On July 16 angler Michael Snell saw his rod tip dip and he set the hook. More that an hour and a half long fight ensued. Top fishing guide Dean Werk moved the sturgeon and the boat to shore in a timely fashion. A fish of this size and great strength is nearly impossible to land. Once on shore they sfarted examinated the head and dorsal fin Dean realized it was a untagged wilde and old White Sturgeon. Together the group measured it and applied a tag to the side below the head of the fish. The monster and huge sturgeon came up next to the boat it was almost as long as the boat. The big fish measured an 12 feet and 4 inches, and it wasto big to weigh it, charts indicate that its weight is about 1,100 pounds. It had a 53 inch girth!!
"I've been a professional fishing guide on the Fraser for 25 years and I've never seen a sturgeon this big," says Dean Werk, owner of Great River Fishing Adventures. "We have helped to collectively tag more than 47,000 white sturgeon since 1995, and scanned in excess of 90,000 tagged sturgeon that have been caught and released. This tells us this dinosaur fish hasn't been caught in at least 18 years if ever at all. I'd bet she's over 100 years old."
"It is the most excitement I've ever had with a fish. It all happened so quickly," says 65 year old Michael Snell. "When we picked her head up out of the water, it was almost three feet wide. I never knew a fish could be that large!"