"In a day you may hook the same fish three or four times and you can tell it's the same fish by the fresh sores on its lips," Rico added. "The smaller ones are faster than the bigger ones. They are the first ones to the bait. You catch-and-release them, and they'll go back to the same place and hit it again. They can just get to the bait faster than the big ones. It takes time for the big fish to move up in the hole when they smell the bait, whereas the smaller fish get there right away."

The entire stretch of the pool harbors sturgeon. More than 50 miles of water is suitable for prime action during the spring and much of it goes untouched. Finding a spot all to yourself isn't going to be an issue.

"It's a lot of water that doesn't get touched," Rico said. "There's no pressure. We never see other boats. It's underfished. Every time I go out there, it's a learning experience because I always find more depressions and then I have another spot to fish. There's plenty of fish in the area throughout the year."

BAITING UP
Sturgeon come here to eat. From March to July they follow the food, namely smelt. As the run of smelt moves upriver, the sturgeon come with it and feed heavily, says Rico.

That makes smelt the choice bait for most anglers. It's not imperative that you use smelt, since there are other effective baits, but smelt is the most abundant food source in the system.

"Smelt is the No. 1 bait that's used," said Rico. "That's what they are targeting because that's their natural food source, but that's not what I use. I've got other stuff that works just as good, if not better. By the time June comes around, most of the fish have fed on smelt in the system. So I give them something that they haven't been seeing and that has a lot of scent."

"I do have smelt with me, and when I use smelt, I'll run two versions of it. I'll run a natural smelt and another form of it where I inject it with the Pautzke Liquid Krill," Rico confided. "The Liquid Krill creates a stronger scent trail. I inject the krill into the cavity of the smelt and I freeze it that way. Then when I put the bait on, the krill is semi-frozen so when I put it in the water, it thaws and holds the scent better and longer."

Like all fish, sturgeon can be finicky. But if you give them enough food choices, chances are that you'll come up with a winner. Other effective baits are pickled squid and fresh sand shrimp. Some anglers choose to invest in more baits, but these are the main three.