Catch of enormous ‘living dinosaur’ had anglers in disbelief
Dan Lallier of Alberta, fishing on the famous Fraser River in British Columbia with longtime fishing guide Yves Bisson, landed a fish of a lifetime last week, a sturgeon estimated to weigh 600 pounds and be as much as 100 years old.
“After jumping out of the water two times during the fight, we all looked at each other in disbelief at the enormous size,” fishing guide Yves Bisson told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors. “We knew it was something special.”
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Bisson told For The Win Outdoors he has landed more than 22,000 sturgeon during his 20 years as a fishing guide and this is the second-heaviest fish he’s caught.
The sturgeon, a species sometimes referred as a living dinosaur as it is a prehistoric fish species, measured 10½-feet long.
“This was one I’ll never forget,” Bisson told Storyful.
Neither will Lallier, who was “shocked, surprised, excited, amazed and scared,” Bisson related to For The Win Outdoors.
As he routinely does, Bisson tagged the sturgeon and released it. Some commenters on YouTube questioned whether the sturgeon was still alive, but these fish are hardy.
“This is very normal behavior for sturgeon to be very still and docile in shallow water after being released,” Bisson, of Yves Bisson Sturgeon Co., told For The Win Outdoors.
“They are the strongest freshwater fish in the world and the mortality rate for angling is 0.012 percent, so basically they never die, and our world-renown tagging program has the data to back all this.
“This giant fish swam away after being released, which the video didn’t show, and I’m sure it will live for another 100 years.”
Photos courtesy of Yves Bisson.