Who's officially in the 50+ club?

And I ain't talkin' no Orygun 50.... nor the mythical W'port 50 either.... I'm talkin' an honest to God scale-confirmed 50 pound or better chinook taken from PNW waters.

I know FishNg1 is definitely in the club. Anyone else?

I've had nine 40+ come to the boat over the past decade, but that elusive 50 pounder is an awfully tough barrier. Probably had a hold of one at B10 in 2008, but it came unbuttoned after about 15 minutes.... mind you, that's a REAL 15 minutes with a meat-stick doubled over and chasing hard with the kicker thru nearly the entire battle. Man I would have LOVED to touch that fish. Not sure if I would've been able to convince the angler to let that one go if it had been legal to keep.

For now mid-40's is the best I can lay claim to.

Weighed a fish at Fred's in Chilliwack back in college...51 pounds on the scale there. Granted, that's a white king from the Vedder, and they aren't particularly rare.

Fish on...

Todd

38 from Ucluelet for me. River fish? Uh... some big darkies prolly bigger. Don't think I've landed any bonified 50's though.

Hey Snake. You still got the picture of that dark chinook I took in the Harrison. It never hit a scale, but every estimate anyone made on it was 60 plus.

In salt my biggest killed was 42lbs. I have released bigger. Sebastes witnessed a 50 plus released in the Charlottes.


Would you believe this was me with a fish from Tokul Creek?





I didn't think so.

42 on platform scale at monte square

My best PNW fish was a low 40's fall chinook from the Klickitat in the late 80's. Have it on tape and pics, but nobody's gonna ever see it cause I'm only wearing a Speedo and the fish makes my ass look scrawny. Trust me.

Sub 20... not worthy of the title king.
20+.... average kings
30+.... NICE kings
40+.... Hawgs.... equivalent of 20+ steel
50+.... MEGA hawgs... equivalent of 25+ steel
60+.... Holy Grail.... equivalent of 30+ steel

In case anyone needs a reminder of what the Holy Grail of PNW chinook looks like.....



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3 50 + pounders all the same year ('87) all from the columbia. 54, 62, 69. Biggest past that was a 42 clackamas river springer (best salmon fight ever!!) and several mid-40's from the trask and wilson rivers in tillamook.

AK count?

fp

Sure wish I would have had my camera with me during my 15 minutes of fame. Still got some fair pictures later.

Thank Francis, hope we can get after some big ones this summer.

Steve

That is one of the prettiest fish I've ever seen. Not a scale missing, either.
Steve, you're 6 foot 4, right? J/K

...not me.... 36 lbs out of La Push in the early 1980s is the best I can do

50+ with Bob on the Sol Duc many moons ago in October...was lucky enough to witness my dad land a 70+ pound hen with Robbo out of Craig, AK few years back.

46 and 42 lbs from the Hump in the late 70's. Small fish was a beautiful buck in perfect shape right out of the salt.

No-

30#'s even out of PS a few years back.

A few bigger river fish but I don't count them

42 lbs on the Columbia in the mid 80's for me. So many in the 30's I can't remember them all.

Caught a few in the low 40's in the Tillamook system over the years..

another dead nat that wasn't able to pass on it's genes.....

Not me 36 out of Pointe Nooke..and here goes this thread...

Not myself either... Always figured the first 55+ WA freshwater king I landed that was clean was going on my wall!

We've had the opportunity to land many in the 40's from the Lewis, Cow and CR.......

I know one day it will happen for me. I fish the rivers that can produce the opportunity at 50+ and perhaps 60+, it's just a matter of landing one...

I've hooked a few in the past that I've played for 20-30 minutes on 15lb leader in the Lewis that just flat beat me... Were they 50's? Hard to tell, but I know they were some big head shakes and big fish!

Keith

No fidy for me, several 40-45's out of the Hump in the 80's.

The only one I got that was close (very), was a 48 lb. (unofficial scale) winter chinook from the NF Lewis, about seven years ago. I've had others that were high 30's (38, Columbia Fall URB & 39, B-10).

It was late December and we were actually steelhead fishing. 15 lb. mainline and 12 lb. leader. What a surprise! That was one day I was glad to have a drift boat. We must have chased that fish for 45 minutes!

We also caught two really nice steelhead, that day!

Never cracked 50lbs and starting to think I never will. Got a 48.2 my second king ever. Kinda like killing a non-typical 20+ whitetail as your first buck. Good luck ever doing better than that son.

It's no for me also.
45# @ Rivers inlet 1994
40# @ Elk river (Orygun) 2004
38# @ Hump 2008
Good luck,
SZ

Not on my own rod. Slid the net under a couple of august ocean fish some years back. 51, 52, and 56 respectively. '02 and '03, there were a number of sport caught bigguns brought into WA ports including Mr. Ng's infamous giant. There was also lots of sardines out there. Haven't seen sardine (aka pilchards) schools like that before or since.

Two fish in the low 40's are the best I can claim. One bank fishing on the Humptulips took a drift fished neon orange okie, the other off a drift boat on the Hoh, he nailed a K-15.


c/22

Biggest PNW RiverBootKing was a 46 pound purple/black/gold/green TuleTurd caught on the NFL. Probably was closer to 48 before we weighed it in the net, but it dumped two pounds of spooge during the process. Released it, so no, I do NOT know if would have smoked up just fine.

Biggest PNW SaltChromeKing is in the low 30's.

I can count on my fingers the numbers of PNW (No AK fish) 50+ Salt/River kings that I've seen:

1) Saw a 55 pound king on the docks at B10.
2) Watched my Dad lose an honest 50+ pounder at B10.
3) Everything that has been 50 or over has been up in Alaska, and that's not what Doc was asking about, so no need to mention any of those.

Won a salmon derby once with a 55. Whole blue size herring mooched.

Not even close here...handful of 24# - 27# kingers from Willapa Bay and Ukie. All I've got for now, hoping to get a shot at a big'un sometime before I cack.

