I got this today, thought I would pass it on to those who are interested.
Not trying get this Sh!t going anymore than it allready has, just thought this would help answer all the questions everyone had.......
Not the first or last of it's kind to get a wood shampoo and take a dirt nap. And now, "The rest of the story". Rod


Subject: Big Fish
> Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:05:34 -0800
>
> Dear Friends and Fellow Fishermen,
>
> As some of you may already have heard, last week, on Friday, 20 February I
> was out fishing on the Hoh River with Shirley. It was a wonderfully clear
> day, the temperature a little below freezing and a herd of elk were grazing
> in a Riverside pasture. The river was running exceptionally low and clear
> and we were swinging flies through some attractive water. I was using my
> 15-foot Spey rod, Shirley was using her eight-weight, single-handed rod.
>
> There had been little action but I had seen one good-sized fish roll a
> little ahead of me and, for a brief few seconds, I had hooked into what
> appeared to be a 12-pound or 15-pound fish. At around 2 PM I was swinging my
> fly through some good-looking water and something that I can only describe
> as a lightning bolt hit my whole body. Suddenly my Ross reel was screaming
> at a decibel level usually reserved for Rolling Stone concerts. In a couple
> of heartbeats 200 yards of line had disappeared from my reel as the fish
> headed for Alaska. I told myself not to panic, but my whole body was
> shaking; I knew that if I could survive the first round I would at least
> have some chance of getting the fish to the bank. For the next 30 minutes I
> battled the fish, standing at times chest deep in the middle of the river on
> a submerged bar.
>
> At this point I had not seen the fish, but eventually I managed to make it
> back to the river bank and was able to stand on dry ground. At that time the
> fish exploded into the air, executing three cartwheels. I couldn't believe
> my eyes, the fish was almost 4 feet in length. I had never seen a steelhead
> like it. After 45 minutes of battling the fish I managed to beach it gently.
> My intention was to let it go, having first measured the fish, but it was
> bleeding quite heavily from the gills. As it seemed likely not survive the
> ordeal, and because it was the fish of a lifetime, I decided to take the
> fish. In 10 years of fishing Washington state rivers this is the first fish
> I have ever taken, of any kind, from a river.
>
> At this point, several boats appeared, heading down river. In one of the
> boats was my good friend and mentor, Jim Kerr; with him in his boat was a
> state biologist, who measured the fish and took some fish scales. A couple
> of other boats arrived and had spring scales with them, and we weighed the
> fish. One set of scales said 31 pounds and the other said 32 pounds. The
> fish was dragged for about a mile through the forest to our parked car and
> then taken to Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks. We weighed the fish on their
> scales and it registered 31-1/2 pounds.
>
> As many of you already know, there is a formula for estimating the weight of
> a fish. In essence you square the girth of the fish and then multiply that
> by its length and divide by 800.. My fish was 44 inches in length with a
> girth of 23-1/2 inches. That would result in a fish weighing 30.38 pounds.
> It was not until the following day, 23 hours after the fish had been caught,
> that I managed to get the fish to a State-accredited set of scales, at Key
> City Fish Company in Port Townsend. The fish had obviously lost a little
> weight due to loss of fluids and bleeding, but it still weighed 29.5 pounds
> at that point.
>
> I have subsequently contacted the International Game Fish Association to
> check on records for fly-caught steelhead. It turns out that the existing
> world record for 8 kg tippet is a 28-pound fish caught by Chuck Stephens on
> the Skeena River on 20 October 1985, 24 years ago. I am now in the process
> of submitting my fish of last week as the new world record. On further
> research it also appears that this would also be the largest steelhead ever
> caught on a fly rod for all tippet classes.
>
> Hopefully you all enjoyed the story and the pictures. Many people got to see
> the fish before I dropped it off at a local taxidermist. One state biologist
> confided in me that he was 62 years old and had personally caught over 5000
> steelhead and that this was the biggest steelhead he had ever seen in his
> life. Another chap simply shook me by the hand, looked me in the eye and
> said, "This isn't the fish of a lifetime, it's the fish of a thousand
> lifetimes."
>
> I guess English Pete got lucky.
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter
>

IMGP0067.jpgFISH ON.jpg
IMGP0078.jpg REDO.jpg
IMGP0080.jpg THE FISH OF A THOUSAND LIFETIMES.jpg
IMGP0087.jpg WHAT A FISH.jpg
IMGP0093.jpg ALAS BLEEDING.jpg2.jpg