By CJ Lotz

Millions of chinook salmon are produced every year in California's hatcheries, but many don't return in the fall once they are released into the wild to grow and spawn. Commercial fishermen and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife have teamed up to find out exactly why and to hopefully strengthen the population of fall-run salmon.

The goal is to find more effective ways to release the fish in the hopes that the salmon will return to the state's prime breeding grounds. One idea is to transport fish in tanks filled with river water so the fish will have time to get used to its chemical makeup, since salmon return to streams where they are born to spawn.

By CJ Lotz

Fourteen years ago, Tim Cosens caught a giant carp in Kent, England. At the time, the fish weighed in at 26 pounds. He distinctly remembers a bald spot marking on its side.

A few days ago, Cosens was fishing the same spot. He felt a tug on his line and reeled in a huge fish after a 40 minute fight. When he finally got it in his net, he was surprised to see a familiar bald spot on the side. It was the same carp.

By Chad Love

An Arizona man with one of the coolest nicknames (and personalized license plates) around just hauled in the largest fish ever recorded in the state of Arizona. Appropriately enough for a guy nicknamed "Flathead Ed", the fish was a massive 76-pound flathead.

From this story on azcentral.com:
A Surprise man broke a 25-year-old state record Friday, after he reeled in the biggest fish on record during an overnight outing on Bartlett Lake. Eddie Wilcoxson, or “Flathead Ed” as he’s known to friends, was asleep on his boat at about 2 a.m., when a flathead catfish started pulling on his line, Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a news release.

By Chad Love

A Michigan state-record muskie caught last October has now been certified as a world record, reports cbslocal.com:
Joseph Seeberger of Portage landed the fish Oct. 13 on Lake Bellaire, about 25 miles northeast of Traverse City. The muskie weighed 58 pounds, was 58 or 59 inches long and had a girth of 29 inches. The DNR earlier said that the fish had the state record based on weight. Seeberger said he’d been fishing for small-mouth bass with friends when he wasn’t haven’t much luck. He switched to live bait — and that’s when it happened. “About two minutes later I had the fish on,” Seeberger told WWJ Newsradio 950′s John Hewitt.