My Heaviest Salmon Yet - 32 Inches, 16 lbs

I caught my heaviest King Salmon to date today: 16 lbs, 32 inches!  Caught at Racine Harbor, Racine, Wisconsin at 5:17 AM.  My longest fish to date was my very first salmon caught in 2012 at Kenosha Harbor... a 34 inch female, but only 14 lbs.

I had been fishing perhaps 15 mins when I got the hit. This thing was peeling drag like crazy!  Two years ago, I had a fish do the same thing but to slow him down, I tighten the drag.  After nearly spooling me, the tight drag proved too much and the fish broke off and snapped the line!

I was't going to let that happen this time, so I loosened the drag enough to give him some tension, but not so much so that if he shook too much that it would break the line.  It worked.  After what seemed like a 5 minute fight, the fish started coming in as I reeled in.  But as I got it closer to the edge of the wall, the fish tried to head out again!  It went right and then left and back to the right again.  As my friends and I waited to net it, we saw two other fish near the wall!  We could not just net those of course as that is illegal, but I'm sure we all thought about that!

Eventually, the fish went left again and tired enough for my friend Jim to net him... a 16 lb, 32 inch male King Salmon!

Click here to see a video of the fish being netted.

Click here to see a video of the fish being measured.

Thanks to my friend Gayle for taking photos and video of the fish and to my friend Jim for netting the fish for me and taking a video of me gutting it!

Click here to see the video of the fish being gutted!

I gutted the fish before bringing it home but filleted and skinned it at home.  Rather than just tossing all the skeleton and fish head away, I decided to clean it and cook it on the Weber gas grill.  Really, there was perhaps enough meat still left on the bones to feed two people easily.  Usually, I grind the bones down the disposal at the fish cleaning station in Racine before coming home, but after seeing how much meat really is left on the bones and on the head (I ate the cheeks only... couldn't get myself to eat the head), I think going forward, I will clean and fillet and skin the fish at the harbor but bring back the fillets and also the skeleton and just the cheeks from the head rather than tossing those out!  I'll toss the rest of the head though.

My wife cooked up the salmon with the tomatoes grown in our backyard and I grilled up the bones with Old Bay Seasoning.  Both tasted just fine!  I froze the rest of the fillet portions.