The Sniper Interview
Introduction
I traveled to Portland (Oregon) multiple times in the past few years to fish with a fellow French guy named Olivier Gandzadi. We fished for carp, Olivier is quite talkative, and he has a long list of fascinating stories to tell. It's funny, I used to fish as a teenager, but when I moved to Paris (and lived there for a decade), I was so busy with work that I never fished the Seine River, so hearing him speak about his memories out there conveyed a special feeling to me. And then the stories about the giant catfish (silures) hiding under the houseboats. And then his incredible experience fishing the Columbia river and going after white sturgeons, which he readily shares with whoever goes to visit him! I sure took advantage of it, and landed a few of those amazing underwater tanks! When we came up with the idea of doing an interview about all of that, I knew they would be a lot to say. It all came from a phone interview I recorded, a 'stream of consciousness' from the master himself. Here it is, enjoy.
The Interview
Q. You are known by the alias ‘The Sniper’, could you please share your real name and where you’re from?
A. My name is Oliver Gandzadi, I am from Paris, France.
Q. What is the story behind your alias, then?
A. My nickname “The Sniper” came from a consultant from Dragonbait, a carp company in Europe. I used to take him fishing the Seine River, and seeing my fishing set up by then, he felt this was acting like a sniper, I thought that was funny, so I kept that nickname.
Q. When did you start fishing for carp? And why?
A. I started fishing for carp more than 30 years ago. I used to do pole-fishing in a little pond, close to my grand-ma’s house. I was like 14 or something, and carp were coming to my swim, taking my maggots and bait, and breaking my line, and I was like “what is that fish”, and after I knew they were carp, I started fishing for them.
Q. What were the best methods of the ‘good old days’?
A. I started fishing for carp with a long rod like 14 or 15 feet, we didn’t have the gear that we have now. I fished with potatoes and corn with a really long leader (3 feet) with a one ounce lead, it’s pretty funny compared to what we’re doing now; prebait and fish on the spot, that’s how I started. In the Seine River, the old guys fishing for carp were using the ancestor of a method feeder, that we use to call in France “la pelote”, using dough that they would make with different ingredients like we do, but they would put some clay in it to make it really hard, so that river carp would stay on it, but would have a really hard time to break it, and they would use as bait maggots or corn. They would put the leader into the dough, just leaving the hook bait out, and that would be the only thing carp could take really. Those old guys were the real deal for me, and I still make my dough pretty hard.
Q. You did a lot of ‘street fishing’ in Paris. Tell us about this experience.
A. At the time, there was nothing like ‘street fishing’ to me, I was just going fishing the Seine River in my neighborhood because it was close, nobody was going to take me fishing anywhere, I was taking the bus or walk, and go fishing where I could, and it happened to be right there in Paris because this is where I was living. At the time, carp were easy to catch in the city, I remember buying just a couple of cans of corn, and go fishing like that in the Seine, one can to bait and the other to use as hook bait. I started to fish like that, then got a little sharper and catch some really big fish where nobody wanted to fish because of the surroundings and the dangers at night, but I didn’t really care, so I just fished in the city. It’s a really unique experience, it’s hard to describe the vibe of fishing in Paris at night and catch fish over 50 pounds, it is something crazy to experience at least once in your life. The scenery is incredible, there is no noise, the city gets all quiet, and all you can hear is your bite alarm screaming. Average size was around 10 kilos (22/23 pounds), and you could catch 30 or 40 or 50 pounders. In the middle of the city, there were way bigger than anywhere else. Even now I see some guys posting catching 60 pounders in Paris, huge fish.
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Q. Ever tried to fish for big catfish (silures)? Or hooked some without intending to?
A. What happened with those is that they use to bite on my bait, when I was using meaty boilies, like squid/octopus smelly boilies, pretty good size like 25 mm, or dog food as big as a 20mm boilie, and I used to put 3 or 4 of those on a hair rig, which was like 2 inches. One day, I caught one and I thought it was my biggest carp ever, and it turned out to be a 4 or 5 feet catfish, oh my gosh. There were a lot of them in the Seine. You would catch them fishing for carp, but after a while, I would try to target them. I used to fish for eels in the river with some little shrimp or worm, put eels on the hook with a bobber, with a 3oz lead, and let the bobber drift in the current, put the rod on a tripod with a bite alarm, and just leave it like that. They would take a 2 feet long eel or bream as bait, they were pretty fun, they fight really hard. I caught fish that were 6 feet long, not really monsters, but they were good enough for me! But I’d rather catch carp though.