Wifey successfully prosecuted a 43# whitey, out of Ukie on our honeymoon. She's 5'-3", it's snout was up to her armpit with tail on the dock. Also had a BIG, fresh chomp mark on its back.

.

Not even close for me either. I've only had one that I know was over 40 and it treated me like its bitch. It was early September and I was in the very lower stretch of a river where I could still hear the breakers. I actually got to watch it follow my spinner, open its mouth, chomp, and turn within about 10 feet of me.

Then it peeled line like I wasn't there and put me in the only piece of wood in sight.

-AP

Three over 50 for me.

#1 Kasilof off the bank 51 on certified scale.
#2 Carbon river back in the late 90's...54 at QFC meat dept. scale
#3 Kenai with Doc and Parker...approx. 55-56

All amazing fish and I also got to see the two 70lbers getting skinned up in AK...just look like a different creature.

CM

Still trying, have had some 40's in the boat, lost some big fish by being impatient.
Have not lifted any 50's yettttt
But I still will keep tryin. Been tryin for 40 years and hopefully I will get lucky

I have personally caught Kings in the 50's, 60's and 1 - 70 pounder on the Kenai. Boated bigger for clients.

Got the 70 on the wall.

Landed 1 King in the salt that would have made 50 but it was catch and release. My wife landed a 50 when we were doing a brood stock fishery for the hatchery on the Humptulips.

I was blessed to be able to go and fish the Kenai when it was the real deal!

fp

I got a 53 inch fish for a client on the Alagnak a few years ago. Second cast of his trip on a 10 wt fly rod. I'm guessing that one was well over 50 pounds. Stuck one myself in the Trask about 5 years ago that I'm sure was over over 40, but I doubt it's quite 50. He was a little bronze and he went back in.

JD

I got a 55lb buck ..caught it in the lower goat ranch on the hump two lips in the late 80's..

also got a 50 lb in what we call the little bluff hole in the early 90's

fishing partner has a 51 hanging on his wall he got in the cougar hole late 80's

i lost 1 from the duc about 8-9 years ago that legitimately would have been in or damn close to the 60 class. lost due to the fact it literally wouldn't fit in the guide's net... (weight based on what the guide told me, he said "that thing could have very possibly been 60+")

my best landed was never weighed on a scale but cracked 40 based on measurements.

i do have a 36 lb 13 oz springer from the duc under my belt with pics to prove, unfortunately no digital pics, just pics in a photo album my mom made me haha. a nearly 37 lb springer from the duc has to count for something...

In the salt 27lbs(Skagway, Neah Bay), 25lbs Edmonds pier

The closest I I've ever gotten is 43lbs. dressed. Back when I was in high school. I had to carry the damn thing 3 miles to my car.

Dude................you should have left that nasty bastard in the river..

Not even close for me, with mid 20's being my biggest.
I did help a friend land and release what was no doubt a 50 on the Satsop in the late 80's. Having seen some 40's, this toad buck was way bigger.
Great battle off the bank and one I'll never forget, even though I was just a spectator.

I hear ya Jtard. have landed several bronze fish on both the Wilson and Trask that were in the 35-40 range. Once those fallies turn bronze it is best to cut them loose. seen a few bonked and they turn a fu.ked up yellow.

none for me. I've killed a 29 lber before. One pound away from the 30 club. I swear it lost a pound or two of water and blood before it hit the scale.... : ) There are a couple 50's in my family. My grams got some awesome old pics from back in the day. My grandpa (RIP) caught his biggest king on the day of a derby in AK, but never bought a ticket. It was the biggest fish the dock had seen that he weighed it at. It broke the 50 mark, I don't recal the exact weight. I got to poke and prod a 45 lber when I was kid that my uncle brought home from a derby he won. It was as long as I was when I sprawled out next to it.

wana talk about toad kings caught... think ELWAH

No 50's for me.

Had 2 legit 40-class fish......one right at 40lbs from Buoy 10 in the early 90's and a low 40's fish this past Fall from a WA coastal river. The odd 30+ here and there over the years but nothing that's teased me in the 50lb range.

Not too revved up over a 50 to tell the truth.....I'd rather chase giant hooknose silvers!

Caught this one plunking in the CR last june opener....I say he was at least 50lbs....The guy behind me tryed measuring him before he swam off and only got the length....He said it was around 51-52ish in length....girth...round like a tuna.......Orygun 50..

None of the biggies I've ever caught were weighed because I turned them loose. This one here from Sekiu went 47" and is the largest I've come across in the salt. I was 15 at the time and knew then that it was a rarity. The pic doesn't really due it justice as part of the fish is under the boat and facing away from the camera; the only thing that shows the kings size is the pectoral fin.

I've laid eyes on some absolute beasts in the Elwha and my dad caught ones back in the day that went 50+.
My buddie's dad has a 58lber mounted on his wall from back in the 70's I believe that he caught out of PA. Whenever I'm over there my jaw always drops.

A genuine 51-52" defintiely puts you in the 50+ club.

There's a saying in the steelhead world... if it ain't 40, it probably ain't 20. In my brain, I have a ballpark reference of 4 ft = 50+. One of these days on my black barge, I'm hoping that locus of my visual cortex is finally gonna light up. Just hope I don't suffer a seizure or blow a head gasket when it does! And you can bet it's going back to make more of its kind.

FYI from personal observations of Kenai fish with typical 3 x 5-ish proportions, it's gotta be over

47" fork length to break 50....
50" fork length to break 60....
52" fork length to break 70....
54" fork length to break 80....

Seems there are lots of strains of OR/WA salmon with fat stumpy physiques that would skew those minimum lengths downward by an inch or two. Whites and tules come quickly to mind.

OK enough time daydreaming.... time to go pluck a piece of metal out of some little kid's eye.

My biggest Steelie came out of the Elwha in 08'.

