Epic River Monster Adventure!

After seeing a friend of mine posting a trip last fall on Facebook of a trip she won as a Lund pro staffer to fish for white sturgeon, we decided to try to go after these river monsters ourselves.  Whites have always been on our bucket list along with a few other insane species.  We sold our family bar business, (one I've been married to for 10 years and made consecutive days off impossible) and closed on it in March when we booked a trip to British Columbia to fish.  After talking with her and researching the guide, we booked with Yves Bisson to fish September 18th, about a month ago.  Yves is the best in the business, I can't recommend him enough, not only did he put us on monsters, he was very willing and helpful and definetly went the extra mile with us making the video for our YouTube channel "Things Chris Does".  We decided to drive out instead of flying so we could film the expedition (I'd never do that again 3,000 miles round trip 52 hours in a truck, a trip to the chiropractor, etc lmao) so anyone else thinking of fishing these giants would know exactly what to expect.  Here's some of the highlights, to watch the whole epic adventure go to the channel and you can see everything!

Driving across the Rockies in the Montana/Idaho area was a beautiful drive, even though I hate heights and not being the driver, and in 3,000 miles I don't think we were passed by more then 20 cars, thankfully my son's cruise wouldn't set any higher then 85 mph!

We drove from Ottertail to Missoula the first day and spent the night so we could film the mountains and different landscapes during daylight hours.  Day 2 we arrived in the Hope/Chilliwack area of British Columbia and scoped out the area for the next day's fishing excursion.  Here we are ripping up the Fraser River in Yves sweet jetboat with a Corvette engine in it, this area is incredibly beautiful!

When we got there the night before it was in the high 70's low 80's the morning we woke up to fish the weather tanked into the 50's with rain and wind, which usually spells tough fishing!  We got picked up on the beach by a town we stayed in by boat.  We got a bit worried as we watched two other guides show up prior to our meeting time, launch their boats with the people waiting for them, where was our guide? Hadn't he launched his boat yet?  Turns out he had been on the water since 4:30 in the morning getting fresh bait for us and picked us up right at our intended meeting time.  When I said this is the best guy in the business, this is why.  You book with him, you fish with him!  He goes the extra mile, you catch fish or your next trip is free!  Oh, and the other two boats I was talking about?  They were skunked never got a fish!

Here we are getting set up on the first spot:

We weren't there for more then 10 minutes and since my oldest son Chris won the coin toss between him and his brother he was first up for the first fish!  I wanted to make sure they both got one before my turn, as a successful trip for me would've been them both landing a monster lifer, if I got one too, that would just be a bonus!  The first white sturgeon any of us had ever seen is on the line!

We got several jumps on film and Yves did an excellent job explaing the tagging program, measurements, etc. for this incredible catch and release fishery for our video!  Very in depth, which is exactly what we wanted to film!

The first fish was a monster! 9' 6" to the tip of the tail, 47" around, estimated around 335-350 lbs!

Cayden was up next with his lifer, another giant fish!

His was 7' 9" in to the tip of the tail and estimated easily over 200 lbs!

At this point I was 100% happy with our trip!  Both my boys had gotten a monster, we got it all on film, what were the odds of another one?  Shortly after we found out, I hooked another monster after seeing it jump and Yves estimating it to be another 8-9 foot long fish, 25 minutes of fighting it, she was able to hook up in the bottom and snap the line!  Perhaps another fish?  Yep you guessed it, unreal!

Mine was around 8 ft to the tip of the tail and another fish well over 200 lbs!  We then proceeded to hook into another fish onf film around this size that was able to spit the hook!  We spent the rest of our boat time getting drone footage for the YouTube video!

Happy Dudes!

That was our trip!  We left the boat and drove back to Spokane, Washington and the next morning all the way back to Ottertail again.  Hope you guys/gals enjoyed our report and if you're thinking of fishing these giants go watch the full amazing video on our YouTube channel "Things Chris Does" and you can see exactly what to expect!  The guide was Yves Bisson Sturgeon Co. and I can't speak more highly of him, as a guide myself, he was top notch and has been catching these monsters for over 20 years, 12 months out of the year, over 200 days a year, he goes the extra mile to make it a lifetime memorable experience!  If you're thinking of fishing these, just do it! You won't regret it, as far as cost, this was one of the least expensive trips I've ever been on but easily one of the most memorable!