On my first sturgeon fishing trip, I flew from London to Vancouver, then drove a hire-car about 70 miles inland, to Chilliwack on the Fraser River. I made contact with Marc Laynes, of Cascade Fishing Adventures, on arrival in Chilliwack and arranged to meet Harry, my guide, at 8.30am next day. Harry turned up in my hotel car park at 8.30am on the dot, towing a boat behind his enormous truck and announced himself with the words – “who wants to go catch some dinosaurs?” I peered into his boat and noted that, as promised, all tackle and bait was included as part of the package.
The first time I saw a sturgeon jump was 1 hour after I started fishing when, with lines streaming out behind the anchored boat, an enormous fish launched itself clear of the water in an absolutely vertical jump, right alongside us. I was hooked. Harry had anchored the boat in the middle of the river and we had cast 3 baits in a spread, some 30 yards downstream towards, but not into, a very deep eddy. We had deadbaits of lamprey section on 2 of the rods and a dead eulachon (a smelt-like fish) on the other. Harry thought it might be getting too late in the year for the migratory eulachon but he had had good results a couple of weeks back and figured it was worth another try.
Seeing a couple of sharp raps on the eulachon rod, I eased the rod out of the rest and waited (about 5 seconds) before I felt a steady, weighty pull. I struck and a second later the biggest fish I had ever seen in a river jumped clear of the water 30 yards behind the boat. Harry yelled – “that’s a 6-footer!” – and the fight was on. After that explosive jump, the sturgeon settled into a steady but irresistible surge downstream and line simply peeled off the reel despite a tight clutch and me thumbing the spool. An inconsiderate tugboat, travelling diagonally upstream, made a good attempt at washing me out of our boat but that incident aside, a steady, arm-sapping pump and wind every time the sturgeon stopped running brought the fish alongside in about 15 minutes.
I held the sturgeon on a short line while Harry raised the anchor and crabbed the boat across current and over a shallow sandbank. We unhooked the fish, then took a quick photograph before I walked the sturgeon gently across the knee-deep shallows, releasing it to swim slowly off towards deeper water. The sturgeon was just over 6 feet long, tip of snout to fork of tail, and Harry put it at about 110lbs. At the time, it was by far the biggest freshwater fish I had ever caught and, given its awesome vertical jumps, by far the most spectacular.
The first time I saw a sturgeon jump was 1 hour after I started fishing when, with lines streaming out behind the anchored boat, an enormous fish launched itself clear of the water in an absolutely vertical jump, right alongside us. I was hooked. Harry had anchored the boat in the middle of the river and we had cast 3 baits in a spread, some 30 yards downstream towards, but not into, a very deep eddy. We had deadbaits of lamprey section on 2 of the rods and a dead eulachon (a smelt-like fish) on the other. Harry thought it might be getting too late in the year for the migratory eulachon but he had had good results a couple of weeks back and figured it was worth another try.
Seeing a couple of sharp raps on the eulachon rod, I eased the rod out of the rest and waited (about 5 seconds) before I felt a steady, weighty pull. I struck and a second later the biggest fish I had ever seen in a river jumped clear of the water 30 yards behind the boat. Harry yelled – “that’s a 6-footer!” – and the fight was on. After that explosive jump, the sturgeon settled into a steady but irresistible surge downstream and line simply peeled off the reel despite a tight clutch and me thumbing the spool. An inconsiderate tugboat, travelling diagonally upstream, made a good attempt at washing me out of our boat but that incident aside, a steady, arm-sapping pump and wind every time the sturgeon stopped running brought the fish alongside in about 15 minutes.
I held the sturgeon on a short line while Harry raised the anchor and crabbed the boat across current and over a shallow sandbank. We unhooked the fish, then took a quick photograph before I walked the sturgeon gently across the knee-deep shallows, releasing it to swim slowly off towards deeper water. The sturgeon was just over 6 feet long, tip of snout to fork of tail, and Harry put it at about 110lbs. At the time, it was by far the biggest freshwater fish I had ever caught and, given its awesome vertical jumps, by far the most spectacular.
My good friend Richard Bowler came along on my next trip to the Fraser. It was his first sturgeon fishing trip so he had to be given the responsibility of catching the first fish of the trip. He didn't disappoint and boated a beautifully conditioned 50 pound fish on the first day.
