A beginner angler snagged a monster 83.3-pound(38 kg) salmon off B.C.’s central coast – and then released it back into the ocean.
Deborah Whitman-Perry of Newmarket, Ont. caught the Chinook salmon on Aug. 19 while on a guided fishing trip at Rivers Inlet with the Good Hope Cannery resort, reported Outdoor Canada.
It took an hour before she and her guide could reel in the big fish. It’s apparently the largest Chinook caught for sport in the inlet in the last decade, said the magazine’s website.
Good Hope vice-president George Cuthbert told the Vancouver Sun the resort "supports catch-and-release fishing but does not make it mandatory for guests."
"I’d say it has a 100-per-cent chance of survival and making it up for spawning," he told the newspaper.
That same day, a 72-pound salmon was also caught and released, reported the Seattle Times.
According to the Florida-based International Game Fish Association, the Rivers Inlet Chinook is “the largest caught by rod and reel in a quarter century and the third largest ever,” reported the Sun.
The other two big fish on record were a Chinook that was reeled in at 97.4 pounds (44 kg) from Alaska’s Kenai River n 1985 and another Chinook at 85.8 pounds (39 kg) in 1987 near Hakai Passage in B.C.
Also on HuffPost
