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Three fishermen are still reeling after catching the biggest sturgeon recorded on the Fraser River this year.
With the help of SturgeonHunter/Fraser River Charters guide Steve Kaye, the three men hauled in the 11 foot, 800-pound beast before releasing it back into the mighty Fraser River on Thursday.
According to Kaye, the catch is a "top of the pyramid" sturgeon in terms of size and likely sits within the 0.1% of all sturgeons in the Fraser River.
"I've caught 15,000 sturgeon during my 20-year career and this is only the second that exceeded 11 feet," said Kaye.
"The general catch is between five and a half and seven feet long, last year we caught 115 sturgeons between eight and 10 feet."
Kaye says that getting a fish of this size on the hook is one thing, but successfully reeling it in is a whole other ball game.
"A once in a lifetime dream came true today as we were able to catch and land (after the most epic fight)... A TRUE RIVER MONSTER,” wrote Tom Kirk on Facebook.
“Terry hooked into a 11 ft and 62” girth and over 800lbs+ first thing this morning....this monster put us in for an unbelievable fight and over a 5 mile run that tested all our limits as fishermen that included 3 full blown 10-15 ft jumps out of the water...1 broken and busted reel:.. 1 retied and reattached line... 2 log jams...1 dead pile of logs....a tug boat in our way....lots of stress... highs and lows... hi 5’s and new lows...and lots and lots of luck! everything that could go wrong did but we caught “the great white” Jaws... sturgeon.”
According to Kaye, the sturgeon is likely between 100 and 150 year old.
To learn more about the Chilliwack based SturgeonHunter/Fraser River Charters, click here.
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