By John Gregg
Watsonville, CA.— He is a former college baseball
player turned professional
fishing guide.
At thirty-seven, Jordan Smith is one of those guys
that most of us just look at and envy. Five years
ago he left his construction business and returned
to his first love fishing. Located in Vancouver,
Washington, Smith runs the very successful and less
stressful Bent Rods Professional Fishing Guides.
Jordan is a master at locating and catching salmon,
steelhead and sturgeon in the pristine Colombia
River and the waters of the Pacific Northwest. He
isn’t you normal guide. Along with his fishing
 prowess
he also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from
Washington State University.
How does that translate into going after great fish
and the occasional monster? Well, Jordan puts a
premium on the entire experience and it is usually
just him and four customers out on the water
together. He is one guide that believes that smaller
is better except when catching fish.
JG:
How long have you run Bent Rods Professional Fishing
Guides?
JS:
This is my fifth year.
JG:
Where do you call home as far as the guide service
is concerned?
JS:
Vancouver, Washington.
JG:
How did you get involved in the sport?
JS:
My father use to take my brother and myself out
catfishing. They we went out and started fishing for
salmon, steelhead and sturgeon. So I spent a lot of
time with my dad fishing.
JG:
Do you have a favorite memory of fishing when you
were a kid, or as a young man that really sort gave
you a passion for the sport?
JS:
Probably the first time I went salmon fishing on the
Kalama River probably back around 1978. I was about
ten and fishing on the Kalama and I got about a
35-pound spring Chinook and also a 25-pound spring
Chinook. That was my first time ever salmon fishing
and ever since then I’ve been hooked.
JG:
Does your dad still fish?
JS:
Actually my father fishes quite a bit. He’s retired
now and he gets the chance to fish a lot.
JG:
You didn’t get into the guide service right away,
what did you do after graduating from college?
JS:
I started my own construction business and I had
that for about ten years. I eventually got out of it
and then I began guiding fulltime. I’ve enjoyed that
transition because I’m doing what I love.
JG:
Obviously you go after salmon, steelhead and
sturgeon but what are some of the rivers that you
fish and guide on?
JS:
I do almost all of my fishing on the Colombia and I
do a little bit of the North Fork of the Lewis. I do
a little bit down in Tillamook Bay and some on the
Willamette. Mostly on the Colombia for sturgeon,
salmon and steelhead. Spring Chinook fishing I stay
down close to Portland and the Vancouver area. Fall
Chinook we start down at Buoy 10 in Astoria and we
start down there about the second week in August. We
fish that for a couple of weeks. Then we come up
here to the Woodland area and fish in the Colombia
out in front of Woodland, Washington, for the upper
river Chinook. After that we make the transition to
the North Fork of the Lewis for more Chinook and
then it’s back down to Tillamook for more Chinook.
JG:
What does the schedule look like for you?
JS:
Right now I’m booking both salmon and sturgeon
trips. Sturgeon just reopened on October 1st, and it
is open Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. I do
sturgeon trips up around Bonneville Dam.
JG:
Do you have any sturgeon tips for our readers?
JS:
A lot of people think the stinker bait the better
but I like using fresh bait. When you fish down in
Astoria in June and July this year even in August,
we buy fresh anchovies daily. At the end of the day
you throw away what you don’t use but we buy fresh
the next day. The fresher the bait I believe is
better. With sturgeon they move around a lot and you
have to know more than one spot. If you fish for an
hour and don’t get any bites you pull up and try
another spot. Don’t get hung up on one location.
Down in Astoria this year the hot spot probably
moved around 15 times. You have to follow the fish.
JG:
What do you think people enjoy about your guide
service?
JS:
I keep it smaller. I don’t have the Super-Vee
Alumaweld, the great big open boat. I have a 20-foot
Duckworth with a halftop on it. I fish parties for
four and I don’t go more than four customers. I
think it is a lot more one-on-one than when you get
too many people in the boat. If you have too many
folks it’s really hard to connect with everybody. I
don’t try and combine three groups of two people and
no one knows each other on the boat. I will take a
trip for two people, rather than to try and book
more people on top of it.
 JG:
Tell me a little more about your boat. ?
JS:
It’s a 20-foot Duckworth and it has a 175 Sport Jet
engine. It is jet powered and I can take it into
shallow waters when I want to. It isn’t a huge boat
but it has plenty of room for four customers and
myself. I never had any complaints that it is too
crowded. It runs the Colombia real well. It has a
little deeper pitch with a 12-degree bottom. A lot
of the jetboats that run the river are 8-degrees and
it is a lot flatter on the bottom and therefore a
great deal more bumpier ride. My boat cuts through
the water very well and it handles big water all
right. It isn’t a real powerful engine but for the
Colombia it is plenty. It seems to be a pretty good
boat for the Colombia. I can’t really fish the North
Fork in the summer out of that boat, you just need a
flatter bottom.
JG:
Any other advice to fishermen who might be venturing
to the Pacific Northwest?
JS:
So as long as they follow the regulations they
should be fine. If you catch a fish that you can’t
keep, a salmon or a steelhead, you can not keep
don’t pull it out of the water. Take the hook out
without pulling the fish into the boat. That is one
of the big mistakes people make. They will net a
native Silver and they will bring it into the boat
and take the hook out and by the time they put it
back into the water it is belly up. If they take the
hook out when the fish is in the water it stands a
much greater chance of surviving. You can really
tell when a person doesn’t fish a lot because they
will net it and bring it into the boat. They look at
and throw it back and the fish doesn’t live.
JG:
For our readers in different parts of the country
would you advise them to come to Washington and fish
the Pacific Northwest?
 JS:
Definitely! This is the last place in the world that
you can fish for over sized sturgeon. The five to
15-foot long sturgeon you can fish those up at
Bonneville Dam from the middle of May to July and
even into August. You can catch the big monsters. It
is all catch & release but it great to catch a
1000-pound fish.
October is fantastic month to get out on the water
and going after fish. If you happen to be in
Washington, well, give Jordan Smith a holler. He is
the best man around to wet a line with on the
Colombia.
If you would like to contact the Bent Rod
Professional Fishing Guides service be sure to check
out their website at
Bent Rods You can also give them a call at
360-772-2274, or drop Jordan an E-mail at
bentrods@msn.com
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