The good old days, Tillimock bay in Early October 60's were around seen three in my boat only 1 hooked by me but always remember bringing in an ocassional 50 plus only to be shot down by a few 60's laying around old mill waitng to be weighed! I also have seen a bunch of 60 plus class fish in the Boggy and Solduc back in the late 70's and early 80's, but I really dought I will ever see one again in the lower 48, Satsop use to have a few also, I remember getting schooled by the biggest king I have ever seen in the Satsop 20 years ago at least, dang I miss the old days!!!PEACE

ive seen a king that was close to the 55"-60" range in the elwah october 1st 2009
i was standing on a log jam looking down at a pile of them and it came to the surface right in front of me, coulda touched it with a rod tip

This kid's not even close! I might just have to lift my pick up and throw some big tires on it to make up for the fact...

Alaska 2003. 60 lb king from the bank of a small river.

ClearCreek

Gweedo,

That is an exceptionally beautiful fish. Has just enough kype to maybe convince me it's a buck. But unlike so many MEGA-bucks, there's no "empty" length on that beast.... just pure platinum pork! Good to know his seed is still in the gene pool.

Caught 1 (50.3) netted 10-12 over 50, all on the salt in S.E. Alaska. Biggest south of AK that I've kept was 32 from Ucluelet.

avatar...

haha yup....an orygun 50 for certain

99.9% of [censored] I read on the fishing forums I understand... Never been in this world.....

Keith

1 over 50 based on measurements. 2 in the mid forties comparing it to the 50+. Just happened to come together in the past few years so they are burned in my memory. but....... didn't keep any because they were dark. Have seen a few recently that dwarfed the 50.

In the late 80's early 90's I caught at least 5 in high 30's to low 40's on OP rivers. I missed 1 in a hole that I had limited out the day before in, that I couldn't turn . It would stop, shake it's head and keep going. It was BIG.

I know 1 guy who got 2 over 50 lbs in 1 weekend. Back in those days I figured I didn't need to go to Alaska for big fish. They were a few hours away. Now before you say, yeah the guy kept 2 big fish that could have spawned. WRONG. The tribe had that area cleaned out by Tuesday. Low water , stacked fish and nets is not a good combo.

Sad thing is that those days have been gone for a while. I know some people are going to say that I'm wrong but I've talked to guides and people who have fished it for years. They feel the same way. I know some are caught. The #'s aren't what they were. I haven't seen a 50 lb King in years over there. Hell I haven't seen anyone with a legit 40lber in years. I know I only make 2 or 3 fall trips a year but I cover a lot of ground and talk to a lot of people. Standing in the river I talk to a lot of boats.

Big fish are there but not like the late 80's & 90's.

I know I've gone to Catch & Release on Kings over there. I hope others are as well.

One last thing. It's nice to see someone define a Hawg etc. I'm tired of seeing a thread (other sites) that tells about someone catching a Hawg, I go into the thread and it is a 20lb hatchery fish and everyone is commenting on it being a nice Hawg. Nice fish yes, Hawg no.

Until I get a 50, if I ever do, I think any fish will struggle to match the feeling I got from my first 20lb king. It was in the salt, I was 14 and my bro drove my friends and I down to the fishing peir by my house. It was on Fox Island (horrible fishing, but we couldn't tell the difference). The sun was beating down on us. I think it was like the middle of july. The smell of rotting herring was in the air, and our arms were tired from hausing in dog fish all morning. When the tides start to move, you can just huck your bait out, let it sit and the current will work it. I was using a trusty old pink and white buzzbomb and was leaning over the side of the dock with my little browning rod in my hand, which was loaded with 15lb mono, watching the little sun fish peck at the pilings. All of a sudden my line got heavy, nothing special. I pulled the fish to the surface, I don't even think it knew it was hooked, and it turned and took off into the depths. I spent a half hour working that thing on my trout rod and every time it got close to the pilings it would take off again. My bro stripped down to his skibbies and waded out and man handled the fish. We were a couple of young pimply faced kids who just landed a KING salmon!!!!! I think we all felt like we caught it. Coolest moment in my life. I knew when I held that thing in my hands, I'd be doing this for the rest of my life. I think the experience is just as important as the size. Sorry if that sounded corny. I'm not a born and raised OP local or nothing (did get out on my uncles db a few times growing up), but I think that helps me appreciate the fish a little more. The same kids I'd fish with growing up, now drool at my fish pics. Sorry if I jacked the thread, it just got me thinking.

my only 50+lb fish came from the carbon in 2002. there was one fish bigger then mine taken the same day in the same hole

GOOD THREAD!

I have been lucky enough to lay hands on a few true 50+ lb fish

my 2 personal fish was 1. 55-56lb out of the skagit 2. 63lb out of the vedder

I have also seen a handful of 50s caught out of craig and while commercial fishing seen kings in the 70 and 80s...

Beside the additional 10lbs a 40 and 50 are a complete differnt fish the structure changes and everything mainly with the tail section and jaws.

I HOPE TO GET A 50LB SPRINGER AND BE ON THE NEWS! BIATCHESSSS

Growing up in Sekiu in the late 50's and early 60's I have seen dozens over 50 and even caught a 54 off the mouth of the Clallam in a row boat with no motor. Rowing and pulling a cut plug off the kelp right in front of our house. I was 8 years old and as long as I stayed where my Mom could see me I could be on the water! Grandpa was pretty proud of me as I had to row over to shore and drag it up on the beach as I was to small to pick it up into the boat.
Looking back, I was just damn lucky as anything could have gone wrong and lost it, but the fish gods were looking down on me that day.
Wish I had a picture of it but it was cut into huge steaks within the hour and ate for dinner. In those days you did not waste meat.

in a row boat at 8? ur lucky you didnt have to land that in neah bay or something! thing could have drug you all over the place

...and hopefully now and into the future as well.

