On
Sunday afternoon 1st June 2003 Sue, my wife, and I flew into Vancouver Airport in
Canada's British Columbia to start our six day holiday to fish for the White
Sturgeon that inhabit the Fraser River. This was the first time we had been to
Canada and we were looking forward to the challenges in front of us - we hoped!
We were met at
the airport by Verne, our guide's stepfather, who is a real character. We chatted
with Verne and got a feel for the place while he drove us for the one and a half
hours through some beautiful countryside to our hotel in a place called
Chilliwack.
This is a lovely
small town right by the Fraser River and where our guide Marc Laynes of Cascade
Charters lives. Verne told us that Marc would come to the hotel in the morning to
collect us at 08.30hrs for our first day on the river. So all that was left for
us to do was to have a shower, go for a meal and get a good night's sleep and
contemplate the days to come.
Marc promptly arrived the next morning to collect us and he too is a great
character, making us very welcome and making sure that we had everything we need
for the trip ahead. He picked us up in his 8 liter Ford diesel pickup truck with
his pride and joy behind; a custom-built all aluminum jet boat powered with a V8
engine. These boats don't have a propeller, they suck water in underneath and
pump a large jet out of the back to power them along, it is absolutely amazing
the speed they can travel at, but it also has very comfortable seating for the
passengers which is as well as you spend approximately 8 hours a day on the boat.
As he drove the
short distance to the boat launch we chatted away getting to know one another. He
has done a lot of work for the fisheries department, studying the White Sturgeon
in great detail and is a leading authority on these fantastic fish. He is also an
angler himself and has caught many of them up to 800lbs in weight whilst doing
the survey. He is also a conservationist, caring very much for the river and its
inhabitants. These fish are totally protected and every fish that is caught is
measured and tagged (if not tagged already). The tags used are inserted under the
skin behind the head and are the same type that we use for tagging our pet dogs
and cats. Once in they are there forever. The White Sturgeon can grow to a length
of 18 to 20 feet and weigh as much as 1800lbs.
We arrived at
the boat launch and launched the boat and it was only now that we realized what a
big powerful river the Fraser is. As we headed up river a short distance to our
first spot of the day Marc started to tell us about the way we would fish and
what to expect on the day. When we arrived he dropped the anchor and told us
about the tackle we would be using.
Tackle
Rods are 9ft long with a test curve of approximately six pounds,
similar to an uptide rod but with an all-through action. The reels were large
multipliers backed with heavy nylon and topped off with 300 meters of 160lb
breaking strain braided main line. This might seem very heavy but when you
actually fish the river and catch some of these fish you can understand why such
line strength is necessary. The terminal tackle is very simple, being a link
swivel running on the line to clip the leads onto, which allows the leads to be
removed easily before lifting a fish into the boat. The link swivel is stopped by
a bead against the swivel that joins the mainline to the hook trace which is 80lb
breaking strain nylon. At the end of this is a 7/0 stainless steel barbless hook.
The leads vary in weight from a few ounces up to 1lb, depending where on the
river you fish and how fast the current is, because the Fraser is a very fast
river in places.
Bait - and a ball game..
the bait was Brook
Lamprey, usually three were put on the hook and then tied round the shank of the
hook with some thin cotton. We also used sections of Sea Lamprey and also Salmon
roe; the latter was placed into a piece cut off a pair of black tights, made into
a small ball about the size of a golf ball, put on the hook and then some roe was
tied around this with cotton to secure it in place. Now that caused a few frowns
and laughs when Marc pulled a pair of these out. "Hang on a minute, I'm not into
that game!" I said.
Now, would the
sturgeon be interested? The hooks were baited and finally put out to the spots
and the rods placed in the holders. All we could do now was wait to see if the
sturgeon were interested. While we were waiting Marc explained how a bite would
look and I was surprised how delicately these fish bite, showing only very gentle
taps on the rod tip.
Marc explained
that when this happens you have to take the rod out of the holder and lower the
rod slightly to take the tension out of the line, and then the Sturgeon should
start to move off with the bait. When this happens you don't strike in the usual
accepted manner but sweep the rod back and hook into the fish. However, if the
fish swims towards you, then you reel into it, only pulling the rod round when
you actually feel the fish.
We did not have
to wait long for the tell-tale taps to appear on one of the rods, so I lifted it
out of the holder and waited to feel the rod go over. I then pulled into the
fish, which shot off on a short run at an alarming rate, but within a few minutes
I had landed my first White Sturgeon. Although only a small one it gave a good
account of itself and its colors were absolutely stunning. They looked like an
opal in the sunlight with all the colors of the rainbow from different angles
and I could not wait to play another one. Marc told us that on average we should
catch five fish a day but we would have to wait to see how things panned out. But
sure enough, by the end of the first day we had boated five fish with the biggest
at 55lbs. This fish took some 80yds of line on its first run and came right out
of the water twice, which was an awesome sight. We hooked several other fish
during the day but they are experts at getting rid of the hooks. Marc said he was
disappointed with the result and could not understand why so many fish picked the
bait up only to drop it within seconds, but apparently this is what they
sometimes do so you just have to persevere and be patient, which was very easy to
do when fishing in such beautiful surroundings.
