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10 of the World’s Biggest King Salmon

March 12, 2015 By JD 38 Comments

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

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 75 to 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!

Biggest salmon in the world
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

Anchorage Daily News Photo

Anchorage Daily News Photo

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

Photo: John L. Beath

Photo: John L. Beath

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

Photo: Columbia River Maritime Museum.

Photo: Columbia River Maritime Museum.

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!


 99 Pounder…Released!

www.ifish.net

www.ifish.net

Wolfgang Voelker,  owner/operator of Kermode Bear Fishing Lodge in Terrace, BC writes:

Mrs. Ingrid Oeder, her husband Bernhard and their daughter arrived at Terrace Airport on August 6, 2001.

We went out fishing by boat the very next day. Fortunately, John Wright, the Kermode Bear Lodge Assistant Guide, joined us that day. We cast anchor right across the mouth of the Lakelse River. Suddenly, around 11 a.m., there was action on Ingrid’s rod. Bernhard hooked the fish and handed the rod back to her. Initially, there was no reaction on the other end of the line for about 10-15 seconds. All of a sudden, like an explosion, the fish headed toward the main current of the Skeena River.

At this point, I realized that this must be a really big one. We were lucky having John with us since we have been well-coordinated team for years. John released the anchor chain and started the boat engine. Now we’re prepared for the fight. I advised Ingrid to hold the rod up and to keep the line tight. In spite of her excitement she did everything right. We drifted downstream while Bernhard was operating the video camera. I would guess that we were fighting about 30 to 40 minutes with the fish, of course, Ingrid had to do most part of it. At last, the fish showed the first signs of tiredness and therefore the escape attempts lessened. Then it was my turn. After Ingrid finally managed to get the fish alongside the boat, I was able to net it. John and I lifted the salmon into the boat. Ingrid, meanwhile completely exhausted could not believe her luck. We drove back at full speed, since we did not want to set the fish back in the torrential current. I explained to Ingrid that we usually release all “the really big ones” to preserve the gene pool. She and her husband agreed to it without hesitation.

At this point, I want to thank them again for their understanding.

We took the measurements (136 cm x 98 cm) of the Salmon two times because could not believe it the first time. John and I put the giant back into the river approximately 10 minutes later, it swam into the deep water under its own steam.

There was a devout silence on the boat for a few seconds.

In the afternoon Bernhard caught his own smaller Chinook. This one, however, we took with us. Certainly, we will never forget this fishing day on the Skeena River.

The monster fish with a length of 53.5 inches and a girth of 38.5 using a formula (endorsed by FOC) of Length x Girth squared divided by 800 would weigh 99.125-pounds… clearly the largest Chinook (Kings as the Americans refer to them) ever landed. Along with witnesses a video was taken and a photograph made from the video.

Salmon Fishing Techniques

Are you a steelhead junkie?
10 Mind Blowing Giant Steelhead

Filed Under: Angling Records, Best of FishwithJD, Trophy Room Tagged With: british columbia, chinook, columbia river, kenai river, king salmon, sacramento river, world record

Underwater Salmon Bite: Egg Attack!

October 15, 2014 By JD Leave a Comment

Ever wondered what it looks like underwater when a king salmon bites a glob of roe? Wonder no more! Here’s another round of pix I shot in Alaska this summer…

Locked on…

Locked on…

The Moment of Truth

The Moment of Truth

Mikey Likes it!

Mikey Likes it!

To see more cool pix and video, check out our Underwater Pix/Video Section

Filed Under: Underwater Photos/Video Tagged With: chinook, king salmon, roe, underwater fish

Underwater Salmon Bite…or Not?

September 16, 2014 By JD 2 Comments

Here’s a a really interesting sequence of underwater photos I took of a small king attacking a glob of roe…and then passing on it. Sorry for the fuzziness of these shots, but this fish  was moving so quickly I couldn’t get him into focus!

He's a nice cluster of red eggs and a chartreuse Corkie drifting along...

He’s a nice cluster of red eggs and a chartreuse Corkie drifting along…

Suddenly, a king comes out of nowhere...

Suddenly, a king comes out of nowhere…

At this point, a hookup looks like a strong possibility...

