This huge king carcass measured 59 inches...without the tail!!
Holy crap! Get a look at this: Ray Fairfax sent in this photo of a giant Chinook salmon carcass he ran across earlier this winter while steelhead fishing on the Smith River in Northern California.
“We were fishing the Bailey Riffle and found a salmon carcass of amazing length,” says Fairfax. “All that was left was the jaws and backbone, but what a fish it must have been! I straightened the backbone out the best I could and laid my STR1025C Loomis down next to it. It measured 59 inches…minus, of course, the tail!!”
Fairfax says that the jaws looked almost as if the fish was a female, which is even more mind-blowing!
“If you add a conservative few inches for the tail, how big was this beast?” he asks.
Well, just for comparison’s sake: Les Anderson’s 97.3-pound All Tackle World Record Chinook was 58.5 inches long!! Of course, we’ll never know how big the King of the Smith was in his prime…but let’s just hope he spread a bunch of his genetic material around!
And here’s another one: The 50.7 incher found dead in a tributary of the Sacramento River a couple seasons back: GIANT SALMON CARCASS FOUND
Jim Mitchell says
Yep Smith river angle is all tom
Ray Fairfax says
My reason for thinking this monster could have been female is those jaws. No kype like you’d expect to see on a large male. And the head just looks too small in comprarison to the overall body length. What do you think, JD?
Butch Krauth says
I came across some salmon remains in Alaska where the bears were only eating the undersides and eggs, and what a bunch of huge carcasses. Of course I had no tape on me so I laid my Lamiglas rod next to it and remembered where it came to. I found over five in the 40 plus inch range and to me that was a world record! I’m not lucky enough to ever land one of those giants, but I’m going to die trying. Butch
Jim Mitchell says
Well, the day started off like this we launch at the forks and hooked up within 5 mins while all the people launching there boats where watching( OH YEA) a plug I call the (JOELANATOR) while joel was fighting his fish my other plug had tangled on joels line (DA NOELY) A DEADLY PLUG!!!!!!!!!!I cut the line to (DA NOELY )it was either that or loose both plugs and the fish so yea .Before bitting the line off with my teeth i had visons in my head of the fish caught on this plug then i bit it off and let it free OUCH i figured when we had gotton in some better water i could deal with getting it untangled so we continue to fight joels fish down in to the forks and i notice Da noely is GONE NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I shouted so we land joels fish a nice hatchery buck 10 pds and we start looking for the plug in all the backeddies then i remember the line crossing over the front of the boat and joel was fighting the fish from the back of the boat behind me so the fish had change directions and made a sharp cut to the right,carson my client had to pic the line up and bring it to the other side of the boat,so i said to carson look and see if it fell off up there and carson said here it is!it was hanging on the launch rope attached to the nose of the boat YESSSSS carsons last name is wilson in my books he is GOOD OL MR. WILSON SIR .2nd fish on for a second client laverne hooked in the lower cable hole come off .We had a few bites there we move down river to white horse 3rd fish joel hooked it on the joelanator but fish came off 4th fish hooked by joel on bait in rip rap fish exploded joel handed rod off to laverne and we landed fish in simson park nice bright female native 13 pds 5th fish hooked on the joelanator hooked in peacock flat joel handed rod off to GOOD OL MR WILSON SIR landed fish after some great jumps and runs fish 9 pds GREAT DAY .Joel does a great job getting great video coverage check out his videos on talkfishin.com this video should be there in a few days it will also be on u tube thanks jim (i dont need no stinking jacket but you can buy me one and ill just sell it l:D P.S I plugged behind everyone except this spot being i was the 1st boat in after i ran plugs behind side drifters funny stuff ah jd
tom says
Great recap of a days fishing…..don’t quite understand where this ties into the large salmon carcass the article is referring to…..maybe the Smith River angle…
Gary says
There was a big salmon filmed at red bluff a few years ago estimated at 99#. It caused a big rush to the areas above red bluff to try and catch. Never heard of anyone getting it
Troy says
you should have seen her before I filleted her!