A fishing trip inspired by an NHL player’s catch led Missouri angler Katharine Eckert to land a huge white sturgeon in British Columbia—one her guide believes may be the largest freshwater fish ever caught by a woman.
Eckert booked the trip after reading about defenseman Nick Leddy’s 2024 sturgeon catch with Canadian outfitter Sturgeon Slayers. She thought fishing would make for a memorable vacation, a change from the usual beach getaway.
Fishing the Fraser River near Chilliwack with her boyfriend, Justin, and guide Kevin Estrada, Eckert hooked a sturgeon measuring 11 feet, 4 inches. Estrada estimated it weighed between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds.
The fight lasted about 40 minutes. Eckert said she was struck by how difficult it was to reel the fish in, and was stunned when it surfaced near the boat. Seeing it up close, she said, was an experience she felt grateful to have had.
Estrada said the fish measured 60 inches around near its pectoral fins and 70 inches around its belly. He compared its build to another sturgeon, caught by men about a week earlier, that measured 11 feet, 8 inches and was also estimated to weigh roughly 1,200 pounds.
Estrada said he could not find a documented freshwater catch by a female angler larger than Eckert’s. But the fish cannot be called an official world record: It was not weighed on a certified scale.
White sturgeon in the Fraser River are protected and must be released, so guides estimate their weight from measurements rather than weighing them. Eckert’s catch may be a record contender, but it has not been officially certified.
Eckert grew up fishing for bass and catfish with her father and has long been fascinated by sturgeon. She even has a sturgeon tattoo and named her dog Caviar. Still, she said, photographs barely capture what it is like to stand beside such a large fish.
The fish was measured and tagged, then safely released into the river. The information collected may help researchers track it and support sturgeon conservation.