Later in the trip, Marc took us to The Canyon, a lovely stretch of the upper river with many different features, ranging from relatively slow glides, to ferocious rapids and a massive, deep eddy. It was in the eddy that Richard hooked his biggest fish - and I missed the photographic opportunity of a lifetime! The power of the eddy swirls the lines and the anchored boat around and you have to fish with a lot of slack line to ensure the bait remains static on the bottom - but you can still see the tap of an interested sturgeon on the rod top and the definitive pull of a taking fish. Richard had this happen and, as soon as he lifted the rod, Marc was shouting at him to - "wind wind wind into the fish". Richard was cranking the reel and expressing doubts that a fish was on and Marc only just finished saying - "he's going to jump" - when a 6 foot plus sturgeon leapt vertically out of the water right behind the boat, showering Richard with spray. I had taken a shot of Richard holding the rod, waiting for the bite to develop - but had put the camera down just before the fish jumped! A long fight followed with the fish holding deep in the eddy and Richard having to work hard to gain any line. When he did get the fish to the surface, we could see it was well over 100lbs. Marc and I lifted the fish into the huge cradle that is always on hand when we decide to bring a sturgeon into the boat, the barbless hook was easily removed and I took a quick shot of Richard and Marc holding the fish before we released it gently back into the eddy.
Marc decided that our next sortie should be to The Old Trapline, a fast-running stretch where the baits are presented in a 15 foot deep gulley with shallower, very fast water either side. You need anything from 12-16 ozs of lead to hold bottom here and the bites can be spectacular, the sturgeon often hooking themselves and leaping from the water as soon as you pick up the rod. I had just such a take and no amount of pressure would bring the fish back to the anchored boat. Nothing for it but to slip the anchor and risk the fish finding a snag as I heaped on the drag, keeping a tight line from a drifting boat but unavoidably allowing the fish to run deep as we moved towards it. The fight was long and dogged, everything held and, with me clamping the reel, Marc was able to manoeuvre the boat into calmer water in a shallow bay. Having jumped overboard, we unhooked the fish at the side of the boat and, after a couple of quick photographs, I had the pleasure of releasing a 160 pounder back into the river.
The next "newbie" to join me on a Fraser River trip was Stu Parkes. He had fished for the smaller lake sturgeon in Manitoba but had yet to experience the Fraser River fish. On the very first day, he hooked into a big, lively sturgeon that provided me with my favourite jump shot. That fish would have weighed at least 200 pounds but it slipped the hook at the side of the boat as we tried to bring it aboard. Considering it was by far the biggest fish he had ever seen or hooked, Stu was remarkably relaxed about the whole episode. As he said - "I hooked the fish, I played it to a standstill, the fish was unharmed - good enough for me". Later in the same trip, Stu hooked and brought to the shallows an even bigger fish and I was very happy to get a shot of all 7' 11" of it before he released it.
A few words about tackle and bait for Fraser River sturgeon. The first thing to say is that you need not bring any of your own tackle or bait because this will be supplied. A typical set-up would be a 9 foot, custom-made, glass or carbon rod, a sturdy multiplier loaded with 100lb test Berkley Whiplash, allied to a 60lb test Berkley Big Game leader and a size 9/0 barbless hook, the bait being held on bottom by an 8-16oz trapezoid-shaped lead. This may seem like pretty formidable tackle to English anglers but the Fraser is a big, powerful river and the hard fighting sturgeon in it can reach weights in excess of 1,000 pounds! Though I have yet to catch or see one, it seems that every year some lucky angler will catch an 800 pounder.
There are few hard and fast rules but the most successful baits tend to be related to the time of year – eulachon often work well early season, salmon eggs or flesh of dead salmon work thru the salmon runs, lamprey section and pike minnows seem to work all season. Eulachon are a smelt-like fish that spend a few years at sea before returning to freshwater to breed in late winter/early spring, so providing a feast for hungry sturgeon coming out of winter lethargy - a sort of hors d’oeuvre before the salmon runs. Lamprey are imported and sections of dead lamprey make a durable bait that constantly leaks blood. Pike minnows are Fraser River residents and a staple part of the sturgeon’s diet. They resemble an elongated roach with a long snout. You can catch them on a small piece of worm suspended below a float in slacker water – great fun.
There are few hard and fast rules but the most successful baits tend to be related to the time of year – eulachon often work well early season, salmon eggs or flesh of dead salmon work thru the salmon runs, lamprey section and pike minnows seem to work all season. Eulachon are a smelt-like fish that spend a few years at sea before returning to freshwater to breed in late winter/early spring, so providing a feast for hungry sturgeon coming out of winter lethargy - a sort of hors d’oeuvre before the salmon runs. Lamprey are imported and sections of dead lamprey make a durable bait that constantly leaks blood. Pike minnows are Fraser River residents and a staple part of the sturgeon’s diet. They resemble an elongated roach with a long snout. You can catch them on a small piece of worm suspended below a float in slacker water – great fun.
I made my first trip in 2001 and have returned to the Fraser several times since with different fishing buddies. The winter snow run-off changes the river and, in particular, the location of sandbanks every year – but some things remain constant. I always fish with Cascade Fishing Adventures, I always have a blast and, thanks to the expertise of Marc and his guides, I and my fishing buddies always catch fish.
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