Sturgeon Slayers
Donnie Vincent is well known in the world of outdoorsmen as the man who once lived with a pack of wolves after befriending a wolf while alone in the woods. The avid outdoorsman just completed a 3-day fishing trip on the Fraser River with Kevin Estrada of Sturgeon Slayers and he caught some truly stunning living fossils.
The massive sturgeon Donnie Vincent caught with Capt. Estrada of Sturgeon Slayers are below but I think it’s first worth mentioning this guy living with wolves.
When I first heard of someone ‘living with wolves’ I assumed it was a person who ran a wildlife sanctuary. Or maybe he was a field biologist who became embedded in an area inhabited by a wolf pack and was able to capture their lives on film. Nah, Donnie Vincent (a biologist, filmmaker, explorer) straight-up lived with wolves after meeting a lone female wolf on a river bank.
After an eery encounter, he heard that wolf howling from the same spot on the river bank the next day. He howled back. I’ve included Donnie’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience below where he tells the story of living with wolves, now let’s get to the fish.
Vincent just spent 3 days fishing the world famous Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada with Capt. Kevin Estrada of Sturgeon Slayers. The Fraser River is THE destination for anyone looking to catch a massive sturgeon. Former Vezina Trophy winner Pete Peeters caught the largest white sturgeon measured in modern history while fishing with Sturgeon Slayers on the Fraser. Vincent and Sturgeon Slayers shared some epic photos from the trip:
That first shot above is stunning. The overhead view of the fish being released on the bank shows how the armor plating on these sturgeon nearly mimics the surrounding rocks. It’s gorgeous.
Seeing the sturgeon’s tail in Donnie Vincent’s hands in the second and third shots (above) also really drives home how massive these fish get in the Fraser River.
Here is a release up close:
It’s worth noting that in the US, we measure total length for sturgeon. Whereas in Canada, they only measure from the nose to the fork in the tail. So an alleged 11′ fish in the US would measure as 10′ in Canada, even if it was the exact same fish.
When Stanley Cup winner Nick Leddy recently went on a 3-day fishing trip with Sturgeon Slayers and caught some river giants, his absolutely enormous 10-footers would actually be 11′ in the US.
Should you ever want to test your mettle and catch a massive sturgeon of your own, I’d 100% suggest looking into Sturgeon Slayers charters because nobody is catching (and releasing) bigger fish on the Fraser River than them.
Who is Donnie Vincent?
Donnie Vincent has made three feature-length wildlife documentaries about his adventures. He is well known for seeking out the most remote habitats on earth.
His YouTube channel focuses heavily on Speed Hunting techniques, which you can take a deep dive into by watching his videos. But his appearance on Joe Rogan’s show, telling his story about living with wolves, is how many Americans came to know Donnie:
The part of the story where he was woken in the middle of the night by the alpha male howling a few feet from his pup tent is incredible. It’s hard to imagine a regular person keeping their cool in that instance but he did.
Vincent’s time spent living with wolves was during a remote genetics project where he was living in a tent for months. And slowly but surely, the wolves began to visit him daily and join him on his daily hikes and in his work.
His three documentaries include The Other Side, The River’s Divide, and Terra Nova: 3 Days on the Island. You can find those available on his website.