During a recent trip to BC I finally got the opportunity, despite the Fraser River being in flood, to chase the elusive white sturgeon which are fully protected (catch and release and even electronic tagging of large fish) in Canada

The gear was supplied by the guide and looked fairly basic particularly the sinkers which were actually railway spikes zip tied to the line but when you saw massive logs screaming past in the flood waters the approach was practical if nothing else.

In the part of the Fraser we fished salmon parts (stinky old bits of rotting salmon) were banned and we used very small dead eels as bait - I didn't hold up much of a hope given the state of the river until only an hour into our session my wife - ladies first - took the first bite and hooked and landed a fish a little over a metre which the guide promptly tagged as small..........hmmmmmmm

A few hours past and apart from the occasional apparent touch (or debris hitting the line as it whipped past downstream) nothing further until the tiniest of touches signified a fish was near, weight went on and I set the hook and all hell broke loose, being a bottom feeder I was not expecting almost six feet of fish to suddenly leap into the air in an amazing aerial display before diving deep and using every bit of flood current to it's advantage.  A stalemate then developed for over ten minutes with little line lost but none gained either but slowly the fight was going my way and the deep swirls indicated i was winning.  The guide waded in and as it passed he tail grabbed it dragging it to shore.

 What a truly wierd looking fish, tiny eyes (in that dirty water it couldnt see anything anyway) but given there are prehistoric fossils of this fish and it has remained unchanged for millions of years it has obviously got something right other than rich people wanting it's roe as caviar. 

Here is the pic - another fish ticked off the list - anyone heading that way (just downstream of Lilloet in British Columbia) then I would strongly recommend the guide we used 
www.sturgeonfishing.com - to find fish when the river was running so high and so dirty speaks strongly of their ability as guides - top operation !

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