Winnipegger hooks 'dinosaur' sturgeon from Red River near The Forks

When Corwyn Janicek set up along the Red River in Winnipeg to do some fishing last weekend, he hoped to get a few nibbles, not catch something in his own weight class.

"The thing's the dinosaur. It was like a large dog, almost. It was really heavy," he told CBC Manitoba guest host Chloe Friesen in an interview Wednesday.

"Generally, this time of year, the fishing is pretty slow. So it was pretty shocking to hook into such a monster."

What Janicek caught was a 1.3-metre lake sturgeon, which is Manitoba's largest freshwater fish .

The largest recorded one caught in Manitoba came from the Roseau River in 1903. It was more than three metres long and weighed 184.6 kilograms ( 406 pounds), according to Manitoba's Fisheries Branch.

And they literally come from the age of dinosaurs.