First and Foremost- SOCKEYE IS NOW OPEN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! WooHoo!
Here is an awesome tale of a Sturgeon Convert! Published in several BC Newspapers, written by one of our clients- Adam Less.
HERE IS THE STORY!
An appreciative fist bump goes out to all Fraser River sturgeon this week.
As far as fishing the Fraser River is concerned, a lot of different fish compete for anglers’ attention. Shiny, fat, tasty Chinook, Sockeye and Coho are the brand giants of Fraser river fishing.
Sturgeon, on the other hand, always seem to get a bad rap. These ugly, spiny, old, bottom-feeding relics rarely receive equal billing when up against the allure of fishing for legendary, BC salmon.
This past week, my Brother-in-law, Redneck Rick, and I made the several hour trip to the Lower Mainland, eager to fish the mighty Fraser and bring home a couple of impressive King Salmon, in hopes our wives would see us as the testosterone-filled, chest-thumping hunter gatherers we’d like to think we are.
By the way, I call my brother-in-law a redneck (much to his chagrin), because as far as I’m concerned, if you own a hundred baseball caps, and all of them have the logo of either a brewery or auto parts manufacturer on them, you qualify.
We arrived for our fishing trip late in the afternoon, only to discover on check-in, the Chinook had apparently all left some days earlier to vacation in Arizona. Not a single Chinook salmon had been caught in nearly a week.
As an alternative, BC Sportfishing Group, our fishing guide company (these guys are outstanding, by the way, and I’m not just saying that in the hopes they’ll comp me my next six hour charter), suggested we consider Sturgeon fishing instead.
With no other realistic options available to us, we reluctantly altered our plans and booked a six-hour catch and release, Sturgeon fishing charter for the following day.
Early the next morning, we met our guide, Mike, at the boat and made our way up the Fraser to drop anchor.
Not half an hour into fishing, the sturgeon began to strike... one after the other. The first was nearly four feet long and fought like a Real Orange County Housewife at a 50% off Prada sale.
The fish just kept getting bigger and fighting harder.
Within two and a half hours we’d landed five monster sturgeon and were struggling to keep up with the action.
By the time it was all over, both Rick and I were converts, eager for our next opportunity to hit the Fraser and land more of these decades-old, gilled dinosaurs.
I suppose you could describe this week’s column as more of a fishing story, than a marketing piece. And yet, as always, there is a lesson here, if you read carefully enough between the lines.
In reality, there is little difference between battling a sturgeon or a chinook. For most anglers, the experience and satisfaction from both is virtually the same.
But while sturgeon so often get overlooked, salmon take the spotlight and draw anglers from around the world as BC’s prized river catch.
The truth is for river fishing, as with most things, when it comes right down to it, perception is all that really separates a trophy fish from a forgotten, bottom-feeder.
Sturgeon make for great fishing.
Salmon just have a better marketing team.