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[Nitroholic]

Found this on flybc 

Dear Friends and Fellow Fishermen,

As some of you may already have heard, last week, on Friday, 20 February I
was out fishing on the Hoh River with Shirley. It was a wonderfully clear
day, the temperature a little below freezing and a herd of elk were grazing
in a Riverside pasture. The river was running exceptionally low and clear
and we were swinging flies through some attractive water. I was using my
15-foot Spey rod, Shirley was using her eight-weight, single-handed rod.

There had been little action but I had seen one good-sized fish roll a
little ahead of me and, for a brief few seconds, I had hooked into what
appeared to be a 12-pound or 15-pound fish. At around 2 PM I was swinging my
fly through some good-looking water and something that I can only describe
as a lightning bolt hit my whole body. Suddenly my Ross reel was screaming
at a decibel level usually reserved for Rolling Stone concerts. In a couple
of heartbeats 200 yards of line had disappeared from my reel as the fish
headed for Alaska. I told myself not to panic, but my whole body was
shaking; I knew that if I could survive the first round I would at least
have some chance of getting the fish to the bank. For the next 30 minutes I
battled the fish, standing at times chest deep in the middle of the river on
a submerged bar.

At this point I had not seen the fish, but eventually I managed to make it
back to the river bank and was able to stand on dry ground. At that time the
fish exploded into the air, executing three cartwheels. I couldn't believe
my eyes, the fish was almost 4 feet in length. I had never seen a steelhead
like it. After 45 minutes of battling the fish I managed to beach it gently.
My intention was to let it go, having first measured the fish, but it was
bleeding quite heavily from the gills. As it seemed likely not survive the
ordeal, and because it was the fish of a lifetime, I decided to take the
fish. In 10 years of fishing Washington state rivers this is the first fish
I have ever taken, of any kind, from a river.

At this point, several boats appeared, heading down river. In one of the
boats was my good friend and mentor, Jim Kerr; with him in his boat was a
state biologist, who measured the fish and took some fish scales. A couple
of other boats arrived and had spring scales with them, and we weighed the
fish. One set of scales said 31 pounds and the other said 32 pounds. The
fish was dragged for about a mile through the forest to our parked car and
then taken to Olympic Sporting Goods in Forks. We weighed the fish on their
scales and it registered 31-1/2 pounds.

As many of you already know, there is a formula for estimating the weight of
a fish. In essence you square the girth of the fish and then multiply that
by its length and divide by 800.. My fish was 44 inches in length with a
girth of 23-1/2 inches. That would result in a fish weighing 30.38 pounds.
It was not until the following day, 23 hours after the fish had been caught,
that I managed to get the fish to a State-accredited set of scales, at Key
City Fish Company in Port Townsend. The fish had obviously lost a little
weight due to loss of fluids and bleeding, but it still weighed 29.5 pounds
at that point.

I have subsequently contacted the International Game Fish Association to
check on records for fly-caught steelhead. It turns out that the existing
world record for 8 kg tippet is a 28-pound fish caught by Chuck Stephens on
the Skeena River on 20 October 1985, 24 years ago. I am now in the process
of submitting my fish of last week as the new world record. On further
research it also appears that this would also be the largest steelhead ever
caught on a fly rod for all tippet classes.

Hopefully you all enjoyed the story and the pictures. Many people got to see
the fish before I dropped it off at a local taxidermist. One state biologist
confided in me that he was 62 years old and had personally caught over 5000
steelhead and that this was the biggest steelhead he had ever seen in his
life. Another chap simply shook me by the hand, looked me in the eye and
said, "This isn't the fish of a lifetime, it's the fish of a thousand
lifetimes."

I guess English Pete got lucky.

Best regards

Peter  
[/qoute]

[blader]

What a tank. Too bad it's genetics are gone Multiple spawners like that one probably taste similar to yogurt. Big fish though

[Fish Assassin]

Fish of a lifetime. Are they allowed to retain wild steelhead in the Hoh ?

[Steelhawk]

What a fish. Surely fish of many life times here in lower mainland. 
This is a fly-caught record. But I think the record steelie caught by other ways is even bigger than this one.

[DavidD]

Holy Carp!!!   And I have yet to catch even one!!

[younggun]

ya there are 2 mounted in terrace or smithers cant remember, 48 and 52 are their weights, one was in a net, the other by an angler

[rhino]

ya there are 2 mounted in terrace or smithers cant remember, 48 and 52 are their weights, one was in a net, the other by an angler

hey young gun-check you email.

cheers

[EZ_Rolling]

HOG for sure

[Pat AV]

The angler claimed that the fish was gill hooked and a bleeder, that is why he legally retained it. There are several flows on the Olympic Penninsula where you can bonk 1 wild steel per year. I think this is a terrible rule and most guys I have fished with in Washington feel the same way.

As was said elsewhere, if I fatally hooked a steel of that importance you would not see a smile on my face. 

[Rodney]

The angler claimed that the fish was gill hooked and a bleeder, that is why he legally retained it.

I didn't interpret that the fish was hooked at the gill from the description provided, but it was simply bleeding from the gill, which we see quite often especially if a fish is deeply hooked. Catch and release mortality depends more greatly on the amount of blood loss than the length of the fight time. If a bleeding fish is released, then the mortality rate rises, depending on how much blood is lost and if or when the bleeding stops after it is released.

That being said, a bleeding fish doesn't have zero chance of surviving, it simply has less chance of surviving. It has zero chance of surviving when it is dispatched by a bonker.

I didn't think anyone would still take IGFA record that seriously in today's state of our fisheries.

[DionJL]

It has zero chance of surviving when it is dispatched by a bonker.

Ummmm didn't Marco prove otherwise half a month ago??

[Pat AV]

I didn't interpret that the fish was hooked at the gill from the description provided, but it was simply bleeding from the gill, which we see quite often especially if a fish is deeply hooked.

Yes I meant it was probably hooked down in the rakers/ back of tongue no other real reason to account for enough blood loss to convince a guy the fish was doomed.

Some fish bleed out of the side of their mouths a little when hooked by a large hook right in the corner of the jaw, the only time I have seen lots of blood pumping out the gills is a deep tongue or raker hook job.

[jetboatjim]

or a finger ripping the gills.

[younggun]

i'm with jim on this one, it doesn't look like a bleeder at all, except in that third photo. Good point jim!

[marmot]

Sorry for being a skeptic here, but I have a hard time believing that a fish losing that much blood through the gills would put up a 45 minute battle before tiring out eventually.  I've had fish bleed and the fight is noticeably shorter if it is a significant amount of blood loss...they simply can't get enough oxygen to keep it up, especially larger fish.  There are always exceptions of course and this may be one of them but to me it sounds a little off.  

He does also say "and because it was the fish of a lifetime"....so maybe a little blood was all it took to convince him to go for the rock shower.  And hey, its legal and thats all that matters right?