Q. How do you get them out of the water?
You don’t use your net, you put gloves, you put hands in their mouth, and grab it to drag them on the bank. They have a lot of teeth, tiny teeth. The only way to hook them is on the size of their mouth, otherwise you cannot hook them, this is how hard their mouth is.
Q. What brought you to the US? Where do you live now?
A. I moved here about 8 years ago because my wife is from Portland (Oregon). We stayed 10 years in Paris, life was pretty difficult, if you’re not a millionaire over there, it’s kind of difficult. So we moved back to Portland, and I started fishing the rivers here.
Q. How different was it from your experience in France?
A. It was a big change for me, from the Seine River in Paris to Portland Oregon, I was like “whoah, where is the city”, I felt that I was in vacations, there was no big city. Nice rivers though, the Willamette and the Columbia. I started to go around, to look for carp here, asking people in tackle stores about carp, but nobody was fishing for them and I had no information, nothing. I just had two huge rivers in front of me and I started to scout them. I started by the Willamette, cast out and found like 60 feet of water, oh my god, it was too much water. I bought a map of the river to look at the depth, and I was looking for spots with 10 to 20 feet of water. I was looking at Google Maps, then my depth map, then go and start fishing spots. I started to fish spot by spot, then to find them and catch them, and then I did the same at the Columbia. And it was the opposite, I went to a spot and there was no water. It’s huge, I cast out, and it’s like 3 feet of water, no way, I thought it was deep, but I didn’t know… So same thing in the Columbia, just go with my map and try all of those spots with the way I was fishing at the time in France. I was fishing really heavy, with 80lb braided line, and 60lb mono as a shock leader. I didn’t know what I would find here, how big the fish were, how many of them, it was a big change, and over time, I really had to adjust anything like the gear, the technique, and especially the scouting to find those fish. It was a lot of work for me, I put a lot of time on the bank, and started to catch them.
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Q. Do you prefer river fishing or pond fishing? Why?
A. I got to laugh about that. River fishing is my thing, I fish big rivers, I have a hard time fishing little ponds, where there is no current, it kind of depresses me! Or it would have to be a really big lake, but ponds aren’t my thing, even if there is big fish. In Oregon, ponds have big fish, over 30 pounds, but I’m not interested to catch those fish, I’d rather catch them in the Columbia or the Willamette, but more the Columbia than anything else.
Q. Tell us more about the characteristics of local rivers and your pioneering.
A. The Willamette has a lot of fish, the problem is that there are too many fish, so the size of the fish isn’t good. I caught some 20s in the Willamette, but there are really too many fish, and it’s only good for the beginning of the season, including the winter. Around Christmas, we can catch like 15 fish during the day, that can be fun, you’re still carp fishing in December. But my main interest is the Columbia River. It is huge, more than 1200 miles; it goes through Oregon and Washington and up to British Columbia. This river is tidal near Portland (so is the Willamette), and that makes the fishing more difficult. You cannot come and prebait and think that you’re going to catch fish, it doesn’t work. The fish will come on your spots when the tide is right for them, they just follow the current. This makes the fishing on the lower Columbia more challenging, which I like, you don’t get bored. There are a lot of fish too in the Columbia, and there are some big fish. I know there are fish over 30lb, I caught my first 35 pounder last year on the Washington side of the Columbia.
Besides that, there is also going up east, where the Columbia is non-tidal when you pass the dam. It’s really carp heaven, with a lot of fish, and big fish, something I’m going to do more this year, fish the Columbia River up there, fish the Snake River as well, which has also a lot of big fish. There are a lot of things to do here, which I like, I’m like a pioneer, nobody fishes for carp in those waters, it’s a big challenge and I like it. I could talk about the Columbia forever, and I saw quite a few places, but I know I’ve seen nothing yet compared to the size of the river, especially on the Washington side, which has more access and where you don’t need a license to fish for carp. I can fish anywhere with one rod on the Washington side, and now in the Tri-Cities area where I like to fish, they recently opened it for two rods, I cannot wait to go there and explore.
