Perkins hauls in a REAL monster
Newport-based angler Neil Perkins celebrated his birthday in emphatic style with a massive haul of monster white sturgeon from Canada's mighty Fraser River.
Fishing with a local guide and a 21-foot jet boat, Perkins fished a 70-mile section of the river for six days and snared 27 white sturgeon and several chinook salmon and smaller pink salmon.
Perkins banked five sturgeon over eight feet long, five over seven feet, nine over six feet, five over five feet and three between three and four feet. Weights ranged from around 500 pounds to as low as 40 pounds.
The largest fell on the very last cast of the trip in the final hour, when the duo decided to head upstream of the town of Chilliwack in British Colombia.
After an arm-aching 45-minute battle in just 10 feet of water – where the fish erupted clear into the air on several occasions – Perkins and guide James Cunningham banked an 8ft 6' specimen that had a circumference of 50 inches and weighed just under 500 pounds.
"No freshwater fish on the planet fights as hard as a white sturgeon," said Perkins.
"We also lost a complete beast down river on day three. I played it for nearly an hour and it shed the hook half a mile downstream of where we hooked it! We never even saw it."
