Bragging Rights Photo Op

My best out off epsom trolled through a huge bait ball at 30ft with a cop car coyote and wham 23lb (in Box) slammed it, and after I got that in the boat followed the ball some more and wham the 19.5Lb slammed it next, 8 yrs ago now since we sold our family cabin in secret cove... :( Man I miss that place.
 

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I caught this one up in Haida Gwaii. Grinding Kelp off a place called Hog Pen. The day before I lost a fish that was even bigger. It jumped out of the water within 10' of the boat. I had buck fever and forgot how to play a fish, it was over before it began. That night I was beyond depressed & could not sleep. The next day the guide from Naden Lodge put me back on a monster at the same spot. 44 lbs
So that’s why you love Haida Gwaii! Makes sense. That’s a chunky fish!
 
bc outdoors.jpg Not big, but rewarding. I spent many hours searching around the local estuaries in an iffy tin boat to get some success. While looking for early September coho I tagged that little guy on very light gear and made B.C. Outdoors magazine for my efforts.

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A couple pics while I was working as Captain aboard and Fish Master at Charlotte Queen Adventures. The Halibut were caught 20 minutes apart at the same spot. If you notice , I caught mine on a meat stick and had it in the boat in about 15 minutes. That's one of our Chefs on the left in the pic and his was on a mooching rod with 30# test. It was an hour and a half of swearing on his part everytime it went back to the bottom. The salmon was caught guide rules as I was alone in the boat and netted it myself. While I guided into dozens of fish in the 40's and 4 in the 50's in my time there , this is my only fish ever in the 40's. It was an epic battle in big waves close the kelp and rocks that I would have given **** to any of our self guided guests for being there.
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So that’s why you love Haida Gwaii! Makes sense. That’s a chunky fish!


I have been lucky enough to catch 3 Tyee Salmon out of Haida Gwaii. All from the northern out of Masset.
 
Aug 2017 Pedder Bay 20 lb on the scale. Almost on my 1 yr anniversary of taking up this hobby and in the same spot I caught a 12lb that got me started. Now on my 2nd boat and a few bags of mola later.
 

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I will give this a go. I have two pictures and stories to tell. The first pic is from about ten years ago. Myself and another friend with a boat decided to take some guys without boats fishing. A total of six guys, two boats. We headed out the Alberni Inlet and for whatever reason stopped at Assits Island to give it a go. We hooked into a fish within the first 30 minutes and I let one of the other guys bring it in. It was a 9 lb. Coho. Great fight and nice fish. We stayed in the area as we marking a lot of fish. About an hour or so later, after getting a few bumps without result we hooked into another fish. The other passenger on my boat brought that in after about a 15 minute fight. It turned out to be a 24 lb. spring. Needless to say we were ecstatic. Unfortunately the crew in the other boat weren't enjoying the same results. We didn't much care. Sorry. We continued to troll and eventually got our third good hit. I took the rod this time and as the saying goes, " good things come to those that wait" or something like that. All 3 fish were caught on the same plug. When we caught sight of this fish for the first time none of us could believe what we saw. The net job was exceptional and we had our third fish in the boat. That was it for the day, nothing else landed by either boat. The scales at China Creek revealed the Spring to be 34.5 lbs. My first tyee. Unfortunately my computer hard drive crashed some time ago and I lost that picture. I did retrieve however a picture of the fish from a youtube slide show I had posted. Here it is.
 

