While fishing out on the Columbia River practicing for a bass tournament, YouTuber Josh Howard from NWTrailSeries hooked into a mystery fish that took him for a 30-minute ride. Howard dropped a lure into a creek bed about 30-feet deep; it was then that the excitement began.
Kayak angler dragged for half hour by mystery river monster
“I think I have a sturgeon,” said Howard in the video. “Oh my God I have no idea what’s happening right now guys.”
The mystery fish began to pull Howard and his kayak across the smooth surface of the water.
“Whatever that we have is currently towing us,” said Howard to the camera. “What do I do dude?”
Howard added again that he was fairly certain he was being pulled by a sturgeon.
“What’s about to happen?” said Howard. “We’re slowly coming up. I’m scared to get it up though. What’s the goal?”
Slowly, Howard waited as the fish began to move up the water column.
“In case you don’t know,” shared Howard. “There have been thousand-pound sturgeon caught in the Columbia River.”
Sturgeon in the Pacific Northwest
White sturgeon, found in rivers like the Columbia throughout the Pacific Northwest, are amphidromous, meaning they can travel between fresh and salt water, and can live to be 100 years old according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Green sturgeon can also be found in the Pacific Northwest. Targeting sturgeon is highly regulated, and white sturgeon are listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need under Washington’s State Wildlife Wildlife Action Plan.
“I just want to be able to see it,” said Howard. “We’ve been doing this probably a solid 20 minutes plus, easy. Maybe 30.”
Off screen, a friend calls to Howard suggesting that maybe he’s hooked a horse down there.
“I think it is a horse!” Howard explained, right before the hook came out, and the mystery fish swam away.
Ultimately, Howard lost his river monster, and the mystery fish remains a mystery. For all we know, he may have been pulled 30 minutes by a very feisty bluegill.