Day Two
The second day
was much like the first. We fished a different area of the river and landed a few
fish and lost a few but they were still being very finicky. At the end of day two
Marc said he would take us to his favorite part of the river the next day and
hopefully the Sturgeon there would be more obliging.
Day Three and some spectacular scenery and
wildlife
Marc picked us up at 8.00am and we set off. We arrived at the boat launch and
set off up river, which was surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery I
have seen in my life, with snow-capped mountains rolling right down to the
riverbank. There was also a lot of different wildlife, including seals, otters,
deer, bald eagles and osprey, which made the day even more interesting.
We caught one or
two fish in different spots going upriver and saw Sturgeon to about 300lbs
rolling through the surface, which is an awesome sight when a fish of that size
lazily rolls a few feet away from the boat. Unfortunately it happened so quickly
we couldn't get any photographs of it and the fish were still being very finicky.
We arrived at
our final spot for the day, put the rods out and sat back, waiting, and in the
meantime watching a few fish roll. Eventually I had a good take and was into a
fish that just tried to pull my arms out of their sockets. It took about 70yds of
line on its way up river, came back and then set off again. Marc couldn't
understand why it hadn't jumped clear of the water as they generally do very soon
after being hooked. He was beginning to wonder if it was foul hooked.
The fight was a
dogged affair but the power of these fish is unbelievable. But after 20 minutes I
managed to get it to the surface and we could see that it was cleanly hooked in
the mouth. Marc removed the lead and told me what to do to get the fish into the
boat and safely into the stretcher that he carries to put the fish into. The fish
was checked for tags and it had an old tail tag in it from 1997 and had not been
caught since. So Marc duly measured the fish and inserted a new tag behind its
head and then after a few pictures she was released none the worse for her
experience. She was a beautiful long nose specimen and weighed 90lbs.
We fished some
of the spots we had fished previously and caught a few and lost a few fish during
the day but no big fish put in an appearance apart from rolling near the boat,
much to our frustration. To end the day Marc decided as a last ditch effort to go
to a spot he only fishes on rare occasions. We arrived and anchored the boat in
about 25ft of water and put the rods out. Within minutes the tell-tale knocks
started and stopped just as quickly. After about half an hour we decided to call
it a day so I picked the left hand rod up and, remembering what Marc had told me
on day one, not to just pick the rod up but pull it round just in case a fish was
sitting with a bait in its mouth, which apparently is quite a common occurrence.
As I pulled the rod round everything was solid. I told Marc I was snagged, which
he said was odd because there were no snags there. "Pull hard," he said. "It must
be a fish sitting with the bait in its mouth."
I did as I was
told and then all hell broke lose as the fish came straight to the surface like a
dolphin and then proceeded to power across the river, taking nearly 300yds of
line off the reel in under 60 seconds. Marc was frantically pulling the anchor
up, asking me all the time what was happening and just before the knot that joins
the braid to the nylon went out he got the boat engine fired up and in reverse
and chased after the fish.
I slowly gained
the line back that the fish had taken on the first run when off it went again and
jumped clean out of the water. Then it headed back upstream. At one stage it was
swimming upstream so fast against the current Marc had to speed the boat up quite
a lot to stop it overtaking us. Marc asked how big I thought it was because he
had not seen it so I told him I thought it was bigger than the one I caught
yesterday. After some 25 minutes the fish eventually surfaced and Marc managed to
remove the lead but, because the current in the river where we were was so
strong, we had to tow the fish across the river to the slacker water. It was 35
minutes later when the fish was boated. It was a short nose fish that measured
191cm (six feet three and three eighths inches long). The sturgeon had never been
tagged before, which meant it had never been caught before that day, so I was a
very lucky angler in more ways than one. The fish weighed 130lbs and was
absolutely awesome and stunningly beautiful, with amazing markings. After a few
pictures she was returned to the river and then the emotions of what had happened
set in. Anyone who has caught something that they have really been hoping for and
determined to catch will know what I mean.
The last two
days we fished hard and managed to catch some more fish up to nearly five feet
long. I had 24 Sturgeon in all but Marc was disappointed that I did not catch a
fish over 250lbs. Maybe next time - yes I will be going back and have already
booked to return next year.
It was a
wonderful holiday in beautiful surroundings with a great guide and if anyone
reading this would like to go and try and catch this wonderful fish contact
Anglers World Holidays on 01246 221717 and ask for Martin Founds. He will be able
to advise and book everything for you, I can highly recommend it.
