Alaska’s Pink Salmon Record Shattered Twice in Two Days
Last week, the Alaska state record for sport-caught pink salmon (or humpy) was shattered—two days in a row, Alaska Dispatch...
Alaska’s Pink Salmon Record Shattered Twice in Two Days on Kenai River
Last week, the Alaska state record for sport-caught pink salmon (or humpy) was shattered—two days in a row, Alaska Dispatch News reports. On Aug. 22, Thomas Salas, a California resident, landed a 12-pound 13-ounce pink salmon near Big Eddy on the Kenai River. Salas almost threw the salmon back but relented when a friend told him it may be a record. The next morning, Salas took the fish to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Soldotna, where it was confirmed as the new state record. The previous record was a 12-pound 9-ounce pink caught in 1974.
Alaska Journal of Commerce reports that just three hours later, another angler, Robert Dubar, arrived at the ADFG office with an even bigger pink salmon, weighing 13 pounds 10.6 ounces, and bested the newly minted record. Dubar had also pulled his fish out of the Kenai. Within the span of an afternoon, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirmed two new state records, for the first time in 42 years.
Salas, upon hearing the news, laughed. “Really?” he told reporters. “Another guy caught a bigger fish?”
Alaska Dispatch News reports that the reason for the unusually large salmon in the Kenai isn’t yet clear to biologists.