King Of The Catch 2016 Rick Hurley's Canadian Trip of a Lifetime

This entry was posted on 7th December, 2017

After winning our King Of The Catch Prize last year Rick Hurley headed off on his awesome prize trip to Canada, here is his story.

After an amazing night’s sleep at the Hilton Hotel in Gatwick, we were up bright and early for our incredible adventure in Canada.  We all met up in the airport pub and got chatting about fishing and how we were all looking forward to catching some sturgeon.

The Hotel was very nice for what was supposed to be a 3* hotel.   The hotel was 90 minutes away from the airport.  Not the best after an 11 hour flight, but the drive was worth it.  The views were incredible and any photo we took just does not do it any justice!

At 7:30 every morning we would meet our guides in the car park.  We would be assigned to a different guide each day and go off to fish their secret spots. First job of the day was to catch the bait, which was pike minnows, which were kept fresh in an aerated bucket and then despatched when we were ready to use them.  After catching a dozen, we were ready for some sturgeon fishing.



On the first day, within 15 minutes of fishing, my wife, Teresa, had the biggest fish of the week and it weighed 320lbs.  She also managed to land it all by herself within 20 minutes, which is unusual to land a fish of that size in that amount of time, but she did really well.  I also managed 3 fish that day up to 120lb, so all in all, a good days fishing on the first day.



We caught fish steadily all throughout the week, myself managing 3 fish over 260lb and we only blanked on 1 of the days.  Everyone in the group caught loads of fish, and we all broke our PB’s.  The tackle we used consisted of 4 heavy duty boat rods, all with large multipliers, loaded with 90lb braid, 120lb mono-leaders, 18oz leads and huge hooks!  The baits we used consisted of the pike minnows we had caught first thing in the morning, large strips of salmon, mesh sacks of salmon roe or large salmon heads.





All in all, we had a fantastic week and certainly a trip of a lifetime.  Everyone was super friendly.  The tackle and boats were of the highest quality and all the captains we fished with were amazingly nice.  If you ever get the chance to fish the Fraser River on one of these guided trips, I would highly recommend it.  In 35 years of fishing, this was truly the most spectacular fishing adventure I have ever had.