88 pound King Salmon

Web posted Wednesday, July 4, 2007

King for a day
Angler lands 88-pound salmon

WILL MORROW
Peninsula Clarion






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Photo by Will Morrow Pete Baldwin of Scottsdale, Ariz., holds up the trophy Kenai River king salmon, estimated at 88 pounds, he caught while fishing with guide Joe Dilley of Joe's Guide Service. The fish measured 56 inches in length and 32 inches in girth.
Photo by Will Morrow

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pete Baldwin has a lot of experience fishing and hunting, but Tuesday's king salmon trip on the Kenai River is one he'll remember for the rest of his life.

"I had just put my line in the water and sat down," said Baldwin, 38, of Scottsdale, Ariz. "I looked at my rod, and the tip was already in the water. I pulled it out of the holder and set the hook, and I knew I had something huge."

Baldwin said it took about 20 minutes to get the fish to the boat ? where he realized just how big the salmon was.

"We didn't see it until we could get it up close to the boat," Baldwin said.

The king turned out to be a beauty ? bright silver, 56 inches long and 32 inches in girth. Guide Joe Dilley, of Joe's Guide Service, estimated the weight to be 88 pounds based on guidelines from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Dilley said the fish would be taken to the Fish and Game offices to be sealed ? a procedure required for Kenai River kings 55 inches or longer.

Baldwin was fishing with his father, Dennis, and several other friends and their fathers. Dennis Baldwin said his son bought the trip as a Father's Day present, and it was his just reward to catch such a nice fish.

"This is his first trip to Alaska. He's turned down several trips because he's a workaholic," Pete said.

Pete said his father taught him to fish for rainbow and cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden in Montana's backcountry while he was growing up there.

"But I never taught him to catch the biggest fish," Dennis said.

Dennis did catch the first fish of the day, around 8 a.m. Pete said they started fishing at 6:01 a.m., and was just getting ready to pour a second cup of coffee following his dad's catch when his rod tip doubled over, around 8:40 a.m.

The fish made several runs up and downstream, and at one point swam under the boat. Even at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Pete said the king wore him out.

"I was completely out of breath," Pete said of the fight. "Afterward, it was a complete adrenaline rush. ... We were shaking for about 45 minutes afterward."

Dennis caught the battle on videotape ? and did his best to stay out of the way.

"It was pandemonium on the boat," Pete said.

Pete said he plans to have his trophy king mounted and will hang it in his log home in Flagstaff.

The Baldwins started their Alaska adventure with a fly-out trip to Wolverine Creek on the west side of Cook Inlet and some fishing on the upper Kenai River. They'll spend another day fishing for kings on the lower river before heading to Seward to try their luck in saltwater.

"It's a heck of a trip he bought me," Dennis said.

Dilley said he was walking on water after a great day fishing.

"Every fish that comes in is awesome," said Dilley. "I love it. I was ecstatic myself. Every one is like the first."

Any Kenai River king salmon 55 inches or longer must be sealed by Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff within three days of harvest. Fish and Game offices are located at 43961 Kalifornsky Beach Road in Soldotna.

When sealing a fish, Fish and Game staff typically measure weight and girth, as well as the distance from the fish's eye to the fork in its tail. Samples of the fish's scales are used to determine the time the fish has spent in freshwater and saltwater, and Fish and Game records the fish's color. A genetic sample also is taken, and the fish is given a seal number

The king salmon record is 97 pounds, 4 ounces, caught by Les Anderson in 1985. On the Kenai River, king salmon bigger than 75 pounds are considered trophy-sized.

now thats a fish! oakey

It was a real fish story, in todays paper after they took it in for sealing, the F&G weighed it at 59 lbs.It still is a nice fish, especially this year as the fishing has been very slow. Maybe next week, some of the old guides say its the worse they have ever seen.

Bigmoosie, I didn't think that fish was that big, but I just figured the guy was big too. Thanks for the update. I hope the fishing picks up too.

Steve

Web posted Sunday, July 8, 2007

Tale of the tape
King salmon not as heavy as estimated

JOSEPH ROBERTIA
Peninsula Clarion




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Kenai River guide Joe Dilley holds up a king salmon caught by Pete Baldwin, left, of Scottsdale, Ariz., on Tuesday. Initially estimated at more than 80 pounds, the fish weighed in at 59.94 pounds on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's certified scales.
Photo by Will Morrow

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From time to time some fishermen embellish tales of lunkers they have landed, but 29 pounds over the actual weight is more than a little discrepancy.

Yet, that's how far off a king salmon estimated to weigh 88 pounds ? and featured in last Wednesday's Clarion ? ended up being when brought to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to be sealed.

"On our certified scale it ended up weighing 59.94 pounds," said Tony Eskelin, a fisheries biologist at Fish and Game.

But was it a intentional whopper about a whopper or just an honest mistake? According to Joe Dilley of Soldotna ? the guide for Pete Baldwin of Scottsdale, Ariz., the fisherman who caught the now controversial king ? it was a case of the latter.

Dilley said the fish's fouled figure of 88 pounds may have been an error in attention to detail, rather than deliberate massaging of mathematics.

"I didn't personally have a chart with me, so I gave the measurements to a buddy on the water next to me, and he shouted back 88 pounds so that's what I went with," Dilley said, referring to the "How to Gauge Weight of Fish" chart in the back of most tide table booklets for Cook Inlet and Southcentral Alaska.

The way the chart works is the fish is measured from the tip of the nose to the fork of the tail to determine length, then measured around in front of the dorsal fin to determine the girth.

The girth measurement is squared, then multiplied by the length, then divided by 800 to determine the fish's estimated weight.

Dilley said Baldwin's king measured roughly 57 inches long and 33 inches in girth fresh out of the water, and 56 inches by 32 inches back on shore 6 1/2 hours later.

These latter figures would equate to a fish weighing 71.68 pounds on the weight chart for salmon ? more than the actual weight of 59 pounds, but also still under the estimated 88 pounds.

However, Dilley said that Kenai River guides sometimes use an equation of a fish's girth squared, multiplied by it's length, divided by 740 instead of 800. This would have yielded an estimated weight ? based on the out of the water measurements ? of 83.88 pounds, which Dilley said with several hours of drying and blood loss factored in could also have produced the discrepancy.

"I still stand by my original measurements, but I measured it five different times throughout the day and it got smaller on each one. Six hours of sitting in the fish box, losing blood, it definitely lost some size and weight," he said.

Another possibility is on the next page from the salmon weight chart of the tide booklet is the halibut length weight chart, and according to it's equation a fish with a length of 56 inches would weigh roughly 88 pounds, and according to Dilley this may also have been where an error occurred.

"I'm not sure what happened. I just know I'm not a liar," he said.

According to measurements taken at Fish and Game when the fish was brought in to be sealed, it did not meet the 55 inches or longer sealing requirement.

"By our measurements it was 53.5 inches in length and had a 30-inch girth," Eskelin said.

Anglers bringing in kings to be sealed, only to find out their fish is smaller than they thought, is quite common, according to Eskelin.

"I'd say half of the fish brought to us aren't 55 inches," he said.

In general, Eskelin added, less than 10 kings a year actually end up being 55 inches or longer, and while Baldwin's wasn't a trophy king, it was still the biggest fish he has seen brought in this year.

"It was still a nice Kenai king," he said.

Baldwin, was in another part of the state fishing and could not be reached for comment, but Dilley said his client wasn't disappointed to learn his king wasn't as heavy as everyone first thought.

"He was still thrilled and he should be. It was still a hell of a fish ? big, beautiful and awesome," Dilley said.

Joseph

good post eel. all in all still a big fish in my book. oakey