With summer doing its best to hide and duck-shooting done with, I thought, ‘Why not run away from our winter and steal someone else’s summer?’

Canada had always been a place of interest, but I’d never made going there the top priority due to the commitments with work and life in general. But this year it suddenly became possible – I was off to Vancouver for a fishing OE and about to tick off several items on my bucket list.

I had heard so much about British Columbia, so was stoked to be going there – and nothing is better than leaving Auckland on a wet, windy day, and turning up in a new country, greeted by sunshine!

I went north to a town called Lillooet, through which the Fraser River flows. It is also home to the fish I had come so far to catch, the sturgeon – what I would call a true river monster.

It was not long before I found myself sitting on the river’s edge with the fishing rod in hand waiting for the slow take of a sturgeon. I was fishing from the shore to make this a real challenge (but must admit a boat would have been handy at times!).

We had to cast with 8-10 ounce weights to keep the bait on the bottom. The river current here is strong and fast, turning the riverbed into a canyon over the years, with steep banks on either side.

I sat watching the rod tip in anticipation, waiting for it to bend a little – and then it happened, the tip slowly starting to pull down before flicking back.

I waited, as I had been told sturgeon mouth the bait like a catfish, but upon seeing the rod tip bend a second time, I was able to set the hook – and the braid was soon ripping off the reel as the fish got into the current.

However, I managed to turn the fish and get it coming back to me, out of the mighty Fraser’s main flow. It was doing its best to get into rocky holes and wrap the line around logs, but with a bit of patience I had it into the water by my knees. Here, I was able to get it in my arms and hold it against the rocks for a quick few pictures before releasing the magnificent creature. (The rocks here are sharp, but the sturgeon can only do damage to themselves if beached, so it’s best to hop in the water with them.)

Out went the next bait. However, just as I sat back and started reliving what had just happened, the rod bent over again – and this time didn’t flick back up, the fish charging away in the current. I was soon in hot pursuit, doing my best to chase it down over the boulders, but it kept taking line from me faster than I could get it back.

It jumped, too! Sure, only part of its body lunged from the water each time, but this still made for an exciting show on the surface. All I could do was watch in awe as this mighty fish charged away; nothing was stopping it or even slowing it down.

This was when a boat would have been handy. As I watched the spool get down to its last few metres, it was time to burn the thumb in a do-or-die effort. This saw a huge amount of weight exerted, the rod buckled right over – and then the hook pulled. Upon retrieving the line I found, to my amazement, I’d straightened the 9/0 barbless hook. These things sure know how to fight!

Unfortunately, my day on the Fraser had come to an end by this time, but, hey, I still had the next day!

The night was long as I wrestled with replays of the action-packed day in my head, accompanied by the persistent sound of rain pelting down on the roof. I hoped the river would still be fishable at first light.

By morning the sun was out, but when I got to the river it had risen by about two metres. I figured the fish still had to be somewhere though, and the fact this river is always dirty meant the suspended material shouldn’t make much of a difference.

But I was faced with a new problem: trees and debris floating down the river tangling in my line.

Fortunately, this didn’t matter. Before I knew it, the reel was screaming and a sturgeon was on. A nice fish around 1.5-metres long put on an amazing show, leaping completely from the water and providing some amazing images to etch into the memory bank.

Later, after lunch, I hooked into the best fish of the day. This sturgeon nearly spooled me on numerous occasions; although I was often able to retrieve good line, the big fish would then take it all out again, over and over again. It also put on an amazing show, leaping from the water and going crazy. This extreme tug-of-war went on for nearly an hour, and was what I’d come here for.

Eventually I worked the fish into the shallows and managed to run a tape over the beast: at 6’8” it was a smidgen over two metres long. What an amazing fish for the fresh water and well worth the effort of travelling halfway around the globe for!

It was awesome to see such a healthy fishery so well looked after. The fishery here is catch-and-release only, as sturgeon take a long time to reach maturity, and you can only fish with barbless hooks. These rules help to preserve the fishery so our children and grandchildren can enjoy the same experiences I did. We can learn from this.