Would you live release a potential world-record salmon? A BC couple did, and C&R of big salmon is becoming more common

Welcome to Hunting & Fishing BC, my podcast about fishing, hunting and other wild pursuits in British Columbia and western Canada. I’m Robert Koopmans. I’ve hunted and fished in BC for more than 30 years, and come to love everything about this province and all it has to offer.

This year, I’ve teamed up with Randy Nelson, a retired fisheries officer and a skilled hunter with a lot of wisdom and experience to share. We’re going to chat through the coming months about a wide range of topics related to wildlife, hunting and fishing.

If there’s a specific topic you’re interested in, let us know, we’ll see what we can do. If nothing else, send us an email letting us know how we’re doing. Reach us at [email protected] … 

Today’s episode is the story of what could have been a new world-record chinook salmon, caught by a BC couple in 2019. It was a monstrous fish estimated to weigh approximately 106 pounds. I say estimated because these anglers released the fish alive instead of killing it, and without a carcass to officially weigh, the current official world record of 97 pound four ounces set in May 1985 remained unchallenged.

Randy spoke to the woman who caught this chinook and while she was happy to share the details of the catch with hm, she didn’t want to chat with us live. Instead, we reached out to James McGregor at Advanced Taxidermy, who was the taxidermist who made a replica of this monster salmon. He shared his perspective about this salmon as well as about catch-and-release fishing, which he agrees is a growing trend.

Lastly, we talked to Ted Walkus, the maager of the Good Hope Cannery Eco-Tourism Lodge in Rivers Inlet in BC. His lodge is heavily involved In efforts to promote and support catch-and-release of big chinook salmon. Ted hopes that catch-and-release for chinook will spread across the BC coast.

But first, Randy and I chatted at length about catch-and-release and was it means to fishing … And just a quick note, this episode was recorded mostly in the spring, which is why you’ll hear us chatting about early season fishing in July… It took a bit of time to get all the bits and pieces for this one together …

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Thanks for listening to this week’s episode. If you want to share a thought, send us an email at [email protected] …  I’m Robert Koopmans, thanks again, and we’ll catch you next time.

 Links:

James Anderson Advanced Taxidermy — https://www.advancedtaxidermy.com

Ted Walkus Good Hope Cannery Eco-Tourism Lodge — https://goodhopecannery.com

BCWF membership page — https://bcwf.bc.ca/membership/