Q. I have to ask… Mono or braided line?
A. I started with mono 30 years ago, there was no choice at that time. Then I switched to braided line some 15 years ago, I was fishing the Seine River, and fished braided line for a long time. Then I came back to mono, although I still have some rods with braided line. This year, I think I’m going to fish just mono, I like the stretch, I have less hook pulls, I don’t have to use a shock leader. This year, I’ll fish 25lb mono on the big rod, and 17lb mono on the little rod. I can do both, it’s not really a problem.
Q. I have to ask… Boilies or corn (or some other bait)?
A. I am more of a boilie person. I would prebait with corn, put it in my mix if I fish method, but I’m used to fish big bait. Those river carp will take big bait, I fish boilies, snowman rig, with a little pop-up. I am sponsored by a company, which sends me boilies, Carp Pro, and they work pretty good.
Q. What’s your favorite story fishing for carp in the Columbia?
A. Hm, that’s difficult, I love the discovery, going to a new spot, I can tell you many stories. Last year, I went to a place going west, closer to the mouth of the river, I was driving around, I had an idea where I wanted to go, I couldn’t find access, I kept driving, and I found a huge beach, 4 or 5 miles long. There was nothing in the water telling me that carp were there, but ok, I set up, I baited a little bit (I never bait too much because I don’t know where the fish are going to come, or the level of activity, so I just put 4 or 5 balls of method, and a little corn around that to start with). So I did that, I sat down, and the spot was looking good. One hour, two hours, three hours, not even a bump, come on. I decided to go back to Portland, I wanted to go catch some fish, I was tired. I went back to my car to make up more mix, and then I went back to pack up, and I found my rod bent in half, screaming. I picked up the rod, started fighting that fish, and bing, it broke my line. Well, I might stay here then… I redid my rigs and… (the interview was interrupted, Olivier was fishing and he had a run!).
This beach was a new spot for me, nothing happened, and suddenly it turned on, and I ended up with 14 runs during the day, and landed 12 fish from 14lb to mid-twenties. That was pretty amazing to me, but I have a lot of stories, I just had that one in mind.
Q. A few years ago, you started to post pictures with long silvery fish, which do NOT look like a carp at all. Explain yourself!
A. Yes, this is what happens when you move to Oregon. I used to fish for catfish in the Seine, but there are no big catfish here. I saw people catching sturgeons in front of me, I was “whoah, what is that fish”. What did they use? I saw squids, herrings, ok. I fished with a basic rig, trying to catch a sturgeon and caught a little one, and this was pretty fun. I started to fish for them once in a while, then I got more into it, especially for the winter, when it starts to be slow for carp. I got geared up, and I started to try to make rigs for them, and really learn about the behavior of the fish. It is a migratory fish, they are not always in the Willamette, they are sometimes in the Columbia, sometimes in the ocean. I had to find out when, and where to catch them at that time. So I got sharper, and I started to catch sturgeons on a regular basis, catching a lot of them, even too many sturgeons. Yes, it is a good fish, good fighter, it is a strong fish, we can catch them up to 6 feet long or even more. I do most of my fishing from the bank, which is pretty challenging, and it’s kind of my new fish, I like it. When it comes to end of September, I start following them around, and I start catching them. They make for really nice pictures, they are really long, They will jump out of the water, when you set the hook, you can see a 5 or 6 feet fish clear out of the water, this is something for a fisherman.
Q. At what time of the year is sturgeon fishing the most effective?
A. You can catch them year round. You don’t find them in every spot. In the summer, you will catch them like crazy in the Columbia in June, July, and August. In the Willamette, it will be more September, they will start getting there from the Columbia, because it is a little warmer. All fall and winter, you will catch them in the Willamette. I would say that the best is around March because the water is high and murky, this is when the sturgeon activity is crazy, we had days landing like 40 fish. Also during work breaks, I used to go on a boat with one of my friends, and land like 30 fish in 3 or 4 hours. I think spring is the best fishing time in the Willamette. I like to fish sturgeons in the Willamette a little more than the Columbia, because we have easier access to deep spots, fishing 70 to 80 feet deep from the bank.
