While I realize there has most likely been larger sport caught in-river steelhead landed. I thought I would put these pictures up if not for anything else but that it was interesting. I always heard the stories of Chuck Ewarts large steelhead but didn't realize it was hanging in a glass case in a hardware store out in the boondocks. 36 pounds was it's official weight.
Hmmmm.......I don't know. I realize it was "probably" officially weighed and all but that fish in the photo against the yardstick doesn't spell 36 lbs to me. End of stick to tail, maybe add 6" so your looking at, perhaps, a 42" fish?? That put's it in the mid-high 20's. Certainly nice but not 36lbs. Fish would need more girth IMO.
Then to, my vision is going to hell so maybe I'm just out of focus!
Thank God photography and fish reproductions have come a long way!
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: World Record Steelhead? - 02/17/1206:47 PM
theres more than 6 inches past the end of that stick... plus the fish is bent awkwardly and not laying flat, so add a few more inches on top of that...
not a world record tho, could have been in 54 i suppose... record is 41 or 42 pounds if i remember correctly...
Hmmmm.......I don't know. I realize it was "probably" officially weighed and all but that fish in the photo against the yardstick doesn't spell 36 lbs to me. End of stick to tail, maybe add 6" so your looking at, perhaps, a 42" fish?? That put's it in the mid-high 20's. Certainly nice but not 36lbs. Fish would need more girth IMO.
Then to, my vision is going to hell so maybe I'm just out of focus!
Thank God photography and fish reproductions have come a long way!
I thought the same thing by the photo but the mount is definitely huge even if it is smoked looking.
For reference, there is a few skin mounted (commercially caught) fish that were both 45", one was a bit bigger and weighed 40 and 41 pounds. They were heading to the same river that Chuck's fish was caught.
Sorta funny, I always see people holding fish and claiming 24+ inch girths and think seriously?
While I realize that steelhead are built like tubafors (literally 2 x 4 proportions), as the bucks get beyond 40 inches, they do start to slab up more like a big king salmon, but never quite to 3 x 5.
Being the chinook junky I am, my whole world revolves around 3 x 5 proportions. Anything with a 2 ft girth or better is gonna be at least in the 40" range (give or take) which means it's up in the 30+ class. That's chinook proportions.
24" girth on a steelhead is gonna be a little closer to 4ft long! Holy Moses that would be one BIG A$$ steel. Does that fish exist? Usually only in someone's dreams.
I agree a great grin on a great guy who has fished hard all his life for that fish.
That photo really captures a special moment. Greg has been fishing that area for over 30 years and has landed countless trophy steelhead. To see a genuine smile that big and that deep really speaks to a special experience. I can manage to crack one half that good after having been at it for as long as he has.
I think Danny is referencing the fish on display in the Smithers airport. Pretty impressive...all but the caught and killed in commercial net parts that is. Can't remember the dimensions, but something like 43" and 44" with live weight near 40lbs.
david white has the world record steelhead does he not? caught on a rod and reel? in the saltwater. it even won a "king salmon" derby because it was so big that the checker never thought that it was anything other than a king salmon. 42 pounds, 3 ounces, Bell Island by David White, 1970 it was missing one eye that was healed over. the fish was thought ot have a damaged pituatary gland that made it never go up into fresh water.
Dave, that slab looks like it could kick [Bleeeeep!] on a gator! Its head is bigger than a bear! I might have been nervous to step in the water with that slab swimming around!
I'm pretty sure David White's saltwater steelhead is still the official hook and line world record anadromous steelhead, though they do lump in rainbow trooots and steelhead together in the record book, so some middle 40's trout from Idaho is the world record I believe.
Fish on...
Todd
P.S. I've caught mid-20's fish as big as that 44 pounder...he must have been made of brass and lead.
david white has the world record steelhead does he not? caught on a rod and reel? in the saltwater. it even won a "king salmon" derby because it was so big that the checker never thought that it was anything other than a king salmon. 42 pounds, 3 ounces, Bell Island by David White, 1970 it was missing one eye that was healed over. the fish was thought ot have a damaged pituatary gland that made it never go up into fresh water.
I was aware of David White's oddity but I was referring to an "in-river" sport caught fish.
Too bad a fish has to die to get into the record books. I will say that it's hard to believe some of these C&Red records even if they are somehow confirmed.
I guess I just enjoy the guessing game and sometimes I just don't want to know. It seems to make for good conversation anyway.
Not the right shape to be a Taimen...and I doubt there are any taimen in Slovenia, anyway...taimen have very skinny back ends, and live in Mongolia and Siberia, which are a long way from Slovenia
dont know if Steelhead in Slovenia are the same as the ones we have here... should be tho... but heres a 66 pounder caught there..
Taimen
Originally Posted By: cobble cruiser
Originally Posted By: redhook
dont know if Steelhead in Slovenia are the same as the ones we have here... should be tho... but heres a 66 pounder caught there..
Taimen
Correct, as soon as I seen it it was a taimen. It's an oversized dolly if I remember correctly, well not literally a dolly but a char native to Mongolia and Russia. It's definitely on my list. 2/5 oz rvrfshr with 30 lb braid.
Amazingly beautiful river. Looked like a oversized bull trout with a catfish mouth. The angler apparently had a difficult time parting ways with his trophy.
On first seening the "Slovenia steelhead" my immediate thought was a huchen - in the few steelhead I have handled can not recall ever seeing one with out spots on its tail.
The huchen is found in the Daunbe drainage and is a closely related species to the Siberian taimen - some even think the two are just sub-species of the same fish. Both can get very large (over 100 pounds) though the largest taimen have exceeded 200 pounds.
tight lines curt
Posted by: Anonymous
Re: World Record Steelhead? - 02/23/1203:50 PM
learn something new every day...
i should have realized something was up with that page anyways... one of the world record brook trout is actually a spawning Dolly...
i read or heard from somewhere that the world record steelhead the 8yr old caught was abnormal.
there was a head injury to this steelhead. as in the injury numbed the part of brain that effected the spawn drive. this fish that was caught had never made a spawning run. the scale record showed it never went back to fresh water. it was basically a hybrid, explaining the large size. this steelhead could have reached the 50# mark if it was not caught.
Not a hybrid, but it had a head injury, and only one eye...the head injury damaged its pituitary gland, and it never sexually matured...it just stayed out in the salt eating and getting bigger.
Read the same thing. I'm kinda surprised nobody ever experimented with scientifically altering the pituitary gland, much like they do with triploids, in order to get more growth out of them? Yeah, it seems kinda kooky but then again, humans have done a lot of kooky things.
