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[BigFisher]

I was just woundering where you catch sturgeon on the Fraser. You just dont go out and throw your gear into the river and just wait for a bite, right? Are there certain places where they sit?

[rod dance]

good question.
i'd love to know that too.

very nice salmon in your picture btws.

[roeman]

find me a supply of fresh ooli's and I will take you any time you want to go

[Rodney]

This fishery can be done on shore but it is best done on a boat. If you've never done it before, get two or three buddies of yours together and hire a guide. Get Randog at Ultimate Sportfishing to take you out, it seems like he's doing pretty well with the latest reports. A guided trip will not only get you into some fish (hopefully ) but you can pick off as much local knowledge from the guide as you want.

[leaseman]

What Rod says is the way we started a couple of years ago by going on a guided trip and basically taking notes!! We were lucky enough to go with Len Ames and he was a wealth of knowledge and a hell of a lot of fun! With him we fished from Island 22 and up river...The boat we use now ourselves is fibreglass so we usually fish from the Vedder down river...As far as locations go just keep an eye out and mark the areas that you see boats fishing for them, its pretty hard not to be seen when you are sturgeon fishing especially when you are fighting a larger size fish. As far as baits go use whatever is in the water system (as far a salmon runs go) at the time of your trip(s). Every trip out we usually start with ditch eels on at least one rod and switch baits back and forth on the other rods. We boated over a 100 fish last year which we thought was pretty good considering we were still learning the different areas of the lower Fraser. One thing you will notice is the guides will stay 15-30 minutes in one area and if no action move on...we usually fish up to an hour in one area because we are enjoying the peace and quiet and it gets to be a pain pulling the anchor all the time plus we were having some issues with our engine....

Hope this helps and if I can help anymore just call

[lucky]

 Moosefinder, I am also interested in sturgeon fishing, I have a 13' whaler style fiberglass boat  with a 20hp, just wondering where is a good spot to launch? and what sort of water do you generally look for? how deep to fish?  just a little nervous about using a fiberglass boat in the river.

[leaseman]

What side of the river do you live on Lucky?...There is a few different places to launch...As far as fishing you would be fine from Mission on down and if you have a sounder look for any "holes" or depressions...Fish above the hole first (thats what we usually do) them move back (by releasing anchor line or pulling anchor off the bottom and drifting) about 15-20 yards depending on hole size and try again...Water depth we fish runs 10 ft - 60 plus, average depth for most of our fishing is 20-25ft...I find it really exciting and the hardest thing for me still is "Remember the bigger the bite, the smaller the fish". I was told this years ago and it still proves it 90% of the time!! Another thing that I get a big kick out of is that you might hit a slow current area in the warmer weather and have coarse fish nibbling on your bait then all of a sudden nothing...get ready because we have found that this means a big boy is in the area and when this happens to us we usually have a 50/50 chance of a very good hook up

All this stuff is what we have picked up by watching, doing and reading...We are not by any stretch of the imagination pros at it but we love fishing and hate crowds/combat fishing so we got hooked on sturgeon fishing and try to get out 1 day every weekend. The is a lot of people out there that know more about these fish but I like helping people get started into it...My ten year old son hooked into a 6ft (approx) last fall day after his birthday and we have the picture of him and his fish on the piano and I look at it every day...In fact I haven't hooked a fish on the last several trip out because we usually bring along someone new to the "game" and I enjoy sitting back and watching the fun!!

Anyway if anyone has any questions I can answer I would be more that happy too!!

Mike

[BigFisher]

Thanks, Ill do as you say and watch how the experienced do it, and fish similar spots. Is the gear setup like a bar rod? like you just lock your weight into the rocks with the sturgeon bait on a leader?

[The_Roe_Man]

Just curious as to see what size of boats would be considered adequate for sturgeon fishing the fraser.  I have a 14 lund alluminum with 20hp and thought this was probolbly a little small. Thanks.

[roeman]

The Roe Man..... as long as you can lean over the side of your boat with out tipping over your boat is big enough, a 20hp is lots, you might have to go to the beach with any bigger than 5 feet but it will be worth the trouble

[roeman]

Does any one have a source for fresh ooli's??

[lucky]

thanks for the replies , alot of great info, I live in east Van and was told there is a good hole near the pattello bridge?

[Randog]

Big Fisher, looks like you've got some great information to start with.

  I remember me and my buddies riding our bikes down to the mouth of the Coquitlam river when I was around 14 years old and camping out and fishing for Sturgeon with dew worms and ditch eels. Before the Mary Hill By-Pass was there. We would catch the odd small one but it was lots of fun.

 So now 25 years latter I take my son who is now 12 years old, out sturgeon fishing and he's having loads of fun too

Good luck Big Fisher, May the Sturgeon Gods smile upon you.

 He's even showing me up a little. Here's a couple of pictures of one Lil' Randog caught a few weeks ago. (sorry for the poor picture quality. Cheapo cell phone camera)

[The Gilly]

Thanks for the pic of the secret location