Fish Tales

I swear - I really caught that fish. Monday the in-laws setup a fishing trip in the Rogue River. Randy was our guide on the river and setup all of the fishing logistics for us. After sitting around in the boat for most of the morning, my fishing line caught onto something.....

It was a 15 minute struggle of me reeling in, then the fish taking more line, then me reeling in... it seemed like an exercise in futility at some point as we were fighting over the same 2 feet of fishing line over and over. Finally, I got the damned fish to the surface of the water and HOLY CRAP we all almost shit our pants when we caught sight of this monster. My arms still hurt from this experience and it's been 3 days.

Once we finally netted the fish and got it to shore to measure, we realized that it was freaking HUGE. We also noticed that it was a "native" salmon and therefore we had to throw it back. If the fin was clipped, it would indicate that it was a hatchery bred salmon and approved for human plunder. With recent decline in wild salmon, there are efforts to ban fishing in certain regions in hopes of increasing the spawning for future fishing seasons.

So here are my fish's stats...
45" long
26.5" girth
42 pounds (approx based on length/girth fish formula)