If not for being in a kayak, Braeden Rouse would have lost the huge sturgeon he hooked into while fishing on Canada’s famous Fraser River last week.

In a battle that lasted 30 minutes, Rouse managed to land an 8½-foot sturgeon that weighed an estimated 350 pounds, and his girlfriend Sidney Kozelenko captured it in video.

The footage, posted on the Adventures with Braeden and Sid Facebook page, is actually pretty comical as it shows Rouse being towed in zig-zags up and down the river.

“We laugh every time we watch it,” Rouse told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.

To get the video footage, Kozelenko was forced to get into her own kayak and follow him. You can clearly see the speed at which the sturgeon pulls him.

“He’s pulling you faster than I can paddle,” Kozelenko said at one point in the video.

At times, the battle was a bit dicey.

“There was three times I nearly tipped as the sturgeon aggressively swam away,” Rouse told For The Win Outdoors. “I had to keep the rod tip at the bow of the boat just to avoid tipping.

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“A sturgeon guide told me he’s had clients catch sturgeon this size, and they normally trade off throughout the battle fighting this size of sturgeon and are standing in a boat. The fact I was sitting in a kayak was crazy.

“I’ve shared my pictures on a few sturgeon pages and many are pretty shocked I caught a sturgeon this size out of a kayak.

“If I wouldn’t have had my kayak, this fish would have just kept swimming with its sheer power until I had no line left on my spool. I would I have lost it.”

Credit also goes to Kozelenko, who helped in the landing. As the fish tired, both paddled close to shore. Kozelenko beached her kayak, got out and tied a rope to Rouse’s kayak and pulled him to shore. Rouse was then able to get out and finish the remaining seconds of the battle on land.

“I hadn’t quite realized how big this fish actually was until we got our first glimpse,” Rouse told For The Win Outdoors. “The pictures really don’t do it justice.”

After getting photos, Rouse released the huge sturgeon.

“I love the release part of catching a fish,” he told For The Win Outdoors. “This one was particularly rewarding. The fish swam gracefully away with a lot more spunk than I would have figured after the battle. When it gave its last push, the tail fin came nearly two feet out of the water.”

This was “by far” the biggest sturgeon Rouse has ever caught. His previous best measured 62 inches.

Photos courtesy of Braeden Rouse.