It took me a while but in 2003 I got a 51 lber (certified scale Hiochi store) from Californias Smith River. Best part was it was just me and a buddy in my boat, and very few other boats around.

What you don't realize about Gweedo is he is only 3'9" tall so that fish was only 18lbs.

71 on the Kenai ( on the wall now )
53 on the Chehalis

Broodstocking ( Satsop / no sporting here ) was a huge hen that went 60 or better but turned her back to spawn naturally so down to the ounce can not do. Actually got a hold of her twice and shredded 40 lb in a heart beat in a full run down stream the first shot.

CA can kick out some good ones in the fall.

This one was 47.5x30 which puts it in there although the pic doesn't do it justice.



This one is southern Orygun. Never got a tape on it as it wiggled away, but it's in the ball park.




This one was just shy of the mark.




There's more but, I didn't want to get carried away. Never hung one on a scale because we don't kill the big ones. Large creatures none the less.

Team Kwikfish is on the board!

The first two definitely make the mark.

And while that that last one may have fallen short, it's certainly an impressive specimen in its own right. Good gracious.... look at the oversized fins and head on that bad-a$$ beast!

The guy in the docs boat at b-10 in 2008 would have gladly released that fish. Would have been great to get a good look at it though. I had never hooked a salmon as strong, heavy and fast as that one and I have caught quite a few.

I saw a #72 brought in a couple years ago caught in the Juans. Someplace up by Eagle Point trolling is where they caught it and brought it to the scale in Coronet Bay. I was dumping my boat in when they were pulling out of the water. Never even caught a King over #15, but gonna keep trying.

WOW!!!!! Good on ya for taking care of them. Impressive!

57# nook off the Satsop some 15+ years ago. Haven't touched one over 45 since. Saw 2 nook over 50 taken on the hump this year but I wouldn't have taken them home for cat food. Also was the longest fight I have ever had. Hit 5 feet off shore in a narrow slot on it's way through and about jerked my arm out of socket.

The only one I have landed was released right at Nolans bluff on the
lower HoH in the early 80"s. I lost another on the Toutle at the Tower
bridge in 78 that was Bigger but with only 15lb test and being on the bank it rolled on the line and off it swam!! My Mom has landed several
larger fish years ago the largest being 72lbs off the mouth of the Elwa
in 1937.

I have had the good luck to hit two fish over 50 so far. The first was in 1989 fishing in cook inlet. I got lucky and took a 58. That week the group I was with didn't have a lot of fish, but saw some big ones. There were 3 bigger than mine, they were 63, 65, and 80 lbs on a certified scale. That is a week that will never be repeated.

My second fish over 50 was a 53 a few years ago. I landed the fish and felt pretty good until 10 minutes later when my brother hooked and landed a 55 in the same run. Another day that won't be forgotten.

No scale, but from my days on the Kvichak we had several 60+ Kings in the nets as "bycatch"in 80 and 81 July Red seasons. Took me a long time to fillet.

I remember when I was a kid seeing the biggest king I've ever seen in person pulled from the humptulips after what seemed to be an hour long fight. Later on in the day ran into the same guy with his fish in montesano, the fish went 68lbs. on the scale.

You guys suck.... 5 pages and just a handful of 50+ posted.

I put up a similar thread on Ifish. With only 41 replies, there's already 7 guys with 50+ (several multiple) kings under their belt. 13 of 166 who voted in a poll voted that they have broken the 50# barrier.

Or maybe they're all just Orygun 50's.

gravity does work differently in oregon

#43 is the biggest kinger...
Broke the 50 mark last B-day...Oh Boy!!!

Clearly, IFish is a way cooler BB.

They catch 50 or 60 20-lb steelhead each season too. 3 or 4 of them actually weighed 20 lbs, too.

There's a pic of a claimed 46# on the ifish thread that I swear isn't much over 28, but it's a true Oregon 46.

Broke 27 and 32 last year, both my biggest ever. Hope to improve this year. I'd feel blessed to some day kill a 40 lb hatchery king.

My friend got a 48" 54 lb at the mouth of the Klamath in August 2002. We thought it could have been a stray from up North- That's a big Klamath fish. Didn't think to let it go-we all gotta start somewhere.

Here's a study that may be of interest to this discussion (see also, Hankin 1993):

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-209043868.html


Imagine that.... big fish beget big fish..... who'da'thunk it?

While not exactly the "silver bullet" study that some folks are demanding to show that releasing big fish makes a difference in increasing the number of larger older chinook in the next generation, one can deductively reason from this paper that giving the big bucks a free pass to the gravel certainly increases the potential to create more big fish from any given brood year.

Would love to see ODFW or WDFW try this on just one lonely stream in each respective state as a pilot project to see if it actually worked. It's really the only way to definitively find out.... run the dam experiment on one stream for two complete chinook life cycles, and let the chips fall where they may.

OK, I'll play as there are a few from Alaska already posted.

fp

Never officially had one down here but have had clients release several that were over 50 in both the Nooch and Halis. Biggest one that got away and we would have been able to keep was a Spring/Summer in the Halis 7 years back that was pushing 55. Darn thing wrapped up in the leader and broke off when he started jumping like crazy! Monster fish for sure. The same day we boated and bonked a 37...Also lost a fall fish a few years back in the Halis that me and the client both believe was over 60. Cool to still see a few like that around. Biggest keeper I've personally landed was on the Kenai where I've had 3 over 50. Biggest keeper for a client down here was 41 and Chrome in the Cow last year, the pics below . My biggest personal fish here in WA was pushing 35 out in the Salt with my late friend Steve Miller on his charter boat Freedom back in the early 90s.

Ive been lucky enough to shake hands with more kings then is really right for someone's life time:
PR is a 55lbr on the fly in AK (yes a boot but longest damn king I have ever seen landed) best pic i have for length scale:
Gear caught:
a few nice client fish:




Fiance got one 40lbs this year that was the biggest/thickest king Ive seen landed in WA, yes a bogi chromer (term for bronzed boot coined by phill mirod)


more somewhere if I ever get the time to dig them up and a few clients have floating around I really want to get copies of someday

sometimes ya can convince clients to release em and sometimes ya can't....







