I got to fish a Bucket List location on a trip with Rob and Aaron to the Snake River, Hells Canyon, with Snake Dancer Excursions. We fished on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was mostly about exploring, running 80 miles up to the Hell's Canyon Dam. An amazing journey, spectacular scenery, and great fishing. HIghlight of the day was running several Class 5 rapids. Fortunately Gabe of Snake Dancer knows what he is doing, guiding their 29 foot jet boat up a slot not much wider and just inches from shoreline cliffs - awesome!

The fishing in the river is non-stop for smallmouth bass and we caught them at every stop. They were running 1-3 pounds. We just missed the trophy fish time of year when the big ones are available, but even so these fish were a lot of fun. In addition to the bass we caught several nice catfish.

The main event, however, was the trophy sturgeon that live in the Snake. These fish are plentiful and BIG! All three of us got opportunities to catch big fish both days. My big fish came in at 7 feet 3 inches and I battled him through two sets of rapids down around a half mile. Catching sturgeon in a fast current river is totally different from catching them in the Columbia. The fish really use the current to their advantage. I battled my fish for over 20 minutes and was done in for the next two hours. What an experience!

Give Snake Dancer Excursions a call at 1-800-234-1941 to book some amazing fishing action. Spring early summer is sturgeon/catfish/bass and fall is steelhead/salmon/sturgeon. The sightseeing excursions are all season long and great for non-anglers to see this beautiful canyon.

---