nice fish ya caught there probally took ya a while but nice catch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cought a 626# Bluefin Tuna the first time that I went deep sea fishing and I was only 15 years old. That was the first time and the last time that I have been deep sea fishing. And that was in 1968.

I forgot to mention that the 626# Bluefin Tuna was cought on 120# test line, and it took me one hour and twenty minutes to bring to the boat. I won the Fifty Eighth Field & Stream Fishing Award and was recorded as a true record, for the jounior class (under 16 years old). I was also awarded the Mass. Paul Revare's cup for 1968. The one thing that I would like to know is how long that record stood and what it is now.

for the last 7-8 years ive been fishing the lower section of the columbia river for over sised sturgeon. i have brought fish up next to my boat that were between 8-16 feet
and anywhere from 200 lbs and on up to around 1000 lbs
i will never know what the actual lenth and weight as it is considerd poaching to remove them from the water..
on average a 10-12 foot fish takes me about 45 min to around 3 hrs to put boat side. and i can be taken up or down river from 1-6 miles durring the fight. and sometimes both up and down that far ..
ive seen the portion of the show with the sturgeon in it and i have to say that was a very small fish compaird to the ones i catch here..
just so you understand the sise of fish im going after i use a 4-6 lbs shad for bait..
i would be more than happy to show you (the national geografic channel) when and where to catch these fish and you can get all the video you could ever want of them being caught from starting to bait my line to putting these monster fish next to my boat .. so lets see if anyone can catch a bigger fresh water fish than i have hooked and boated..

oh yes one more thing i love the show please keep it going....

Hello Pete Slempa. I don't doubt that the Columbia River has some very large Sturgeon....... But I also believe that the fact that these fish cannot be removed from the water, leaves all the room in the world for "big fish stories". The thing is "EVERY" Sturgeon guide, as well as every hard core Sturgeon angler who fishes the Columbia, claims to have caught a 15 or 16 ft'er....... Yet their is almost nothing in the way of proof ???
Is a guy a poacher if he pulls just its head out of the water ? A photo of a 3 or 4ft wide head, would be pretty good evidence.
A Sturgeons head brought just to the surface, with just its tail brought to the surface 15 feet away would be pretty convincing too.
And they have never caught a straight-up poacher with one ?
They never find them dead of natural causes ???

My point is, I believe that a "very few" individual Sturgeon DO get to be 15 or 16 ft {their is that 1 good photo of the 15 footer, with like 10 anglers, all shoulder to shoulder, holding it in the water... I'm sure you have seen it), but I don't believe Sturgeon of this size are near so common in the Columbia, nor anywhere else, for that matter, as a whole bunch of people would try to make other people believe.

Anyway, I live near, and fish in the California Delta, about 40 miles from where the 468 lb'er was caught. My PB is only a mere 312 lbs (calculated by the length 100" and girth 46" (she was a fatty), and I actually do have a great photo of the fishes head and shoulders {wouldn't / couldn't have lifted the whole fish into my 12ft aluminum} But suffice it to say, nobody who sees this photo, doubts the size of the fish.

Great fishing to you,
Fish Chris

This fish is eaten very small size. Packing headache is less to TUNA industry more if always such fishes are bought outsides.

well give me a place to show some of my pics and ill be happy to show you and the rest of the world..

and by the way a 13 - 15' sturgeon dose not have a head that wide...
it is more like 20 - 30 inches wide..

and i dont know how you catch them but i dont think you realise how difficult it would be to get the whole body if the fish on the surface and do it leagaly. to get a pic of it ..
if you are a true big fish hunter than im sure you know that time is of the essecne when these fish are brought to the surface and next to a boat to get them released and swimming on there own again .

i have put at least 2 fish next to my boat that were in the 180 in range and countless others in the 96 - 144 inch range
if anyone knows how to compute the guesstamated weight id love to know ..

thanks all and happy fishing

I have something like this in my bathroom :-)