Sturgeon Fishing With Cascade Fishing Adventures. Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. The Pictures (Part 3 of 3)

Some more pictures from my sturgeon fishing holiday on the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Enjoy!

 

Mike with his biggest of the week, an eight footer that
weighed 315lb



Pikeminnow were used as bait



Moment of truth

Sturgeon Fishing With Cascade Fishing Adventures. Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. The Pictures (Part 2 of 3)

Some more pictures from my sturgeon fishing holiday on the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Enjoy!

 

CEJ and I lift a 211lb white sturgeon

 

White sturgeon often leap when hooked





Big baits for big fish

My 7 foot 4 inch sturgeon weighed 248lb

Sturgeon Fishing With Cascade Fishing Adventures. Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. The Pictures (Part 1 of 3)

Some pictures from my sturgeon fishing holiday on the Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Enjoy!

 

Spectacular scenery

6 feet 6 inches and 167lb

Jeremy Wade was staying at the same hotel

 

Mist on the mountains

6 feet 10 inches and weighing 191lb

Sturgeon Fishing With Cascade Fishing Adventures. Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada

This is going to be tricky! How do I tell you about my amazing eight days of fishing for white sturgeon on Canada's Fraser River without going on and on and on and boring you all to death?! I could write for hours, but I'll try and keep it as brief as I can. Put simply, I wouldn't have changed a thing. From leaving home to getting back, the whole trip was fantastic, the flights, the hotel, the food, the place and it's scenery, the company and of course the fishing! Mike and I had opted to fish with Cascade Fishing Adventures, one of the many guiding companies based in Chilliwack, British Columbia. Every day we would be picked up from the hotel by either Marc (owner of Cascade Fishing Adventures) or his top guide CEJ, both of whom were great anglers and brilliant company. The boats and fishing tackle they supplied were top notch and we would spend between eight and nine hours on the river each day having a blast! From riding in the boat, to catching the bait, to checking out the awesome scenery and keeping our eyes peeled for bears, the whole experience had me grinning from ear to ear and that was before even catching a sturgeon. So, on to the fishing then! White sturgeon fishing is incredible! These fish scrap hard and for a long time, by the end of the holiday my arms and back ached but it was well worth it. Using baits fished on running lead rigs from the anchored boat, Mike and I were in to sturgeon from day one. I caught a few nice warm up fish of about 40lb or so but Mike struck in to bigger fish from the off and by the end of the day he had brought a 6 foot sturgeon, estimated to weigh around 100lb along side the boat for a quick photo. Day two produced my first 100lb plus fish and a 155lb sturgeon for Mike. Day three and the fish were getting bigger, I took the biggest at 6 feet 6 inches with a weight of 167lb. I was well chuffed and we weren't even half way though our holiday yet! The rest of the trip continued in much the same way as days one to three, we enjoyed superb fishing, some great weather (some not so great) and good times. I could wrap up this blog post now with a list of the fish caught, lengths, weights and the like, but a few of our days need a more detailed look, the first being day four. Day four was overcast, damp and chilly to begin, our guide for today was Marc and we were soon anchored with baits in position. Mike landed a 5 foot fish and then my rod was bent over in the holder by something we hoped would be a little larger. As I picked up the rod, braid was already disappearing fast from the reel and so Marc upped the anchor and put the boat in to reverse to follow the fish. This one felt very heavy and showed me who was in charge for ten minutes or so before I was able to gain a little braid back. With the fish about fifty yards off the back of the boat it decided to make one of the leaps that this species is famous for, hurtling itself in to the air and showing itself off, the entire length of the fish went airborne and what a fish it was, it looked huge! The battle continued for three quarters of an hour with the giant sturgeon making several more long runs and some spectacular leaps but I eventually got the better of it and it surfaced next to the boat, exhausted and ready for measuring and photographing. CEJ had been fishing near by and came over to help, the monster measured 8 feet and 10 inches in length and with a large girth an estimated weight of 403lb was given. What an enormous fish! Marc, CEJ and I lifted it for some pictures before safely releasing it back to the murky depths. An incredible day that saw me land a 6 foot fish later that afternoon too. Amazingly that fish wasn't the biggest one I hooked during our eight days fishing. Day seven saw me attached to a beast that CEJ confidently predicted as being bigger, but unfortunately it threw the hook after ten minutes. We'll never know just how big it was, but monster fish are seen and caught on the Fraser River every year. The biggest sturgeon Cascade Fishing Adventures have landed measured over 11 feet long and was estimated to weigh over 850lb! Sturgeon approaching 14 feet have been hooked and lost and even bigger ones seen. Mind boggling stuff! Day eight, our final day, turned out to be the best days fishing I will probably ever experience. With CEJ as our guide, Mike and I landed five big sturgeon for a combined total weight of 1194lb! Mike had the biggest at 8 feet and 315lb, my best for the day was 7 feet 4 inches, weighing 248lb. Incredible! What a way to end our holiday! Mike and I landed twenty seven sturgeon over the eight days, this included the pair of 8 footers and three over 7 feet in length. It's going to be a while before I top that I think?! I'm going to stop now but I haven't even mentioned the seals, the birds, the friendly locals, the enormous trains and the V8 powered trucks that everyone seems to drive. Oh, did I mention I met Jeremy Wade from ITV's River Monsters? He spent a couple of days fishing and was staying in the same hotel as us. We had a quick chat and he was happy to pose for a photo. A very nice chap. Right, I really must stop! I must give a huge thank you to Cascade Fishing Adventures, these guys are great, highly recommend! The Coast Hotel, the best place to stay in town and to Mike Cuff for his company. Below is a list of useful links and I will post more pictures on here in separate posts, keep a look out for them. To summarise, BEST HOLIDAY EVER! I will return!

