Warning!!!! If viewing a dead steelhead offends you, ignore this post and hit your back button.

However, if you want to see a 30 pound (45in.) steelhead that came off the Quinault last week, check this pic out! http://www.geocities.com/lettyrene/

Impressive. Since I've yet to land a thirty, I'm entitled to ask a stupid question. F&H news did a special series last year on guides that have landed thirty plussers. I was wondering if you make any tackle modifications to target the huge natives on the lower river?

[This message has been edited by Hohwaiian (edited 03-28-2000).]

WOW!!!! NICE FISH!!


That is one time catch. few people will ever see a steelhead that big much less catch one.

dcrzfitter

If you want to see a bigger one. http://www.streamside.com/club/images/photos/steeley1.jpg

Swami... That kills me... thats the crap picture from the H&F news last year. The photo is from the clearwater river in Idaho and its a salmon... Duh!!!! In fact, that whole news paper is crap.. Its always funny to read their headliners ( Boise boys bop big bunnies at bogus basin !!!) ( testy trout taste terrific) etc etc etc...

If you want to see a bigger one, look at the first page on the Kispiox river in B.C in Fly fishing for steelhead by Trey Combs... That fish is a true hog.

B-Run good call. Looks like a king to me.

Letty
Very nice fish! I do have a couple of questions though. Was it weighed on a official state certified scale? If it was... what was the exact measurements around girth and length. And the exact weight on the scale. Compiling stats for those that want to release the big ones. Thanks

------------------
Marty
www.steelheader.net
marty@steelheader.net

Potter, I don't doubt that the fish is 45" long, but it just doesn't look thick enough to be 30lbs. I tailed a 40" fish last week on the Hoh and it had to be in the upper 20's. It was much thicker than the fish in your picture. It was bigger that the fish on the cover of advanced fly fishing for steelhead and that was in the mid 20's. Once you get over 40" the girth is where the critical measurement is.

Sorry, no girth measurment taken. It was weighed twice at the fish house scale which is a digital scale and weighs to the nearest pound. It could be 29.9oz to 30.7oz. Two 27 pounders also came off the Quinault that week!

Spike, pictures rarely do big fish justice, been my experience anyway.

Amen, AKKings. I've caught several 20-30lb fish that come out in the pics looking like low teeners and even smaller!

Bruce

BRUN,

What kind of salmon? Just curious.....

Hey-
I'm not B-Run but I can gaurentee you that that is a chinook. The coloration is totally bass-akwards to be a steelhead, there are not enough spots, and the head is shaped wrong (notice the small beady eyes). Too bad that you can't see the tail as that is the easiest way to identify them as a chinook has a slightly forked tail unlike the ol' square tailed steely. Hope this helps.

------------------
"Walk softly, but carry a big steelhead"

Correct, its a king. That fish was a freak. They caught it pulling plugs in the clearwater river. It had to be lost is the best guess. So then the FISHING AND HUNTING news runs a article about it being a potential world record steelhead??? Those guys have have their heads in their ass. So they go on to describe all the things that made them pretty sure it was a steelhead.

Kinda like the story you hear every year about a guy who shot a moose and claimed it was an elk.. or a horse or a cow or whatever.

I believe this fish is a Steelhead, because of the spots. Another reason is I have a friend that lives over by the Clearwater and he told me the hatchery received two fish over 40lb's this year,the biggest they have ever seen. I wish I could see the tail, it would answer my doubt. Just my opinion.

Swami, What are those hatchery guys smoking over there, 40lb. hatchery steelhead, come on.

I agree, I don't believe everthing I hear or read. It seem's crazy to me too.

You know, looking at what little gumline is visible in the pic, it doesn't look black to me, it appears to be white. Now, it may be big and funny-colored, but if that's a white gumline, it ain't no king. And the spots don't look big enouhg to be a king either. Not that I really have any idea about this fish in particular, but the 42 lb. steelhead pictured in STS a couple months ago looks alot like a king, too.

Sure is a big bastard, though. But that fish fell out of the ugly tree and hit EVERY friggin' branch on the way down.


Fish on..........

Hailing grom the "East Side", we get a good look at fish like this (unfortunately) and it is definately a king in my opinion (fall dragon or upriver dark). I've caught many a dark steelhead with black or red on the side but this fish has typical chinook long-run river spawning colors to it. To bad they killed it, the meat was probably white as a sheet (from experience). The quinalt steelhead is a fantastic fish, just hope that "crowbar" can put us into some fish half that size next weekend. snit

sorry swami and dan s. but that isn't a steelhead the coloration is all wrong,it's a male king,as far as the gum line look at the lower jaw the gum line's black!!!!

FISH ON!!!