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Will these World Record Fish ever be broken?

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There are a bunch of world record fish that likely will never be broken.

In some cases records will remain safe due to new regulations. Take for example, Joey “Sturgeon King” Pallotta’s 468-pound white sturgeon that he caught out of Benicia, CA back in July of 1983. Since then, fishing regulations governing sturgeon up and down the West Coast include maximum size limits to ensure the big spawner females don’t get taken out of the gene pool.

In other cases, habitat degradation, development, pollution and over-harvest have all but wiped out the ability of some species to reach record class sizes anymore.

From monster great white sharks to Tuna the size of small cars and brook trout as long as your leg, here’s Field & Stream’s list of 15 (most likely) Unbreakable World Records.

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

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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 :(

Read more at https://www.solidadventures.com/glacier-king/

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!

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!

Salmon Fishing Techniques

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10 Mind Blowing Giant Steelhead

World Record King Salmon??

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Is this a 100-pound king salmon?? I don’t know much about the pic other than the mammoth fish came from the Skeena River in British Columbia.

It was posted on Fly Water Travel with minimal details…but you can read more there.

As far as a hoax goes…Who knows? From all my famous April Fool’s articles over the years, I know a thing or two about Photoshop and this looks legit. However, I’ve only had a chance to look at it on my phone and not a large computer monitor.

She appears to be struggling to hold the fish, which would be accurate but her grip on the caudal peduncle looks a little “fishy.” Unless the fish was dead, it would really, really hard to hold such a beast without loosing your grip.

I’m not saying this thing is faked. I fact, I hope it’s not.

What do you guys think??

Is this the lost photo of George Perry’s World Record Largemouth Bass?

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The evening he caught the World Record largemouth bass in 1932, George W. Perry cooked it up for his family.

Unfortunately that was well before everybody had a camera in their phone so, photographs of the record bass have been hard to come by.

The above pic recently surfaced mysteriously on the 81st anniversary Perry’s catch and is said to be the long lost pic that was always rumored to be out there somewhere.

You can read the whole story at Fox News.

There is plenty of speculation that the photo may be a fake…and it’s not all that difficult to make a photo look old. I downloaded a free app on my iPhone and did this one of me in about 20 seconds.

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The Perry pic looks pretty legit to me though I’m not vintage photo expert. There’s some water damage and fading. Either the work of a star photo editor…or it’s real.

I hope it’s a legitimate photo…it’s such a cool shot and a piece of angling history.