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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

Was this a World Record King Salmon??

March 10, 2012 By JD 7 Comments

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

Filed Under: Trophy Room Tagged With: kenai river, king salmon, sacramento river, Smith River, world record

The Monsters of the Kenai

February 26, 2010 By JD 2 Comments

Just when you thought it was safe to get in the water...


So, thanks to Greg Brush of EZ Limit Guide Service in Soldotna, Alaska, I’m going to be totally worthless the rest of the day. I had been very focused on writing my column for Salmon Trout Steeheader Magazine and then I saw these pix from the Kenai River in my inbox. Now, I’ve got a case of the shakes and all I can think about is going king fishing…

And really, who could blame me? After all, the above pic is of a 55.5″x34″ Kenai River king that was estimated to weigh a mind-blowing 86 pounds! I say “estimated” because Brush’s client, Steve Huckey of Arizona released this monster! Click here to read more…

Filed Under: Trophy Room Tagged With: alaska salmon fishing, chinook salmon, greg brush, kenai river, soldotna

Best time to fish Alaska?

May 18, 2009 By JD Leave a Comment

JD,

When is the best time to go fishing in AK. I want to fly into Anchorage and make my way to Homer.

Thanks,
Brian

Brian,

Well, that’s a bit of a broad question….depends on what type of fishing you want to do. Driving down from Anchorage, there’s not a ton of stuff to do off the bank (unless you count combat fisheries like Bird and Ship creeks) until you get down to Cooper Landing down on the Kenai River. Of course, you have Soldotna just past that.

In that area you are in the epicenter of the Kenai’s giant king salmon fishing (May-July), though you’ll need to get on a guide boat to have much of a chance. Also, the reds come in thick in the Kenai and Russian rivers in July and then there are the jumbo rainbows, dollies, silvers, chums and humpies (mainly on even years).

Heading towards Homer, you will encounter the Kasilof River, where you can catch some kings below the Crooked Creek Hatchery off the bank or try Deep Creek, Ninilchik River and Anchor River, which have a mix of salmon and trout.

Homer, of course, is the self-proclaimed “Halibut Capitol of the World” and you can find countless charters down on the Spit that will take you out into Kachemak Bay for flatties. There’s also a fish pond on the spit that salmon return to, though it’s not really the nicest place to fish…

Filed Under: uncategorized Tagged With: alaska fishing, alaska salmon fishing, anchorage, dolly varden, homer, kenai river, rainbow trout

OMG!

February 23, 2009 By JD 1 Comment

monster-kenai-king
This one’s from the Holy Crap files! Check out this very bright (still had sea lice!) and oh so giant king salmon from the Kenai River! The fish was taken June 30th, 2004 by a client of guide Greg Brush of EZ Limit Guide Service in Soldotna.

Take a really, really close look at that fish…the wrist of the tail is as big as your thigh and you could fit your head inside its mouth! And then there’s the adipose fin that’s the size of a salad plate…

Although not a world record…not even close, if you can believe that…Greg (right) says the fish was in the mid 80’s (duh!) and is his personal best during his tenure as a guide on the Kenai.

The best part of the whole deal is the client released the fish! Super manly man stud props for that!

Though the Kenai’s slowing down as a giant factory, there are still monsters lurking in its emerald depths and Les Anderson’s all-tackle world record of 97 pounds, 4 ounces is never safe here. Check out the story of the World Record King HERE

Filed Under: Trophy Room Tagged With: alaska, greg brush, kenai river, king salmon, les anderson, soldotna, world record king salmon

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