At this point, a hookup looks like a strong possibility…or does he really see which way the hook is facing and attacks from the opposite side?

Check out that cloud of sweet milky goodness…how the heck could he resist? Maybe he's just circling around for another pass...

Check out that cloud of sweet milky goodness…how the heck could he resist? Maybe he’s just circling around for another pass…

Or not! What the heck happened here? And how often does it happen per day?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Or not! What the heck happened here? And how often does it happen per day?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Filed Under: Cool Photos, Underwater Photos/Video Tagged With: chinook, king salmon, roe, underwater, underwater camera

Underwater Photos: King Salmon eats a Glo Bug

July 29, 2014 By JD 1 Comment

More cool underwater stuff from my travels in Alaska in July: Here’s a king salmon attacking a Yarnie or Glo Bug (no eggs or scent). Though I clipped off the hook point while filming, it’s interesting to see how he would never have been hooked anyway — because the fish bites away from the hook!

Yarn and eggs…yum!

Yarn and eggs…yum!

Yep, I gotta eat that! (Although notice how he bites the yarn ball but completely misses the hook!)

Yep, I gotta eat that! (Although notice how he bites the yarn ball but completely misses the hook!)

No change for a hook-up here…the hook is still outside his mouth.

No change for a hook-up here…the hook is still outside his mouth. In a nano-second he spit it out (off camera) but look at that other little Chinook in the background moving in for a bite!

Filed Under: Cool Photos, Photos and Video, Underwater Photos/Video Tagged With: bite, chinook, glo bug, king salmon, underwater, underwater fish, yarnie

Some Fishy-Sounding Baseball Teams

April 28, 2014 By JD 6 Comments

Bluefish BaseballBeing both an angler and a baseball player, I love when my two worlds overlap. Between the Minor Leagues, small colleges and traveling teams, there are some cool fish-based baseball teams out there. Sure, MLB has the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays (yawn!), but the lesser known teams like the Bridgeport Bluefish above are way more interesting. Here are some other fun fish teams…

Blue Wahoos
Back in 2012, the Carolina Mudcats, the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds moved from Zebulon, North Carolina to Pensacola, FL. You gotta love ’em — their team gift store is called the “bait shop!”

RedfishThe Charlotte County Redfish are an Independent Minor League Baseball team in the South Coast League. Founded in 2007, the Redfish are one of the founding teams of the SCL. The Redfish play their home games at Charlotte County Stadium in Port Charlotte, FL.

SacramentoSteelheads1The Independent League Sacramento Steelheads played a couple seasons in Sacramento and then a year or two as the “Solano Steelheads” before folding. The biggest story to come out of the franchise was when former National League most valuable player (played with the Giants) Kevin Mitchell, who was playing at the time for the Sonoma County Crushers, punched the owner of the Steelheads in the face after an on-field brawl in Vacaville.

Fighting FishThe River Falls Fighting Fish are, as near as I can tell, an adult rec league or semi-pro team in Saint Paul, Minnesota. All apologies to the Fish if I’m wrong about that…

Kingfish BaseballWisconsin’s Kenosha Kingfish play in the independent Northwoods League.

LakeshoreChinooksAlso in Wisconsin (based in Mequon)are the Lakeshore Chinooks, who play in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer baseball league. The Chinooks play their home games at Kapco Park on the campus of Concordia University Wisconsin.

Palm Beach Atlantic UniversityPalm Beach Atlantic Sailfish are an NCAA Division 2 baseball team out of Florida.

BlowfishBaseballThe award for the the least fishy-looking logo goes to the Columbia Blowfish, which is a proud member of the Coastal Plain League, the nation’s hottest summer collegiate baseball league. Celebrating its 15th season in 2011, the CPL features 15 teams playing in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The CPL gives college players the chance to refine their skills with the use of wooden bats.

carp logoThe Hiroshima Toyo Carp is a professional baseball team in Japan’s Central League. The team has not been in serious contention since their last championship in 1991. They remain the only team in the league to have never been above third place since the year 2000.

Filed Under: Cool Photos Tagged With: baseball, carp, chinook, fishing, redfish, sailfish, Steelhead

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