Q. How is carp and sturgeon fishing regulated near Portland?
A. It used to be just one rod. This year, they opened it for two rods in the Willamette, and the Columbia River slough, which is connected to the Willamette. For sturgeons, it’s only one rod. On the Washington side, you don’t need a license when you fish for carp, but it’s only one rod, so you can go everywhere fishing one rod on the Columbia, or lakes, or whatever body of water.
For sturgeons, there is no retention allowed, basically. They will often open 2 days during the summer when you can keep them, no more. And that’s enough, as people may catch up to 1500 keepers in two days, so it takes out a lot of fish out of the water, I wish they would not even open it. A keeper is a 39 inches to 56 inches long. Under 39 inches, we call it shaker. An oversize fish is over 56 inches, and those are the monsters of the river.
Q. Go on, brag a bit, tell us about a few monsters you landed.
A. Well, I caught quite a few over 6 feet, you’ve got to think about those fish as 150 pounds or more, caught from the bank. I think that’s pretty good! This year, I think I caught around 700 to 800 sturgeons, from September to April, a bunch of fish over 5 feet. You came to see me, and witnessed that sturgeon fishing in Oregon can be pretty wild.
Q. What would occur if you happen to hook one of the ‘oversized’ giants?
A. Well, either you land them, or they peel your reel and they finish all your line. It never happened to me, but it did happen to other people using 300 or 400 yards of line. When they catch the current, you cannot stop them. Maybe you can follow them, depending on the bank where you are, but you cannot stop them. I know places in the Columbia where even a six footer, you wouldn’t land it, they would just peel your reel.
Q. Do you have a few fishing buddies as passionate as you are?
A. Yes, I got a few people I fish with. I don’t fish with a lot of people, I fish most of the time by myself. For sturgeon, I got my friend Dean Spella, and we fish from his boat. Also, I have my friend Ron Nathlich, I fish for carp and for sturgeon with him. Another really good young angler is Jordan Wheeler, and I fish for carp with him. And that’s about it. That’s it, I’m hard to follow, you know…
Q. It appears that a few known carpers visited Portland, and came back with stars in their eyes. Were you involved by any chance?
A. I don’t know, you have to ask them… Yes, some carpers came here, and I thought they were happy with what they saw and what they did. And yes, maybe I was involved a little bit.
Q. I know for a fact that you were involved! Are you becoming a fishing guide of sorts?
A. I’ve been thinking about it, especially for sturgeons. I would like to guide carpers, people fishing from the bank. Here people don’t fish from the bank, they fish from boats, but I am not a boat fisherman. I would like to do a little something about guiding, having carpers from wherever coming here and fish for sturgeon with me. They will have fun. So yeah, I’m working on it, expanding my knowledge of the river, especially for the summer on where to find them in the Columbia, so yes, this is something that I think about.
(Jerome fished with Olivier in March 2016, and landed the biggest fish of his life, an amazingly beautiful 5 feet long sturgeon. Olivier caught another one, much thicker, we wisely decided not to lift it, to avoid hurting our backs. We did it again in December, froze our butts, and caught 5 footers again! The second picture above is Wayne Boon, well-known carper in the CAG circle of friends.)
Q. How can one get in touch with you?
A. You can get in touch with me with a private message on my Facebook page (Olivier Gandzadi) or on Instagram, or by e-mail at gandzadi@yahoo.fr.
Q. What do you think is the future of carp and sturgeon fishing in your area?
A. Sturgeon has been here forever, it’s part of the culture here in Oregon. The Willamette and the Columbia rivers are the best place in the world for white sturgeon. But carp fishing, it’s something else, it is brand new here, nobody is fishing for them. I am trying to put something together, to put the Columbia River on the map for carp fishing. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, I will just keep fishing and promote the game here. I know the people from here don’t understand it. Something funny, I went fishing on the Washington side one time, and this guy was like “hey, what are you fishing for”, I said “I am fishing for carp”, and the guy said “no, man, stop bullshitting me, what are you fishing for?”, I had to show him pictures and the guy still wouldn’t believe me. So that’s how bad it is with some people… The Columbia has a mad potential, and this is a river where I think people should come and try some serious carp fishing, it can be pretty amazing. So the future, I don’t know, I am just promoting the game here, and we’ll see where this will take me, and where this will take carp fishing in Oregon and Washington.
Good luck, then. And thank you for sharing your truly unique experience.
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