Katharine Eckert found herself wrestling an 11-foot-4-inch white sturgeon out of British Columbia's Fraser River. The Maplewood woman landed the massive, untagged fish — estimated at roughly 1,200 pounds — while on a fishing trip, a catch her guide says may rank among the largest freshwater fish ever reeled in by a female angler.
Eckert told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she caught the fish in the Fraser River. The battle lasted about 40 minutes. Her boyfriend, fellow Maplewood resident Justin Smith, was along for the trip.
The fish, which had never been tagged before, measured 11 feet, 4 inches to the fork, with a 60-inch pectoral girth and a 70-inch belly girth, according to Fraser Valley Today. Guide Kevin Estrada, owner of the Chilliwack-based outfit Sturgeon Slayers, affixed the fish's first-ever tag before releasing it back into the river, the outlet reported.
A Guide Who's Seen This Before
Estrada measured the sturgeon, tagged it, and released it, a routine he's become familiar with after years guiding anglers on the Fraser. The Mission City Record identified Estrada as the owner of Sturgeon Slayers and confirmed the untagged fish was estimated at 1,200 pounds and 11 feet 4 inches when Eckert hauled it in near Chilliwack. In comments tied to a company news release, Estrada said tagging the sturgeon contributes valuable information on what he called an irreplaceable natural resource.
Sturgeon Slayers said it believes the catch may be one of the largest freshwater fish ever landed by a female angler, though that distinction remains the company's own assessment rather than an official record. The guide service's focus on conservation best practices — mandatory catch-and-release, careful handling and minimized fight times — was detailed earlier this year by the Chilliwack Progress, after a separate outing produced an even bigger fish.
Not Estrada's First Giant
Back in June 2026, an outing managed by Estrada landed an 11-foot, 8.2-inch white sturgeon estimated to weigh between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds, Fraser Valley Today reported, setting a record for Sturgeon Slayers after an earlier company record in 2021. That June fish was never actually weighed — only estimated — according to Outdoor Life, which noted the current all-tackle world record for the species stands at just 468 pounds, a fraction of what Fraser River guides routinely report hooking. CBC covered Eckert's catch as well, describing it as what could be a record for the largest freshwater fish caught by a female angler in North America — again, a possibility rather than a confirmed title.
Why These Fish Always Go Back
Every one of these giants gets measured and released, not kept. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says returning a caught white sturgeon to the water quickly is critical to its survival. White sturgeon is North America's largest freshwater fish, and individuals can live more than 100 years.
The Lower and Middle Fraser white sturgeon populations are endangered. British Columbia has voluntary and mandatory closure areas to protect spawning locations, and advises anglers to check the Region 2 section of its Freshwater Fishing Regulation Synopsis for current rules. The Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society has flagged troublingly low levels of juvenile sturgeon numbers and pointed to declining trends in abundance and growth rates as an ongoing concern.
For Eckert, it was a moment of disbelief as she landed the massive fish. The Maplewood woman's catch, by Sturgeon Slayers' own account, might just be one for the record books.
