My good friend Rick whom Ive known for about fourteen years now (basically since I came to Canada) is a dedicated fisherman.
Im not much of a fisherman myself and its not a sport that Im likely to take up seriously but from time to time I go fishing with him and Ive had some great experiences doing this - from Trout fishing in the inland lakes, to Salmon fishing in the local coastal waters to Sailfish fishing off the coast of Mexico.
This last weekend, was another of those occasions that I went fishing with Rick... and it was good!
The quarry of choice this time was a estuarine fish called Sturgeon. They are a bottom feeding fish that can live for over a hundred years and in days of old they have been recorded at over 20 feet long!
These days though, they are rarely caught at lengths over seven or eight feet (about 2 metres) and they are completely protected here in Canada (Catch and release only - not allowed to keep them).
Im happy with that and if it was not that way, I would not have agreed to go fish for them in the first place... back to the story...
When Rick made the offer to go fishing, I have to admit that I was a little unsure about going. The weather here had been really raining all week and it looked like it would continue. The prospect of being out on a small boat sitting in the middle of a river in the rain for a whole day did not sound that attractive to me.
But, Rick knows his fish and this was an opportunity that I would not likely get again, ... and Im trying very hard these days not to turn down opportunities that come my way - even though I may not see them as very attractive at the time!
So, I said yes, and I was up and ready to go at 5:30am on a cold rainy Saturday morning.
Rick and his brother Eddy came and collected me and we drove fourty five minutes out to the river where the guide (he knows where the right places to fish are and more importantly has a very nice jet boat all set up for fishing) was ready with the boat.
We cast off and zoomed off down the river to the first good "spot" where we stopped and dropped anchor.
The guide then set about baiting and casting out four rods (the bait was salmon roe... The rivers around here are full of Salmon heading inland up the rivers and streams to spawn.).
As I said, Sturgeon are bottom feeders and the technique for catching them is to put a chunk of lead on your line and some strongly flavoured bait on the hook (which is barbless so the fish are not overly hurt by being caught).
Once the bait is out, everyone just sits there and watches the ends of the rods..... thats it!.... Thats what you do for the whole day!....and for fishermen this is a really great way to spend your time....
Actually its not that bad :) In fact, we didnt have to wait long before the end of a rod was making the right sorts of motion and then someone grabs the rod and with a strong and fluid motion jerks back hard on the rod to "set" the hook in the fish's mouth.
In fact this is quite a skill to do well, and needs to be done well if you are going to land the fish. because the hook does not have a barb, the fish can effectively "spit out" the hook and bait at any time. The fisherman's job therefore is to ALWAYS keep tension on the line no mater what direction the fish or the boat are going or how fast.
Anyway, The morning went by with quite a lot of action and about ten or twelve fish of assorted sizes were caught and brought onto the boat for pictures and measuring and then released again. They ranged from less than three feet long (nice one Eddy!) to just over 6 feet long (that one was mine :) ) .. and a good time was being had by all.
By about mid day though, the bites had slowed down and there was a lot more waiting and watching than reeling... So out came all the old fishing stories and discussions about equipment and techniques etc. Im sure you can imagine... fisherman live and breath this stuff.
We had been taking turns on reeling the fish in and everyone but me was an experienced fisherman, so they were all setting their own hooks (it wasnt till later that I was allowed to try this - I had limited success but my technique did improve).
Anyway, when it was quieter, we each got allocated a rod number and if there was a bite on your rod then you got to reel it in. If you got a fish over three feet long then you were "out of the rotation" for about a half hour and the other guys got your rod as well as theirs... It all seemed quite fair really.
And so the afternoon passed slower than the morning and the fish got smaller too (probably to do with the tides.). We moved from place to place along the river and slowly worked our way back up to where we had launched the boat that morning.
Last stop for the day was about a hundred meters from the dock and the guide assured us that even though it was very close to the dock and right between two very large bridges, that it was a good spot.
This proved to be very true as we got the largest fish of the day here.
It was nine feet four inches long and weighed around 600lb! (I dont know why they use the old imperial system but that equates to about 3 metres long and 300Kg).
It was on Rick's rod and he did the whole fight which took about three quarters of an hour (and left Rick extremely happy but extremely worn out too).
This is the largest fish I have ever seen! (and I think so for Rick too). It beat the near- record Sailfish we caught in Mexico several years ago that was just over 9 feet long and weighed 220lb. It was also the largest Sturgeon that our guide had ever caught.
So the fish was brought to shore (no way we would be able to get it into the boat) and then we took lots of pictures with the big guy before spending about 15 minutes reviving it and then sending it on its way back into the murky depths...
definitely an experience!
Actually, I think I am now officially Rick's lucky fishing talisman.... thats twice we have got huge fish together... :))