50# on the nose



Not a 50 but a nice girthy girly for the gravel



48" should put this buckster pretty close



Well over....



60+ for the gravel..........

Gotta love those big nooks. It's what keeps me going all summer long. That, and a lot of coffee
Summerrun with his dads gagger Chinook

Linda Dally's 64 pound gagger from Cape Ulitka

Hell I'm well past 50. What was the question again?

BTW I have several Kenai fish over 50 but only one salt fish that made the grade.

Darn nice fishy Keith!

I on the other hand have never come close to 50. Heck, not even 40.

Wow. Some bruisers all around. That 60+ ditch fish was a monster. Hard to argue with Robbo's platinum hog monsters though. Good stuff gents.

kinda funny that the biggest fish boated this last season was on the ditch

Why?

I know they swim there. I have yet to see one over about 35 personally.

Personally, my biggest was a 58 out of Satsop years ago .... bigger yet than anything I've caught up north (51 Kenai fish), but I don't have many personal days on the river up that way, especially during big fish time. Watched many, many others caught by others over the years though Like this one ...

Dandy!

Didn't Parker's dad real up a big one outta Last Chance or Desperation?

Fred, You are right, you got to fish alot of places when it was the real deal !!!
Anyways My biggest have came from the harbor and tillimook !

Satsop 2002, the last year Kings were open 56 lbs.....Weighed at Oly fish market about 6 hours after it was caught..... A big beautiful Buck, caught on Bobber and eggs, 65 lb power pro and 30 lb Maxima ultra green leader and a 5/0- 3/0 Vison hook superfly style tie up ! 45 minutes of profanities and insanity until my Homeboy Decker was able to put it into the net !!!
We hooked and landed 7 over 40 lbs on that particular day........What a fu..ckin day baby !!!

Trask River Oregon 1994, 54 lbs on Bobber and eggs !!!! weighed at the guide shop, they use tohave a great pic of that one on the wall of shame there......................

Humptulips.......from the 80's until present day, so many big kings to remember but I have never personally landed one over 50 lbs there and you would think that I would have as much tme as I have spent onthat river. But many over 30 lbs and a few over 40 lbs.........

Peace
Fly

Some truly amazing fish!

2 for me...sekiu and westport. But back then you'd see a couple pretty much every day.

Anyone remember about 1982 or so when that guy in BC fought a king for two days followed around by a news crew? He ran the first boat out of gas, swapped boats and finally got the fish near the bank but nobody had a net big enough. They tried two nets head and tail and it snapped off. Estimates were over 100 pounds.

Yeah, that one was up at River's Inlet, I believe...estimates were up to like 120, or something like that?

Fish on...

Todd

That was on the Kenai. Saw the guy 2 days in a row as I went downstream from my fish camp. A lot of watchers from the bank as he had it brought up to the waters right next to Centennial boat launch area. TV cameras and all got to watch the loosing of it. From some witness's there it doesn't sound like it was as big as everybody was hoping.

fp

http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/uploads/UP20045.jpg

Derby winner!

If I am not mistaken thats Captain Quilback Hawgslayer supreme Master of the Dead Drop Herring.

I remember that. There was one at RI that broke off.

IIRC that guy was a friend/aquaintance of Salmonella.

Fred's got it right.... well, at least I can verify that his version actually happened. I once had a copy of the footage on VHS, but I think one of my kids or my ex- recorded an episode of Barney or Tele-Bubbies over it.

The date in question was July 12, 1989
The angler was Minnesota tourist Bob Ploeger.
The Kenai River guide was Dan Bishop.
The battle took 37 hours before the fish earned its freedom.
The battle was rather pitiful.... there was almost no load in the rod thru most of the battle. While Ploeger was being interviewed mid-fight, the rod tip was only bent half way to the ferrule at mid-shaft.... about what an 8-10 oz cannonball would accomplish.

The netshot was an absolute cluster... two nets converged to corral the fish from above and below. At the fateful moment of the double scoop, one net hit the leader and .... PING!

Game over after 37 hours!

Doc, you are the Rain Man of fishing statistics. Impressive memory.

I'm an excellent driver.

The question was about "1982", not 1989...and it was about "BC", not Alaska...and in the early 80's at Rivers Inlet, BC, there was a guy who fought a fish all day and all night, and into the next day, when it finally broke his line.

Fish on...

Todd

I have the original issue of Fishin Holes with the story in it, I'll try ad scan and paste it up if I can find it. The fish was hooked by a guide out fun fishing with fellow guides after work. Fish came close more than once but finally broke off , was for sure estimated well over 100.

That's the one, FGB...unfortunately my boxes of FH's from those days are in boxes somewhere that I sure as hell can't find...I think somewheres I have every issue from 1878 thru the middle 80's...

Fish on...

Todd

Yer old.

Seriously?

That's nearly an entire work week.....

Keith

Wow, time machine memories from Capt Robbo...epic Chromer on a Folgers n Donut run. Sure bigger Bucks have been landed but that fish was a HEN! Wonder what the world record Saltwater Hen is cause that fish was a legit 70+ when it hit the deck after the most baddass net job I have seen to this day, fish had to be 4-5 feet under the surface and still green but we saw one of the two Giant Gamis was busted in half and the other was hanging by a thread so it was do or die and the Capt got er done...pulled my only 50+ w Bob way back on the lower Duc in October on a Kwikkie.

Cheers

Les was a good guy,

he was definitely in the club.


I just checked, his IGFA record still holds to this day...

fvck me, that is a fish..... any one else in the 90# club???

Oh yea,

Count me in too...

this was well over 50, over 60 in fact.

we ate the whole thing.... it took a long time

If holding one up counts, yes ... but not my fish Can say I've physically touched one.

