Now this really has no place here because it was on the short rod, but readers of the forum might be interested to know that some of the biggest fish in the world can be caught on rod & line in the Columbia & Fraser rivers of western North America.

They are white sturgeon, relatives of the black Caspian variety that produces caviar, and are being farmed for that in California as link below.

Last year a 12' long specimen was caught on the Fraser in British Columbia, which was estimated to weigh 800 lbs and be 150 years old (before Europeans settled the area).

They are bottom feeding, barbel equipped, scavengers, so next to impossible to be caught on a fly rod. Only found in these massive rivers. Your correspondent caught a tiddler of 3.5' last Saturday on a ledgered dead bait in the Fraser 60 miles east of Vancouver at www.fraserriverlodge.com. The multiplier was loaded with 125 lb braided line, so I have to say it wasn't a great fight. Guide thought it was 15 years old. 100% catch & release fishery, so no point in thinking about caviar! I have never tried the real deal Sevruga/Beluga but have heard it said that the farmed stuff from this species is half the price & 95% as good. Not a great fan of lumpfish roe myself! Lodge also offers salmon fishing for all the local species but is extremely expensive, & I wouldn't go back for that reason. Interesting day though!

http://www.mala.bc.ca/www/discover/n...0/sturgeon.htm

Leading company farming halibut, tilapia, turbot, sturgeon etc: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/compa...y-History.html

http://www.coastangler.com/fishing/s...stimator.shtml

"The Columbia has a number of important and well known tributaries including the Deshutes, Willamette, Cowlitz and Lewis. The Snake River can lay claim to a 1,500 pound fish that was caught in 1928." There are photo's of this ******, took (if memory serves) a wagon and a 8 horse team to drag it out of the water.

[QUOTE=actinsley]Now this really has no place here because it was on the short rod, but readers of the forum might be interested to know that some of the biggest fish in the world can be caught on rod & line in the Columbia & Fraser rivers of western North America.[QUOTE]


No Way

I knew this before you!!!

I have a John Wilson (the one from Norfolk) book, and he has his biggest fish recorded in it!

[QUOTE

I have a John Wilson (the one from Norfolk) book, and he has his biggest fish recorded in it![/QUOTE]

Which was..............what please

atdhvaannkcse

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Maple

Born to fish but forced to work.

Very interesting, but ultimately nothing to do with fly fishing!

So, has anyone ever heard of a sturgeon being taken on the fly? After all, actinsley, you claim that it's almost impossible! Fly fishers love a challenge and it wouldn't get much more challenging than this.

regards

Alex

Yes ! that's possible I saw it on an old video, a bloke caught a "small" specimen in Kazakstan, it was a 1,80 meter long, hooked with an enormous streamer. In that video you could see much bigger sturgeons chasing after breams or 2lbs roaches !

Also a few others specimens (smaller) have been caught in France in fisheries.

I suspect any 'fly' used would have had to have been rolled in something that had been dead a while.

Not a challenge I wish to accept!

According to local records Sturgeon frequent Afon Tywi quite a lot.

The biggest fish ever caught in the UK came from Nantgaredig, 388lbs and 9'-0" long caught by a salmon angler in 1933.

There are numerous archive records of sturgeon catches and sightings during the mid eighties - mid nineties.

One was caught in 1896 and weighed 320lb, this was caught by "Billy Boy" who sold it to "Slippy Dick" Best not ask what he got up to with the fishes!

Bill

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[url]www.wildtrout.org[/url]

There is a fine line between the angler and madness

If you catch a sturgeon in the UK you are under a legal obligation to give it to the Queen!!

"Your Royal Heighness, I caught Nicola Sturgeon up to no good with Jack McConnel yesterday, however I think you'd be better off with Lumpfish roe"

Sturgeon are occasionally caught in the Bristol Channel or lower reaches of the Severn. Not very long ago one was caught there and duly offered to the Queen, who graciously declined the offer, but her reply was lost by Royal Mail!
The Caspian sturgeon are becoming an increasingly endangered species, partly due to heavily armed poachers, but also to loss of spawning water caused by the construction of dams and barrages and industrial polution.With the break up of the USSR (for which the sturgeon was a valuable source of hard currency) the situation has steadily deteriorated. Depending upon the species it may take up to 17 years or even more for some sturgeon to become sexually mature, but the flesh of the immature ones is becoming increasingly valuable, hence the future for the Asian ones looks bleak.