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My second story is from French Creek My buddy and his Dad had just purchased a boat after moving to the Island from Alberta. I had taken them out fishing a few times to show them the ropes as downrigger fishing was new to them. They called me up one night to go fishing with them the next day. Unfortunately I had a morning commitment that I couldnt get away from. They decided to go anyway with the plan being for me to meet them when I could. Once I was free I gave them a call to see how they were doing. My buddy told me they had caught a big spring and that it was over 30 lbs. I said, okay, are you sure? Yep, pretty sure. I may or may not have sped up a bit on my way to French Creek. They met me at the dock and we headed out again, after showing me the fish they had caught. I was a bit excited after seeing the fish. We dropped the lines and shortly afterwards we had a hit. Nothing big, just a bump. I told the boys to get it. Nope, you get it. Okay then I will. I popped it off the rigger and started to reel. After about 15 seconds this thing took off. Fish on for sure. Got it to the boat and into the net it went. It was a near twin of the fish they had already caught. That was it for the day once again. No more bites. We headed in and there was a Creel Survey guy there. He nearly crapped his pants when he saw the pair. They weighed in at 37 and 35 lbs. Nice clean fish. The larger one is on the left being held by my buddy and the 35 is mine.
 

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My second story is from French Creek My buddy and his Dad had just purchased a boat after moving to the Island from Alberta. I had taken them out fishing a few times to show them the ropes as downrigger fishing was new to them. They called me up one night to go fishing with them the next day. Unfortunately I had a morning commitment that I couldnt get away from. They decided to go anyway with the plan being for me to meet them when I could. Once I was free I gave them a call to see how they were doing. My buddy told me they had caught a big spring and that it was over 30 lbs. I said, okay, are you sure? Yep, pretty sure. I may or may not have sped up a bit on my way to French Creek. They met me at the dock and we headed out again, after showing me the fish they had caught. I was a bit excited after seeing the fish. We dropped the lines and shortly afterwards we had a hit. Nothing big, just a bump. I told the boys to get it. Nope, you get it. Okay then I will. I popped it off the rigger and started to reel. After about 15 seconds this thing took off. Fish on for sure. Got it to the boat and into the net it went. It was a near twin of the fish they had already caught. That was it for the day once again. No more bites. We headed in and there was a Creel Survey guy there. He nearly crapped his pants when he saw the pair. They weighed in at 37 and 35 lbs. Nice clean fish. The larger one is on the left being held by my buddy and the 35 is mine.
Just unreal! Also, that pic in your first post is such a cool unique Chinook. Very dark stripe down the back.
 
Some very impressive catches in this thread!

At the risk of sounding preachy, I would encourage anyone who finds themselves with a fish the size of some of the ones posted here to consider releasing it, so it can have a chance to spawn and propagate future generations of fish of similar size. Keep the big ones in the gene pool! With that said, you are of course well within your rights to bonk any legal-sized fish you land legally, and I understand that releasing a fish doesnt guarantee it makes it to the spawning grounds, but it does at least give it a chance.

In my experience, a 15-25 lber yields better quality meat than most larger fish anyways, though to be fair Ive never eaten a 50 lb salmon.
 
Some very impressive catches in this thread!

At the risk of sounding preachy, I would encourage anyone who finds themselves with a fish the size of some of the ones posted here to consider releasing it, so it can have a chance to spawn and propagate future generations of fish of similar size. Keep the big ones in the gene pool! With that said, you are of course well within your rights to bonk any legal-sized fish you land legally, and I understand that releasing a fish doesnt guarantee it makes it to the spawning grounds, but it does at least give it a chance.

In my experience, a 15-25 lber yields better quality meat than most larger fish anyways, though to be fair Ive never eaten a 50 lb salmon.

I value you opinion and feelings but I would recommend starting another thread about your conservation feelings in another different post. Would be happy to discuss my views. This thread was to post up pictures. Just don’t need this thread getting derailed.

By the way a 50# fish’s meat quality is the same as a #20 fish. :D
 
A few fish from the Central coast caught on herring.
50# and 60#
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Couple more at 54# and 56#
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A few fish from the Central coast caught on herring.
50# and 60#
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Couple more at 54# and 56#
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Wow! you know you’ve got a special day when a 50+ pounder doesn’t win the derby. That’s a rediculous 4 fish total of well over 200lb. Thanks for showing us those.
 
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