by JD on January 24, 2009
Well kiddies, it’s that time of year again…time to kick off the 2009 Smoker of the Year Contest!!
Congrats to Salmonzilla for taking the title in 2008 and we look forward to your entries in what promises to be our biggest and best Smoker of the Year Contest yet.
Though all the details have yet to be hashed out, we are in negotiations with several companies that are interested in providing sponsorship for the ’09 campaign and it looks like we’ll have some sweet prizes this year. So, be sure to send us pics of the darkest, uglies fish you catch this season!
In the meantime, here’s the first 2009 Smoker of the Year entry…
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by JD on January 11, 2009
In runaway fashion, Salmonzilla has been voted by you the people as the 2008 Smoker of the Year Champion! It wasn’t even close…Salmonzilla received 70.4 percent of the vote, easily kicking his two rivals (who each earned 14.8 percent of the vote) to the curb.
Thanks to Department of Fish & Game biologist Doug Killam for actually picking this big guy up for a photo and also to biologist Matt Johnson, who originally broke the story to us.
We’ll be announcing the details of our 2009 Smoker of the Year Contest in the upcoming weeks, so keep taking pictures of those dark nasty fish you’re catching out there. You know the ones…
Until then, let’s give a big round of applause to our 2008 Smoker of the Year Champ!
Okay, the votes have been cast and here are your 2008 Smoker of the Year finalists! Vote for your favorite below…
by JD on December 30, 2008
Okay kiddies, it’s that time of year again…Time to Vote for your favorite Smoker of the Year! I’m not sure if it was the salmon closures on the West Coast this year or what, but it’s been a pretty lackluster Smoker season (former champ, Harrison Ibach didn’t even get in the game!). I’ll expect you guys to do better in 2009…and we may just have some legit prizes next season, too!
The Polls are Open!
So, here’s a list of this year’s entries…scross down through them all and click the “Leave a comment” button to vote. And now, here are your 2008 Smoker of the Year Contest entries…
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by JD on November 29, 2008
Well kiddies, the 2008 Smoker of the Year Contest has just over a month left and James B. Hinton may just be in the driver’s seat with this photo of his pal Wes, pictured here with a long-lost relative, may have just propelled himself into first place with this darkie from the Sacramento River.
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by JD on November 1, 2008
This mammoth, record-class king salmon was found dead on Oct. 30 in Battle Creek, a major tributary to Northern California’s Sacramento River by a crew of biologists surveying the creek for spawners.
“The length of this giant was 1290 mm (50.7 inches!) and I can’t remember the massive girth, but a weight calculator gave an estimate of 85 pounds!” says Matt Johnson, of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, who sent to photo in to be entered in our Smoker of the Year Contest. “Some lucky dog might have broken the state record had there been a season this year!”
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Mr. Iluv Cheeseheads sent in this chrome beauty of a king to be entered into ourSmoker of the Year Contest.
Mr. Cheeseheads said that the fish fought, well, kinda like an old gym sock but…being a huge fan of salmon jerky, he was really excited about the fact that the fish was ready to eat as soon as he got it ashore.
The fish bit an egg pattern Mr. Cheeseheads calls the “Skunge Scraper,” which he says is murder on kelts, sore tails and cheese heads.
A fellow named, um, The Una-Basser (he wouldn’t provide his name), sent in this photo of himself to be entered into our 2008 Smoker of the Year Contest.
U.B. says that he lives in California and, with all the salmon closures this year, he won’t be able to inhabit his favorite perch at the infamous “Wall” in the Nimbus Basin on the American River, where he had been a fixture — and 20-foot leader and bead flossing specialist — for the past decade.
“No Wall means no black beauty kings to submit this year,” he says. “So, I thought I’d enter this wretched, sorry excuse for a fish…though in all honesty, I’d probably never soil the grates of my smoker with one of these things. There’s not enough brine in the world to make one taste good!”