Carl is in too....

He is a real friendly guy, you would like Carl.

Awesome pics. I joined the 25 lb club this year. I have a tough time finding big kings but I have upped my last year total by 2000%

Doc prefers flying Qantas and he comes in handy at the blackjack table.

Closest I've come is 29lbs for a king. 27lbs for a steelhead. 19lbs for a silver. Caught a lot of nice fish over the years, but never near that mark of 50lbs.

That's the one I remember. I read that article and painted mooching weights on a warm summer night when I was +/- 12 yrs old.

That story has kept me awake many nights. Still does.

Toads!

An OLD friend of mine still holds the Washington Satate record for a 70 lb saltwater chinook from Pillar Point. I believe it was in the 60s. He is quite old and I have not seen him for a few years. I do hope he is still around. Chet Gusta.

Record book says Sekiu, but he told me Pillar point.

Chinook salmon
Oncorhychus tshawytscha

70.50 lbs

Chet Gausta

Sekiu

September 6, 1964

I've always wondered back in the old days how many fish over the 70.5 saltwater record were just caught and eaten without ever being weighed. I bet plenty.
Largest I've ever seen in person was a 63 lb our neighbors daughter caught with us on a family trip to Campbell River. That was in the early 70's.
There are some great fish people are posting, keep the toad pics coming!

high 30's for me. saw a 50 or damn near. funny story about that day. Cowlitz trib. fished one day, cohos and kings came almost on top of each other. limited on both in very few casts. was super excited to go back the next day. Saw my mothers physical therapist for her back surgery at tumwater sports that night getting gear. never fished by herself yet, husband was at work. she was headed to the cowlitz in the morning( she said with a sigh). my stepfather and i looked at each other and took pity. gave her directions to this zipper spot.next morning im fishing, landing another high 30's fish ( 35 minute battle) i see her fishing. short leader ( 10 inches maybe!) and a kenai or wild steelhead sized golf ball of a cheater. she was excited when she saw me and fish were getting caught everywhere. i hear her say fish on!. 3 cohos and a king later for me...she's still got this fish on. im thinking...well shes never fished by herself before, so i walk over to give her a hand. shes in the process of trying to beach this MONSTROSITY. when she finally see's the fish ( hour later) she almost drops her rod, she starts keening ( crying and yelling) she gets it close and cant beach it...so i put the size 12 to good use and couldnt budge it...had to pounce on it and wrastle this thing onto the beach. i look down and really get a view of how big this fish is. im 6'5" and took two hands under its gills to lift it...jaw was high stomach to chest level and the tail was on the rocks. i had landed a few fish in the 30's that day and this thing dwarfed them. she cried for awhile. blubbering. couldnt even punch her card because she was crying and shaking so much !! she wasnt sure how her husband would feel about catching a fish without him, bigger then anythings he's even come close to, and on her FIRST KING! hhahahah. it was dark...but i dont think she cared.

Same river two years later i saw a 50+ year old man almost have a heart attack packing out a 50+ pounder. dude was Purple...i actually told him to pause a sec because i was worried about his color. and if he wanted me to carry the thing the rest of the way up the trail. he declined but collapsed on a stump. i styed for a second because i was truly worried he'd blown something. never seen a guy actually turn that shade of blue and purple. it was a hen and bright. hahaha i still have this image of a 5'8" man holding this fish in front of his face by the gills, the tail almost on the ground doing the two step down a trail while puffing like he ran the boston marathon. ha.

When fighting a BIG fish, what part of "deep heavy bend in the rod" do folks not understand? Good thing I wasn't the "guide" in that boat. I'd'a been all over that guy's a$$.

Pull GDI!
Pull HARD!
JFC! I said H-A-R-D, GDI!
You're NOT gonna break the f'n rod!

I got little girls that'll make a rod bend better than a lot of the grown men I take fishing. Seriously, I wanna see it bend right to the corks.

Like this....

You don't spaz out like that all the time do you?

Because i think that would get on my nerves.

Glad the hook didn't pop (notice how I didn't reference "spitting the hook") at the end there. Camera girl was in the DANGER ZONE! That woulda left a mark for sure.

All this talk of putting pressure on the fish is gonna hurt BFD's feelings.

How did I know I was gonna get drug in to this. Knew it was curtains when Francis started chanting about bend in the rod or some kind of odd thing like that. We all have something to work on...........





not nice.




















at all.

















Good thing I got old scotch. Don't think I could take the abuse. Here's your chance.......fire away.

Pretty quick on the uptake there Danny. I figured it would have taken twice as long for your ears to start burning.

All in good fun.

It's alright Coley. I can take it, let me just.............hold on a sec.......okay.

Alright carry on.

I have seen Danny put a serious bend in a rod.




































































But not when he had a fish on.

Double not nice. I'm goin' to bed.

Poor Danny...in his defense, that 6# hatchery fish on the Satsop that took him fifteen minutes to reel in the last twelve feet was the biggest six pounder I've ever seen.

Fish on...

Todd

Its not the size of the fish in the fight...

Doc when I put the bend in the rod with the fish downstream of me like that, it better be because there is something that I can't get below...... Get the F downriver of your fish.

I've caught fish in that whole too.... You can get below the fish. Fun to let it run like that, but c'mon, if puttin the heat to it is what you want...... don't fight the river

word

Not condoning the dude's overall fish fighting technique.... just using the vid as a decent demo of how to make a rod bend.

The DIRECTION one makes it bend is even more important, esp when the fish is below you in current. Getting sideways and parallel to a fish in current is obviously the most advantageous position. Stepping down river is advised whenever feasible, but folks should remember to take line as they go! The biggest mistake I see is folks walking downriver too slow and not shortening the leash as they go... they're literally walking the dog down the river.... and making ZERO net gain! And losing precious landing beach with every step! Eventually there comes a point in the battle where one must simply stand his ground.

