A young fishing guide based in Lillooet is enjoying some extra attention after he and some friends reeled in a huge white sturgeon known as Pig Nose this week.

It happened late on Tuesday on the Fraser River near Lillooet after a long day without much to show for it.

"We had fished all day pretty hard and struggled to get something to a good size for my group of friends that I had out," said Nick McCabe, 19, who's guiding his first season for River Monster Adventures.

"The last hole of the day there, we pulled in and it happened right away," he said. "The fish jumped right out of the river and I said, 'Well, that looks like a 10-footer, so strap on, we're going to be into at least a two-hour fight.' And it ended up being two hours, two hours and 15 minutes."

McCabe and the friends who had chartered the tour took turns with the rod, struggling to keep the huge fish under control.

"At one point he had swam upriver against the current, and I was moving up the river with the boat following him," said McCabe, adding that he likes to keep the line short to avoid snagging any rocks.

"We just kind of do what he does, because a fish that large, he can snap the line, no problem."