Cascade Fishing Adventures - www.bcsturgeon.com
Coast Hotels and Resorts - www.coasthotels.com
Air Transat - www.airtransat.co.uk

Biggest of the trip - My 403lb monster sturgeon

A Day Wrecking With Spot On! Charters

 

It was touch and go whether the trip on Tuesday would go ahead with threatening north easterly winds

But after a brief chat to Ross the skipper Monday night he was willing to give it a go , so a rather early 5am start was on the cards to pick up friends Geoff and Roy for the trip to Brixham,

This was to be my first trip out on a boat for 30 years since having fished the Kent and Sussex marks when living in London,

We arrived at Brixham by 7.00 am and where soon off to the first wreck some 1hour and 20mins motoring time away and his boat does motor, a 10M Cougar Catamaran which he built last year,

We had all tackled up with 12oz ball weights and various shads  and started catching fish on the first drop , plenty of Pollack with a nice cod came to the boat, after 4 drifts it was off to the next wreck which pretty much how the day progressed ,

A Nice Pollock of around 9lb

By wreck three I decide to change to one of the new snowbee coailie pearl stinger skad lures and managed 4 Pollock from 9 to 12 pounds, there was also a number of Ling caught from this wreck on baited hooks and Shads , so in all a really good days sport the Skipper Ross worked really hard all day to put us over the fish and was there when ever anybody needed help so I will definitely be back for more, and even the weather was kind to us with a  hot sunny day and all most no wind ,

River Wye to the Rescue

It's been a summer of cancelled boat fishing trips for me, with inshore and offshore wrecking, a conger trip and flatfish days all called off due to strong winds. Very disappointing! It's lucky then that my visits to the River Wye have proved successful. Barbel to 9lb 5oz and chub to over 4lb have been keen to feed in less than ideal conditions, with the river very low and clear all summer. Usual tactics of a running lead with a smelly bait on the hook has produced the fish. Waggler or stick float has also worked for the dace and bleak. Information on the stretch of river I fish at Lower Lydbrook can be found at www.lowerwyefishing.co.uk The next time I post on here will be to tell you all about my trip to Canada. I fly in a couple of weeks to fish the Fraser River in search of white sturgeon. Cascade Fishing Adventures, my guides for the eight days, have already landed fish to over 700lb this year! Fingers crossed for some arm wrenching action!

