In what can be considered a one in a million shot, Sara Nudelman of Livermore, CA (getting a helping hand here from hubby Dan) caught this beautiful 24-pound king salmon while fishing for stripers with me on Sunday on the lower San Joaquin River. The fish bit a 3/4-ounce silver Hopkins spoon in 14 feet of water and put up a damn nice fight!
It’s not that catching a king down there is unheard of, but the lower San Joaquin is big, big water and has very few kings even on a good year. This season, of course, we have no kings anywhere in the Valley rivers, so this fish was the proverbial needle in the haystack. Kinda funny too, when you consider I trolled the Sacramento for 8 hours the day before (looking for kings) without even a takedown.
Eagle Eyes says
Very nice King Salmon, Sara & Dan. Just goes too show that if you keep your line in the water, ya’ never know!