Far western Canada’s Fraser River in the province of British Columbia is well established as the home of massive, prehistoric-looking white sturgeon that can grow to almost half a ton and live for more than a century.
On July 7 a team of anglers on a guided fishing trip with “River Monster Adventures” (RMA) caught a massive, gnarly looking and ancient sturgeon, nicknamed “Ghost,” measuring 10-feet, 2-inches long, with a 5-foot girth. It took RMA owner Capt. Jeff Grimolfson, Edmonton; Alberta anglers Glen Wood and Ian Touw; and RMA deckhand Wynn Davy over an hour to bring the fish boatside for measuring.
“We were fishing in 55 feet of water with a sack of salmon roe for bait on a 10/0 circle hook on the bottom, when the fish took the egg sack about 3 p.m.,” Grimolfson tells Wired2fish. “We were using heavy Shimano conventional tackle – an 8-foot rod with a TLD reel spooled with 200-pound test braided line.
“All of us struggled with the rod, fighting dead weight on the bottom for quite a while. I was sure we had hung a bottom snag. Then suddenly, one of my anglers felt the fish moving, and it took off fast upriver.”
The Fraser River is deep, with a very swift 12 mile-per-hour current. But the sturgeon powered into the flow. Grimolfson had to keep fast pace it with in his 22-foot aluminum North River jet boat for any hope of catching Ghost.
“I was moving so fast to keep up with Ghost, that my boat almost got on plane,” said Grimolfson, age 48, with 3,500 Fraser River fishing trips to his credit. “I thought we’d lose that fish for sure on rocks, and downed trees, which the Fraser is loaded with.”
Well into the fight the massive fish jumped once above the river, which sturgeon are well known to do.
“We chased it two miles upriver, staying as close as possible. Then it turned around and went back downriver for another mile. Finally, Ghost tired, got into a side slack-water pocket, and we went close to land it.”
In shallow water Wynn Davy got out of the boat, waded to the fish, grabbed it, and led it back to the anglers and their boat. They estimated its weight at 700 pounds, and after taking photos and remarkable videos of the fish, they tagged and released it.
Grimolfson nicknamed the sturgeon “Ghost,” because he, his anglers and guides have been trying to catch the giant fish for years. Over time Grimolfson says they’d seen the huge sturgeon “breaching” the Fraser River’s surface and spotted its huge image on sonar.
Yet for at least 10 years no one could catch it. RMA and other guide operations on the Fraser practice catch and release sturgeon fishing. They also tag fish that are caught for scientific purposes and to keep tabs on the rare and protected species.
Sturgeon can live extraordinary long lives. Grimsolfson estimates that Ghost was 120 years old, and likely will have a much longer life after its safe return to the Fraser.
When Ghost was caught it had no tag. This convinced Grimolfson the fish indeed was Ghost, the elusive Frazer River white sturgeon that had never been caught in over a century.
Ghost is the largest white sturgeon the RMA team has ever caught, and the biggest this season. But larger sturgeon have been caught from the Fraser River.
On July 3, 2024, angler Vickram Karavadra out of Kilby Lodge caught an 11-foot, 6-incher with guide Robert Wozniakiewicz in a two hour battle. The fish was caught where the Harrison River feeds into the Fraser River.
In the summer of 2021, a crew of anglers caught an 11.6-foot Fraser River sturgeon with a 55-inch girth. Using a length and girth formula to estimate weight, it was estimated to weigh almost half a ton – 890 pounds, at the time making it a Canadian provincial record for the species.
Among the crew of anglers who caught the 890-pound fish was retired NHL goalie great Pete Peeters, who played 13 seasons in the league for the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals.
Habitat degradation and overfishing have greatly impacted Western white sturgeon populations, requiring catch and release for the species.
“The stars were aligned just right for us to catch the fish,” Grimolfson enthused. “A great couple of anglers and Wynn made it all happen that day. It turned out great for everyone – including Ghost.”