On river right, the only way to go is to pull LOW and to the RIGHT. As much as is humanly possible... as in 95-99% of the time... the rod should be angled low and right!

When fighting a BIG fish in the current, one of the least appreciated concepts is the mechanics of "ferrying". If you tether any long object in the current it will passively maintain its position in the flow as long as it aligns itself axially with the current ( nose pointed straight upriver at 12:00).

It can also be made to move passively crosscurrent by ferrying. If that long object is somehow pointed off-axis to the flow, even by the tiniest amount (11:55 or 12:05), it will start to ferry cross-current.

In this case, by pulling to the left, one points the fish's nose to its right toward heavier flow, causing it to passively ferry to its right. And when the fish adds extra propulsion with a tail thrust, it's driven that much stronger to its right. This maneuver only encourages the fish to move further out into swifter current.... which only pushes it even further downstream. NOT GOOD if your goal is to gain line.

By pulling to the right, the fish will passively ferry toward the bank... AND when it thrusts its tail, it will actively swim into softer shallower flows, water where one actually can either gain ground MUCH more easily... OR better yet, allow the fish to simply beach itself.

I've used this technique to single-handedly beach dozens of big kings up to 70+ without the aid of a net or an assistant. It works!

If Vedder wasn't so f'n astute with his fishy observations I would have just let that post pass.

But he IS…. so I COULDN'T...

Even if it did take 3 years for me to finally pick up on it.

Better late than never.

Sorry, Danny.

Still laffin'

Blast from the past (where the HELL did 10 years go anyway?)

Orygun 60, fo'sho!

And while in a decidedly B&W mode, may as well share this o'l boot as well…

71 on the wall Kenai & 52 Chehalis with picture on the wall. In broodstocking many bucks in the 40 plus bracket over the years on the Satsop but the biggest I could not get to the bank and finally broke 40 lb Maxima. Best guess was 60 plus and it was East Fork Satsop. Oh, it was a hen.

Low 50lb buck...Hump...Got some pics and released the beast many years ago. Saw the fish swim past just after hooking up and still remember the surreal look of something so massive in comparison to all the other salmon and steelhead we encounter in our travels.

I don’t think either of these broke 50 but nice nookies. My biggest in the salt was released. Sebastes and I are certain it was more then 50. In the Kenai, I have caught a handful of 50 plus with a 62 as my biggest, but so has anyone who fished it a lot back then.
Looking for a photo of my buddies 72 we got in the Kenai way back when dinosaurs roamed the land





This was a 62 caught from a 16 foot Jon Boat on the Kenai by three, at the time novice Kenai anglers. We damn near swamped the boat when too many leaned over to see it in the water.

In saltwater my buddy Don got a 52 in the morning- just 2 pounds short of our groups record (in BC). Good luck held...and he got a 56 in the afternoon. 108 lbs, 2 fish, same day, from a 17' whaler, trolling mono with 2 oz of lead on 10 wt sage rods.

At least for Puget Sound hatchery Chinook a 30 pounder has become the new 50 or even 60# fish.

During the mark selective Chinook fisheries in Puget Sound during 2012 and 2013 WDFW port samplers measured more than 13,000 hatchery Chinook without handling a single fish larger than a meter in length (all less than 40 inches).

Equally of concern was the fact that the median size was roughly 28.5 inches (there were as many fish smaller than 28.5 and larger than 28.5). Just 40 years ago a Chinook jack for Puget Sound rivers was defined as any Chinook less than 28 inches long now nearly 1/2 of the returning adults are smaller than what once were jacks and many of the jacks would never be a legal fish in the salt (they are less than 22 inches long).

While the Puget Sound hatchery Chinook may be the most extreme all the region's Chinook populations are experiencing this shrinking phenomenon.

Curt

Heaviest King 61.5, from up north.

On the Snohomish system, none of these are from the last 10 years (OK, the whitefish was).

King 35#
Steelhead 30+
Coho 20#
Chum 24#

Whitefish, Can't remember the weight, we thought it was a small steelhead during the fight, Craigo took a pic.

Yep.... we livin' in the era of the maxi-jack.

I mean REALLY... how many folks caught a bonafide king while fishin for spring kings?

Interesting that, at least at the hatcheries, WDFW used to take tons of scales, FL, and sex of returns on an annual basis. There should be a very long-term data set of length at age.

What this gets at is that "shrinking" Chinook and even coho should not be any sort of surprise or news. Coupled with oceanographic conditions we should have a pretty good idea about change over time, effects of El Nino, and so on.

We have basically turned Chinook from a big fish that spawned in the largest rivers to essentially a piscivorous, creek spawning chum. Get them into the 10-15 pound range as age 4 and we can have the Kennedy Creek Chinook fishery in the Fall as a warm-up for the chum.

71 on the wall from the Kenai like Fred but got a pic of a 50 off the Chehalis years back.

Whoa! Way to dig this one up again, Doc!

7 years later and Still no PNW 50 for me. Pretty close to the 50 mark with a Kenai buck up with doc, but that's it.

Maybe I'll get lucky (not in that kinda way!) up in Las Craigas this summer. My goal is to get a 40+ out of the salt.

Yes, the Old Man did land a 58lb. Kasilof King and got his AK Trophy certification along with it. The absolute hardest slow water egg/diver take down I've ever seen in my life!

I love how a replica completely changes depending on the light source used and at what angle it is viewed from.

I've been lucky to hook 3 mid 40s Nooks on the Olypen but nothing that taped out to over 50.....

Seems now you hardly hear of nooks in the 40s on the coast...miss those days

Haven't seen anything remotely close to 40 in local waters since 2008.

Here's f4b with the boat's first 30 plus since who knows when?

