No slouch in the BIG coho department, but I just gotta say that a 20# coho is a rare and phenomenal beast. Dare I say LESS common than a 20# steelhead or a 50# king?

I fish in BIG coho country, and literally thousands of coho have come over my gunnels over the past 2 decades. In that period of time, only ONE (as in sole, singular, solitary, lone) coho has come close to the 20# mark. Actually it was just ounces shy of a true Andrew Jackson on my precision Cardoza scale, dead and bled.... so yeah... live weight including a cup or more of blood loss would have pushed the beast over 20#.

My personal best WA coho (as in me hooking/fighting/landing it) pulled the same scale to 17# dead and bled. This was a THICK-BODIED beast that hung past the ends of a 34 inch 100 qt Coleman cooler.... AFTER it had rigored up to FULL axial contracture (as short as it would ever get)

This beast conservatively measured a fork length of 35 inches with total length closer to 36. It wasn't 20 pounds....





Mebbe I need a NEW scale?

Mebbe NOT!