Photos and Video

Underwater Stripers: The Rejection!

May 19, 2015 By JD 2 Comments

Denied! Here’s an underwater pic shot on my [easyazon_link identifier=”B00PJ27DRC” locale=”US” tag=”fiwijd-20″]Okuma Water Wolf Camera[/easyazon_link] today of a striped bass giving my lure the equivalent of the middle finger.

He followed for about 10 feet and then decided something just didn’t look right. The interesting part of this shot is the fact that my lure has flipped upside-down…right at the same time the fish rejected it. In previous frames, he was right on the plug’s tail…and the lure was running true.

I had no idea the plug had any roll to it, even after tuning it next to the boat…and yet here it is “flying inverted.”

To see the two pics of what occurred just before the rejection, read on…Click here to read more…

Underwater Striper Bite Caught on Camera

May 14, 2015 By JD 9 Comments

This afternoon, I had yet another chance to play around with my [easyazon_link identifier=”B00PJ27DRC” locale=”US” tag=”fiwijd-20″]Okuma Water Wolf[/easyazon_link] underwater camera and caught a striper bite on film!

In the shot above, you can see the lure working its way downstream and then it is intercepted head on by a 5-pound striper…

In the video, it appears that the fish bites the lure head first but when you slow it down and watch it frame by frame, you can see that he actually spins on a dime in a nano-second and comes up behind the lure…

The speed at which the fish spins on the bait and inhales it is amazing…

At this point he’s hooked…

And then turns downstream. Notice how the back hook is still hanging free…

The fish seemed to instinctively know to get in the fast water and actually burned some drag. Part of the camera is now in view too…

During the fight, another striper came over to see what was happening…

Is this stuff as fascinating to you as it is me? Man, I just find the underwater view so dang cool! There’s a lot to learn by looking at videos and stills…and you can rest assured you’ll see a lot more of this stuff here soon!

Underwater Striper Action!

May 8, 2015 By JD Leave a Comment

In the clear water with a bright sun, the bass were more into chasing than biting

So, what do striped bass look like underwater as they are chasing a plug? Well, today I busted out the Okuma Water Wolf HD underwater camera again and tried to find out.

I had a short window…and it was in the middle of the day, buT i found a few pods of stripers and got some to react to my lure. They would’t eat it, so next time out, I’m going to try dropping the lure back on a longer leader. Still, so cool stuff…

This guy got right up close and personal but didn’t commit Again, I think the fact that I had about a 6-inch leader between the lure and camera may have been part of the issue.

This one’s kinda cool in that the fish appears to be zeroing in on the Water Wolf instead of the bait!

Underwater Shad Bite Video

April 27, 2015 By JD 2 Comments

I finally got a chance to play around with my new Okuma [easyazon_link identifier=”B00PJ27DRC” locale=”US” tag=”fiwijd-20″]Water Wolf[/easyazon_link] Underwater Video camera the other day while out on a shad trip. I ran the thing back a few times on my line and did manage to catch a shad eating my mini jig.

I’d never seen video before of a shad bite, so it was pretty cool. At least with this fish, there was no doubt that he wanted to inhale my lure

I’ll try to get the Water Wolf into the water more this week!

Check out my UNDERWATER PIX & VIDEO section for more

10 of the World’s Biggest King Salmon (2024 UPDATE!)

March 12, 2015 By JD 40 Comments

King Salmon are awesome…and the truly giant ones are unbelievably special creatures. Here’s a list of 10 (15 actually) massive kings that will make you weak in the knees…

Over 100 Pounds!

In August of 2021, Gayle Gordon caught just may be the largest sport-caught king salmon (present day) ever. The monster bit a trolled herring in the saltwater of British Columbia’s fabled River’s Inlet. After a couple quick measurements, she amazingly released the brute go so he could spawn.

Because she let the fish go, Gordon don’t get an official weight on the salmon but when put it into the ol’ tried and true 750 weight formula (Weight = Length x Girth x Girth /750) and it came out to 105.9 pounds!

Watch the VIDEO

South American Beasts

South America seems to be the place for giant kings these days, specifically Patagonia. In 2018, Rogerio Audbert from Brazil caught and released this 90-pound class leviathan on a fly in Argentina. In the photo below, Jasper Pääkkönen from Finland (you know him from the hit TV show Vikings) caught one in the upper 80’s in the same area. And would you look at the size of that adipose fin! Sadly, a soon to be built dam will block off the spawning habitat in this system so this new fishery may already be headed towards a thing of the past :(

108 Pounds!!!

(San Juan Island Historical Museum photo)

Chrome Kenai Monster

Steve Huckey of Arizona caught and released this beastly king on the Kenai River with Greg Brush of EZ Limit Guide Service. It was 55.5″ x 34″ and estimated to weigh in the mid to high 80’s.

Close to 80 Pounds!

Kenai River King
The Kenai River in Alaska has pumped out more monster Chinook than anywhere. This massive 53.5″ x 34″ buck weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 pounds!

Potential Record…Released!

Reel Adventures Salmon
On July 15, 2009, angler Joel Atchison caught this massive Chinook on the Kenai River in Alaska. Guide John Whitlatch of Reel Adventures says he’s not sure if the fish was a world record or not…because he and Aitchison decided to forgo their own glory and instead let the big beast go and make babies. Very, very cool!

The Biggest of All!

The biggest king salmon ever caught was this 126-pound monster that was caught in a fish trap near Petersburg, Alaska in 1949. My friend and fellow Alaska guide, Chris Sessions, sent me this pic and said that a friend of his has one of the three replica mounts of the behemoth on his wall.

All I can say is OMG!!!

The King of Kings

No list of massive king salmon would be complete without the current All-Tackle IGFA All-Tackle World Record 97-pound, 4-ounce king caught by Les Anderson in the Kenai River back in May of 1985. The record fish measured a mind blowing 58.5″ x 37″ and was probably a 100 pounder considering it wasn’t weighed for several hours after it was caught.

You can read the whole story HERE

Sacramento Monster

Giant Sac Salmon
Imagine the surprise of California Department of Fish & game biologists when they found this Godzilla-sized Chinook carcass in Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, nearly 300 miles upstream, from the ocean! The fish was almost 51 inches long and estimated to weigh 88 pounds… dead! In his prime, out in the salt, the fish could have been pushing 100 pounds!

See more photos HERE

83-Pound BC Beast (Released!)

83 Pound BC King
Deborah Whitman-Perry of Newmarket, Ont., caught & released this huge king that weighed 83 pounds, three ounces in August 2012 at River’s Inlet, BC while fishing with guide Tyler Mills of Good Hope Cannery. Again, I’m loving the fact that people are letting these hogs go! Read the whole story HERE

The Good Ol’ Days: Columbia River June Hogs

Astoria Giant, 100 pound kings
Before all the dams royally messed the Columbia River up for good, it had some monster Chinook! Bound for the upper end of the watershed, “June Hogs” sometimes topped 100 pounds. The construction of Grand Coulee Dam, which has no fish passage, ultimately did these massive beasts in for good. :(

Saltwater Slab

So, considering I’ve never caught a king remotely as big as this 80-pounder from River’s Inlet, BC… I can only imagine how ridiculously massive the fillets off a fish like this are! Kudos to the netter too… I’m thinking I’d have a sudden case of the shakes when this bad dude came to the surface!

85-Pound June Hog

Here’s another one from the “wish I had a time machine jet sled” files… An 85-pound Columbia River June Hog caught in 1925 at Astoria by Tony Canessa. Man, those fish were soon awesome!

Salmon Fishing Techniques

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