are looking for a sturgeon adventure in Hells Canyon or southern Idaho make sure to get with us. We are full time professional fishing guides and we strive to make your trip special. We provide all fishing gear and even cook you a hot lunch on the boat.
The absolute lights out winter crappie and perch fishing continues at CJ Strike Reservoir. Located only an hour south of Boise, Idaho this is a truly special place for anglers in southern idaho who are looking for a local get away close to home. One of the best things about CJ Strike is the diversity of this fishery. On any day we can target Crappie, Perch, Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, Channel Catfish, huge White Sturgeon, and the ever present fantastic Rainbow Trout Fishery.
Lately our boats have been focusing on the Crappie, Perch, and white sturgeon. We had 2 boats out last Saturday and between them they took 200 crappie and caught and released 12 sturgeon, with the largest fish going 9’1”.
We have been finding all our crappie suspended over deep water. Most of the crappie schools tend to be suspend from 30-50 feet over both deep water flats, and deep water humps. On the flats the fish tend to be moving around a lot, and the schools come and go very quickly, but on the humps fish are tending to hold in the same area all day. This makes these bunches of fish very accessible.
We have also noticed that schools of fish that are more related to the bottom tend to have a bunch more perch in them and provide some awesome mixed bag fishing.
Currently we are finding fish in all parts of the reservoir. Most people relate the narrows as the epicenter of the crappie and perch fishing on CJ Strike, but we have been finding huge piles of fish up the Snake Arm as well. CJ is a huge place, so if fishing around other boats is not your cup of tea then get out and explore. You will be greatly rewarded. Below is a video of Brett giving a quick rundown on how he is targeting these large schools of fish.
We have boats available most days to get you out fishing, and the best thing about CJ is that it’s a year round fishery, so if your more in warm weather adventures make sure to get you spring and summer trips lined up now before we get super busy.
If your ready to book, or just want to talk to us about a trip, please give our office a call at 208-669-1569 or click the green book online button at the top of the page. We can’t wait to get you out on the water.
The past few weeks have seen us transition from our intense up at 2am, fishing at daylight spring Chinook routine to a much more laid back approach sturgeon fishing, bass fishing, and enjoying the beauty of the lower end of Hell’s Canyon. We have been having a blast catching fish ranging from 4-9 foot sturgeon and averaging 50 + bass/ day. The month of June is a time of year we look forward to every year, when we wind down a little and enjoy the river around us a little more. While we may start our days a little later and take in the scenery more often we are still fishing hard! The huge white Sturgeon of Hell’s Canyon will test your strength to the core. For those of you who have ever done battle with an 8 foot prehistoric giant of a fish you know what I am talking about! Many people walk away from our Sturgeon trips saying that it was one of the best times they have ever had fishing! We invite you to enjoy a day on the water with us and let us show you how special of a place we call home and what its flagship fish have to offer. For the rest of the month of June we are offering Catch and Release Sturgeon trips in Hell’s Canyon. Give us a call or check out the rest of our website for more information on these great trips. This is the perfect outing for family’s and people just looking to take in some sun and enjoy a relaxing day on the water.
We had the great fortune yesterday to spend a wonderful day on the Snake River near Heller Bar chasing oversize catch and release sturgeon and small mouth bass. Both the sturgeon and bass fishing can be fantastic this time of year and spending warm late spring days in the canyon is a real treat. We landed a total of 4 sturgeon with one being a very nice 6 foot fish that gave everyone in the family a chance to try to pull him in. We also put a whacking on the prolific bass in the area. I think our total for the day was close to 50 fish landed. Most of these bass are on the smaller side ranging from 6-12 inches, but the action is non stop.
The Sturgeon and Bass fishing will remain very good for the next few months and we will be out chasing them. We also offer a chance at keeper sturgeon on the Columbia River in the Hanford Reach. If you are looking for a fantastic dedicated sturgeon trip I really recommend fishing this area with us.
Don’t forget to sign up for our Free Newsletter! We have decided to give away one free trip every month of the year to people signed up to receive our newsletter. All you have to do to win is be in our system and read our newsletter!
We snuck out yesterday for an early Sturgeon fishing trip on the Snake River out of Heller Bar. With our steelhead season behind us we have been switched over to targeting catch and release sturgeon. The weather was a little unsettled, but the fish were cooperative. We landed a small 3 foot fish and one monster 8 footer. We also had a few other bites, but considering we only fished for a few hours I think we did fantastic.
Our bait of choice is salmon bellies and scraps from salmon season. We find this to be the most consistent bait, but we often fish other baits such as squid, roll mop herring, worms, or any fresh cut bait we can get our hands on.
Catch and release sturgeon fishing will be great from now through the end of June. On our sturgeon trips we average multiple fish landed per day with the fish ranging from 3-11 feet in length. We also offer sturgeon trips with the possiblity of keepers on the Hanford reach during this same time frame. These trips are a great experience that all should see. The power of these large sturgeon is amazing.
The Snake River out of Heller Bar continues to fish well. Yesterday we had a great day on the river with only 2 customers going 6-10 on Steelhead and also landing a 3 foot sturgeon on steelhead gear.
We found most of our fish just upstream from Heller Bar as the Grand Ronde is flowing very high and muddy, and has made the Snake River downstream from the Grand Ronde muddy and not fishable.
We had almost all our bites drifting my Jones Sport Fishing shrimp cure in the bright red color in combination with a chartreuse cheater or corkie.
I am not really sure how much longer we can expect good fishing in this area, but I’m expecting it to fish well through at least this next weekend, we might se good fishing later on, but water conditions will dictate that. After that we often have great success switching over to catch and release trophy sturgeon fishing.
Sign up for our newsletter for a chance to win a free trip!
