by JD on February 2, 2012
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
Well, sometimes you just need a little fish porn. And man, what a week it’s been for that! I probably should have saved this fish for last because it dwarfs the 20 pounders below, but holy giant rainbow trout, Batman…that is one amazing specimen is it not?
All I know about this leviathan is that it was caught on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula last weekend and measured 44 inches by 24 inches, which using the steelhead weight formula, comes out at 32 freaking pounds! WOW!!!!! My jaw just hit the floor!
And, just for kicks, here are a couple other 20 plus pounders…
This one was taken by Paul LeFebvre of Brookings, OR. He caught and released the fish Feb. 1 on the Chetco River while fishing with guide Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. The steelhead hit a cluster of roe and took a half hour to subdue!
Twenty plus pounds of Perfection!
Our pal Greg McElroy sent in this pic of Tim Obert who fished just south of the Chetco, on California’s Smith River with Mad River Eggs for this low 20′s buck.
Damn, raise your hand if you work day just got totally screwed…
by JD on January 28, 2012
Could this be the next world record for yellowfin?
This 90×62-inch yellowfin tuna was taken taken by Ron Tegland out of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and weighed nearly 30 pounds more than the current world record! We’ll have to see what develops with this story in the near future. Regardless of the outcome, that is one massive tuna!!
Read the whole story at my former longtime employers and good friends:
WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWSby JD on January 18, 2012
Welcome to the 20-pound club! Guide Tony Sepulveda (L) and John Sellers
It’s time to welcome the 20-Pound Steelhead Club’s newest member, John Sellers of Fortuna, CA, who fished on Tuesday with guide Tony Sepulveda of
Greenwater Guide Service on a very low and clear Chetco River in Orgeon for this bruiser buck.
Let’s let Tony tell the rest of the story…
“John hooked the fish drifting roe and a Fish Pill along a shallow break,” he says. “When he swung on the bite, it erupted in 18″ of water and went burning off the flat with it’s back out of the water like a spooked bonefish!”
Congratulations are in order for John…fish like that don’t come every day. And to that end, he thoughtfully opted to release it, despite the ridiculous regulation in Oregon that allows for the retention of wild steelhead.
“John’s a relative newcomer to steelhead fishing, catching his first on the Eel with me last winter,” says Tony. “With his big fish resting in the net, we talked about the importance of keeping those genetics in the gene pool. John was immediately on board. We took a few pictures and sent him on his way. We ended the day by 1:00 pm with 6 landed out of 10 hooked, a 20 pounder and a double hookup. Not a bad day!”
by JD on December 16, 2011
What a 5-gallon bucket with fins looks like...
The weather’s been a bit crazy back at Lake Falcon, on the Texas-Mexico border, but that hasn’t stopped our pal and intergalactic basin’ superstar
Big Fred Contaoi from catching a mess o’ bass…including this 14-pouund toad that’s just shy of the lake record!
Contaoi hooked the thing in the trees on an 11-inch plastic worm and said it fought really well…it ripped line and even tried to get its obese body airborne. To see his record setting bass from Percy Priest Lake in Nashville, TN, click
HEREby JD on November 22, 2011
Oregon’s Chetco River has a good reputation for producing jumbo king salmon but that still couldn’t have prepared Wayne Smith of Yreka for what was about to happen on Nov. 19 when this massive 65-pound Chinook engulfed his back-trolled T55 Hawg Nose FlatFish.
Wayne Smith and Andy Martin pose with Salmonzilla
After what must have been some very nervous moments, guide Andy Martin of
Wild Rivers Fishing slipped the Beckman under the beast, which according to Martin, is the largest salmon of the year on the Oregon Coast (duh!) and one of the largest ever from the Chetco River.
All I can say is WOW!!
by JD on October 21, 2011
Wow!
Barbecue at Justin Barry’s house! While fishing Monterey Bay with Kevin Seeger last week, Barry hoked and landed this 79-pound, 4-ounce white sea bass near Pajaro, which should be the next California State Record for the species.
Barry’s catch was weighed on a certified scale and bested the current mark, a 78 pounder caught by David Sternberg in Monterey in 2002.The paperwork is already in to the Department of Fish and Game and Barry should be in the record books soon!
by JD on September 24, 2011
IGFA Photo
Though alligator gar get to be the size of submarines, this 62-pound, 8 ouncer looks to be the largest ever taken on 16-pound test tippet and a fly rod and is a pending
IGFA line class record.
Martin Arostegui of Coral Gables, FL, who has compiled more world records than anyone else in IGFA history, caught the big fish on Texas’ Lake Livingston on August 22, 2011 while working with Captain Kirk Kirkland.
Thirty minutes after the fish struck his custom fly, Arostegui was able to land, weigh and release the fish alive. With this catch, he kicked the living stuffing out of the current IGFA record, which is 24 pounds, 13 ounces!
This monster came from the waters off Gustavus, Alaska (near Glacier Bay) and was 95 inches long and weighed 482.5 pounds! Read more at 
