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[Nitroholic]

Oh yeah, that's a big one.

Wildlife officials in northern California last week came across one of the biggest Chinook salmon ever found in the state — a monster more than 4 feet long and weighing 85 pounds.

"We see lots of big ones," Doug Killam, a biologist in the California Department of Fish and Game's Red Bluff office, told the Redding Record Searchlight, "but this one was just bigger than most big ones — it was just spectacular."

The big fish had recently spawned and died, Killam said, and probably weighed about 90 pounds when it began its 100-mile swim upstream from the Pacific to the spot where it died on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River near the town of Anderson.

The California sport-fishing record for a Chinook salmon is 88 pounds. In Alaska, where they're called king salmon, they get even bigger — the record sport catch is 97 pounds, while the largest commercial catch was a truly phenomenal 126 pounds.

"If someone would have caught this one, it probably would have been a state record," Killam told the Record Searchlight.

Ironically, the sad state of salmon spawning in the Pacific Northwest probably helped this one live a full life. Ocean commercial catches were canceled this year, and the river sport season on the Sacramento drastically shortened.



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446686,00.html

[Floater]

WOW! imagine hooking that on a centerpin. I wonder if any monsters like that come back to the vedder. Largest i ever caught was 50 pounds.

[Hohummm]

Plenty of guys at the Stave that would keep one that nice....

[Fishmonger]

The size of the head is unreal.
Imagine getting that on a fly rod.
Looks like a giant coho.

[Easywater]

Good one for the smoker...
Aw, come on, someone had to say it.

I was talking to 2 German guys on the Chilliwack one year who always come over for 2 weeks to salmon fish in the fall.
One guy said he was wading near dusk one day and a Chinook around 60lbs brushed his leg.

[Fish Assassin]

Good to hear that it spawned so his genes can be passed on to future generations.

[lucky]

What a humongous beast! Imagine fishing all by yourself and hooking into that thing playing it for a while before it snaps you off, like your buddys would every believe you when you tell them about the 80lber that got away.

[SmokeyRiver]

A few years ago in the vedder I saw a nasty white spring landed probably pushing 80 pounds...

[adriaticum]

One guy said he was wading near dusk one day and a Chinook around 60lbs brushed his leg.

Ha,ha yeah it humped his leg.

[Froodogga]

Looks fake...

[bentrod]

I caught and released a 52" spring on the Vedder about 5 years ago.  I saw one caught and released that that same year that dwarfed mine.  Funny thing was is that the guy who caught it horsed it in, in less than 4 minutes.

[HOOK]

here is a 60+ i got in the Vedder a few years back (Thanksgiving day) it was chrome when i landed it but this picture was taken about an hour after that as i was exhausted LOL and didnt want to pick it up again. I fought it for over an hour and about 1/2km down the river before landing it, so you can imagine how tired i was after dragging it back up 

I also hooked one later on that same day (for my buddy) that everyone estimated to be around 90+ it was the biggest fish i have ever seen myself (aside from sturgeon)

[Camman]

nice fish biggest i have seen on the vedder.

[kellya]

Hook thats a pig probaly over 50 but a 90lber........... on the vedder!?

[Every Day]

One year I walked down to Peach Road and saw a guy fighting a fish on the fly rod... I watched for 30 mins and started getting bored, I asked another guy fishing below me how long he had had this fish on for, he told me roughly 2 hours    I came back 2 hours later to see this guy finally landing the fish (dont forget on a fly rod!), ended up weighing 67 pound on a digital scale and took 3 people to hold it up, was absolutley massive (and surprisingly clean). That is the biggest fish I have seen to date landed on the Vedder. Biggest one I have landed was ~50 pounds which I released because it was dark. Biggest keeper was 48, all on the Vedder.

I am assuming that the Vedder must get a few fish in the 80+ pound range every year. I think, the only reason no one catches or reports these fish is because : 1) They are massive and 8-10 pound test normally used for water clarity would have no chance and 2) Most of these fish probably come up in the blow outs when the river is not fishable. I have found some dead ones that looked easily 60+ pounds and lost one last year that looked much bigger, took one jump (well attempted jump, just the head and back of body came out) and snapped me off, my friends couldnt beleive their eyes   

Cammer here is a chrome fish for you....