A 9lb 5oz River Wye barbel

South West Super League Round 4 River Huntspill

After the Teams of 10 match on the River Huntspill, I missed the first Super League match due to work, so I was ready and raring for a chance to fish the 'Spill again!

Captain Hook, Glenn and a few more from the team met at Laburnam House Hotel for the breaky prior to the draw.

Sean, the walking wounded was helped onto his seat by his carer (Sam Johnson).

Hooky went off for the draw and came take with much better pegs than last week.......although not for Sean, how drew 63, the same peg as last week and a long walk with his knackered back!

I drew peg 76, the end section at Woolavington Bridge. I had Lee Trivett of Preston Innovations Thatchers to my left and Gary Etheridge of Garbolino BMV to my right. Luckily the wind wasn't as powerful as previous weeks although I wasn't counting my chickens just yet.........!

As the form normally goes the end pegs of these types of sections normally dominate but I thought I could put together a weight and get valuable points for the team.

I setup 2 feeder rods, one for ultra long range, the other to fish half way. I also setup to fish the pole at 13m with 0.4g and 0.6g rigs to hopefully target some eels and/or roach. Both tip rods were setup with braid for the bset possible bite indication.

On the call of 'all in' I put ten feeders stuffed with chopped worm and squatt on my long range line, followed by 5 feeders full on my short line. The pole line was given a half pot of white maggot and caster.
 I went out with a positive approach initially and went for a double dendro and maggot hook bait, I was rewarded within 15mins with a 10oz skimmer. I kept recasting regularly and alternating hookbaits and hooklength length to get bites, also twitching the feeder to wake up any fish in my peg.

As expected the wind picked up and although I could ping maggot over my pole line, presenting the rig was proving more difficult.

Half way through the match I got a call from fellow team mate, James Gunter, who couldn't fish due to work commitments! whilst on the phone to him I landed 2 skimmers plus an eel....a proper good luck charm! By now I had 5 skimmers, 2 eels and 1 roach but I couldn't see what else was being caught in my section so I just had to plug away! The bites got slower on the long line as did the shorter feeder line and so into the last hour I opted to swap between the long line and kept looking and topping up the pole line. I went on the pole for yet another look when the wind permitted. First put in was a proper 'Swimmer Eel' of at least 1.5lb, then next put in an 8oz roach!


I ended up weighing 7lb 11oz, which was good enough for 4 points. Lee next me had a couple of proper bream on the tip plus a good mixed bag on the pole for 14lb, Richard Aherne won out section off peg 80 with 16lb 6oz of skimmers, Lee was second and Clive Branson was third with 10lb of roach caught on the waggler. I needed one more decent eel for an extra point!

On the day, Don Sutherland finished 3rd individually, a result which helped us to a respectable joint 3rd on the day.

I cannot wait for the River Avon match in a months time!!

Individual:
1st.  Mike Withey (Sensas Cardiff Nomads) 29-2-0, bream and skimmers, groundbait feedered red maggot, peg next to Motorway bridge
2nd. Gary Webber (Preston Innovations Thatchers) 22-4-0
3rd. Don Sutherland (Maver Cadbury Angling) 21-2-0
4th. Andy Powell (Maver Lobby’s) 18-8-0
5th. Mark Brush (Daiwa Gordon League) 17-15-0
6th. Richard Aherne (Frenzee South Wales) 16-6-0.

Teams:
1st.  Preston Innovations Thatchers 53
2nd. Maver Lobbys 45
3=Maver Cadbury Angling 34
3=Daiwa Gordon League 34

League:
Preston Innovations Thatchers 185
Maver Lobby’s 166.5
Daiwa Gordon League 157.5.