9 Year Old May Have Tournament Winner

I was out getting coffee this morning and what should I see, but a 9 year old kid with a huge (34.64 pound) Chinook Salmon on the cover of the Toronto Sun! The fish was caught on his recently deceased grandfather’s lucky blue lure, which he says he will be retiring as it has already done it’s job of catching the biggest fish.

Not only that but this young man he could take home every prize in the tournament including a boat, motor, trailer, and a brand new truck to tow it all with. Granted he’s going to have to wait a few years to drive it, I’m sure his father is the happiest man alive. Not only does he get all this cool stuff, but in exchange for it he’ll probably have to take his kid fishing every weekend, in their new boat!

Tournament chairman Walter Oster tells me if by 8 p.m. none of the weigh-in stations have a bigger fish, then not only will the Terry Fox Public School student win this week’s competition and a boat, motor and trailer, but will also be the leading fish in the derby, putting him in contention for a $40,000 Toyota Tacoma pickup to be handed over Aug. 29.

“Nine-year-old Zane Patrick would be the youngest person to win the grand prize in the history of the Great Ontario Salmon Derby,” said Oster, who says winnings for those under 18 are held in trust. “His closest rival was 11-year-old Bianca Dattomo who came in second (in a weekly competition) last year and took home $2,000 cash.”

Zane said his arms hurt for “an hour” after but he found inspiration from his grandfather Ross, who died Aug. 30, 2007, of leukemia.

via Toronto Sun

You may also recall that Fishing Fury has been in the Toronto Sun before as well, though we didn’t make the cover..

The Salmon Run Chi-Town’s East Side

The Chinook Salmon make their 20th annual return to their spawning grounds. These waters are now fed by a sewage treatment plant, but the story behind it all might surprise you…

In the 1980s the wastewater treatment plant went online, plant operations manager Peter spotted Chinook Salmon jumping over a break wall at the plant like you see them shooting up mountain streams in the pacific northwest. If their destination doesn’t seem hazardous enough, in order to make their migration from Lake Michigan they must travel through shipping canals that bisect oil and steel factories, a 700 foot stream that starts at the outflow pipe, and shooting up a 200 foot high drain pipe that churns out more than 15 million gallons of water a day.

Once in side the plant, they laid eggs, which hatched into fingerling that feed on microscopic daphnia – another creature known for dying off quickly when exposed to toxins – then grow and eventually leave the plant for Lake Michigan only to return years later to this very spot where they will spawn a new generation of Chinook.

Baranyai, who started out shoveling sludge as a laborer more than 30 years ago, said watching the annual circle of life unfold in the unlikely environment has made him into a naturalist.

Read more on the Chicago Chinook at CBS 2 Chicago.

Monstrous Chinook Discovered in Battle Creek

A salmon over 50 pounds is considered to be huge, but an 80+ pound salmon is simply monstrous! Hopefully this old salmon had plenty of opportunities to pass on its incredible genetic traits before it died.

“I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career, and this is the biggest I have ever seen,” Killam said. “When alive, it could have weighed more than the largest Chinook officially recorded in California, an 88-pound fish caught in the Sacramento River.”

It’s not a world record salmon, but it was an incredible fish!
via LA Times

Super Granny!

The coolest granny in the world? Maybe. The greatest fishing granny in the world? Definitely.

via badcontrol.com

World Record Salmon

The current world record salmon is 97 pounds 4 ounces, caught in 1985 by Les Anderson in the Kenai River, Alaska.

via Tower Rock Lodge

More huge salmon over 80 pounds.

Potential world record salmon caught and released.