Is this about the upper limit on size for springer's anyone has seen? Biggest chromer I've seen in a long time. My fishing bud picked one up on sat. that scaled-out @ this #. Gamie that looked at it said it was a 5 year fish, is that a 5-salt or a 5 year fresh/salt lifetime....

Hate to argue with one of the States "brightest", but how the hell does he know without taking a scale sample. It could just as well be a 3 or 4 year fish, depending on ocean currents, food availability, etc.
I caught a 52lb Chinook once in a small river that they did take a scale off of, and it was only a 4 yr fish. Biologist said it had plenty to eat not far from home.... Thus the big size.
Is it any wonder that some refer to these fisheries guys as "Educated Idiots"? I stopped wondering long ago how so many highly educated people in F&G have yet to turn the runs around..... Hmmmmmmm...

MC

MC there are always exceptions, a fish that size could be a very large 3 year old, a large to average 4 year old or an average to small 5 year old. In most cases it would be a 4 year fish, but not always.

I caught a 46 pound springer about 10 years ago out fishing the op. So I would say not but a nice fish.

A 35 lb spring chinook is awesome!!

But without taking a scale...Hard to say.

But still any springer over 30 is an exceptional fish!

I hear ya Kore, not quite in the same class as a 30 lb. steelhead but damm impressive! So, I'm taking it as a 3-5 salt fish depending on its growth rate at sea. I'll try to post some pix's with some smaller fish along for scale. The shots were not on a digital camera so I'll have to get the prints and scan them & post, might take a while....

Couple things about the age of springers. First, they usually migrate to the ocean at 1 1/2 years old, like steelhead and coho smolts and unlike fall chinook, which usually migrate the same year they are born, at 1/2 year old. So springers spend one year less feeding in the ocean. They also stop feeding and return early in the spring, so they miss their final adult season of summer feeding - and summer is when the days are long and the ocean is at it's most productive. So a 5 year old spring chinook only got to spend 3 summers in the ocean, and would be equivalent in size to a well fed 3 year old fall chinook or a puny 4 year old. 35 pounds is about as big as I've ever seen in person, is a damn nice springer, and likely is a 5 year old - the last one I saw that was in this class was 33 lbs, and was a 5 year old for sure as I did read the scale (used to do this for a living). So perhaps by some miracle that professional biologist might have been right, and you armchair bioligists who were bashing him just might have been wrong, as you seem to be confusing spring chinook life history with fall chinook life history. Just an observation