I crossed the bar at Illwaco the first time when I was 5 years old in an 18' Glasspar. I've fished out of every port from Tillamook to Neah bay and I have fished them often. Neah bay has been my second home for July and August for the last 15 years and I have killed a ton of kings over the last 45 years. I have yet to kill a sport caught ocean King over 30lbs and wouldn't be surprised if I ever do but ill keep trying. Hardly a day goes by fishing out of Westport that 30s are not caught and lost on the radio. It's strange that these are almost never caught by someone in the derby. Yea I've caught a few at B10, the Harbor and Rivers but for me they just don't count. I'm sure I broke 50 on a fish I now regret killing above White bluff in the mid 80s but it looked nothing like Steve's fish. Steve's fish is my holly grail. Any King off one of Washington's North beaches does it for me but over 30 sure would make it a bit better.

I remember seeing a few 50+ springers at the Kalama Falls hatchery in the late 70s. At about that same time there were supposed to be 50s in one of the coastal rivers, also springers. IF it was springers that carried the last 50s to WA then marine fisheries should often miss them as they would arrive before folks really got after them in the salt, right?

Size only matters to those who aren't getting their needs met.

My largest is 30# but I've never fished in Alaska or over true trophy kings. Fastwater got a 40 - 42# out of the Duwamish a couple of years ago on light Coho gear. Largest in-sound King I've heard of in some time....

Here's one of those Vedder river "springs" from about 15 years ago. It weighed 53 lbs. on the guy's scale that I gave the fish to. You don't see many this size anymore up there. But then again... it's been a few years since I've fished it. They are very similar to Tules. They turn black as soon as you bonk them and the meat is pale and mushy... but they fight like crazy under the right conditions. You don't land too many this size without the proper gear either, eh!

That's one THICK stumpy beast, 4salt. Look how the girth just carries into the tail!

I wish it were as pretty as Robbo's or Gweed'os fish. It's hard to delineate where the anal fin is because of the dark grey / green color. I caught a 62 on the Kenai back in '88 that is my biggest king to date.

Never in the Salt. Possibly a couple out of the Hump, and believe it or not the Cedar River. We're talking late 70's there were some huge Chinook in them waters.Not to mention a big Steelhead run.

In general, I DON'T FISH CHINOOK.....I get asked to fish Buoy 10, Willapa, GH.....just lost the interest to fish "big fish".

Now that's not to say I've never been a big fish chaser. Humptulips, late 80's caught one that weighted 49 when I got it home after 8 hours and one in the Chehalis that "local" had to help me net.....it was BIG, I didn't want so "local" said he take....but changed his mind and released.

There area few big fish, left but......not like the days past.

Do 50+ year old bar flies in Westport count?

Some GOOD memories of some big kings (50 plus) on the Green that flowed into the Toutle.

That story about the woman who caught the 50+ at RI, story I read was that they tied it to a tree, the hubby came back in with a couple fish in the mid-twenties, he took a look at the beast and said "Just catch the one?"

My best is only 35#, from Langara Lodge in its first year (1986), but it sure was fun!!! Went back to the lodge (actually a shack on a barge) and woke the wife, whe came out and nailed a 30.

42 lber from the Hump. 44lbs from the "old" Toutle in the 70's.

There was not a month on the Toutle that there was not fresh coming in of some kind! The Green was fly fishing for them big kings.

Best I could do... 37# ..fresh from the Hoh

I was super close a few years ago, about as bright as an upriver can be in mid September. A couple pounds short. Still tryin.

Hooked a couple mid 40s,one on the Chetco and one on the Feather. Both were big boot kings lol.

yeah boeing is making me take a forced retirement! whoops though this thread was for people going into to the golden age club.

[img]http://https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/fr/cp0/e15/q65/22499221_10215196637457261_9063057606532200530_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=2&_nc_sid=85a577&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ohc=jXgRnuGgPesAX8E2cX3&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.xx&tp=14&oh=1e028ec010c9638e249e9b44d68e83f5&oe=5FE2BE4C[/img]

Not 50, but big.

Forgot how to post a picture on here. I have a picture holding a 86# 12oz.


fp

This one?

Dude,what?? What's the back story here?? That's insane.

Yup, that's it. When I netted it I told my client "that's not a 70 pounder".

And no, I'm not holding the long arm stuff. I almost couldn't pick it up. Oh, as Oregon's say I'm 6'4".

fop

Kenai fish?

Yes

fop

Orygun 60...

Fifty four pounder from Kelp Bay in SE Alaska on my day off from guiding at Whalers Cove.

What the in actual $*&%!!!

I took a 53lb chinook out of the GH bay back in '94 or so.

A gillnet boat was waiting for the tide change. Roped to the pole at the mouth of Johns River.
I went towards Westport until I ran over a large school of anchovies. I dropped a plug cut herring, blue label injected with sardine oil below the cloud.

The tide pushed me to shallow water fighting the fish. But I was able to get it to the boat and land it solo.

Just waved at the gillnetter on my back in to the markers back to the ramp.

So much for a 50+ only thread

Is that your win record in the octagon? These people don't even know!!

Biggest for myself is a 71 lb caught on the Kenai fishing with Mark O'Neil years back and its on the wall. In fact the guy fishing with me got a 70 lb the same day and Jack O'Neil had the picture of us with the fish on his brochure for bit. Broodstocked many nice sized Chinook but never got a truly big guy but lost a few that just simply kicked my butt. I did get a 50 ( barely ) on the Chehalis when I was much younger.

Just for conversation Buddy did a mount of a 27 lb Chehalis Steelhead ( came out of a QIN net ) that was on the hatchery office wall for years.

I was witness to a buddy of mine land a dead chrome 52 pounder in Southern Oregon . It was in high water so it stayed out of the current or no way he would have brought that to hand from the bank, truly impressive fish not for length but the sheer thickness across the back,and the tail was massive.

Jealousy will get you nowhere

Learn how to read dipShit

Not a 50... but arguably the BEST story on this thread. Thanks MOL, if you're still around.

That was a cool story . Reminds me of my childhood.