Smith River Salmon, 2002, Joan Carter, Fish Sniffer Online

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Smith River Salmon, 2002

By: Joan Carter
February 9, 2003

More Articles by Joan

We knew that the 2002 would produce some very large salmon for us on the Smith. The Smith is notorious for yielding salmon as large as any you would catch in Alaska. The record salmon caught on the Smith was caught by a woman not much larger than the fish itself (photo below). She was an older gal, it is considered very bad taste to reveal a lady's age, but let us just say she had been sporting grey hair for a lot of years. The fish weighed in at over 80 pounds, she weighed in at about 100. So I thought it would be appropriate to let you see some of the big guys our ladies hauled in this past season. Let it be said that we had our fair share of large fish caught by men as well. For the sake of equal time, I have included a picture of the biggest salmon caught this season by one of our male clients.

Youngest of our anglers was Indiana Butler (photo at top). This 12 year-old had a great day on the river. Not only did she land the bruiser in this picture, but she also landed another slightly smaller one as well. Indiana had her hands full with this 38 pound buck. It took her approximately 30 minutes to boat him and she was shaking all over. Papa Mike was justifiably proud. She was convinced that her whopper was the direct result of having "Lucky Sally" our boat dog at her side. I have to admit that this belief is held by many of our clients of all ages and sexes.

The record salmon caught on the Smith was caught by a woman not much larger than the fish itself

The second heroine in our gallery is Valerie Nietsch. Val had a 1 hour battle with this 40+ pounder a couple of weeks before Christmas, 2002. She had never caught more than a "half-pounder" before this date and was totally shocked when this beauty blew out of the water in front of her. She couldn't believe that something so big could get so much air. She and her husband Barry were fishing with Dan in the Jedediah State Park section of the river when they doubled up. Hooking two huge fish at the same time can turn into a rerun of the Keystone Cops meet the Three Stooges. Dan was getting them sorted out when Barry's fish took one last jump and shook himself off. Val, on the other hand, was now engaged in one-on-one combat unlike anything she had ever experienced.

Until you have one of these fish on the other end of your line, you cannot imagine the power they possess. It is like landing a Marlin who's swimming up a raging river. The power of fish and water is astounding. Needless to say, when this beauty finally landed in the bottom of the boat Val could finally appreciate how big he really was. Due to reflection and refraction, fish appear smaller when viewed underwater. Also it is hard to determine depth and girth of a fish. I have caught what we call "South Fork" or "Football" fish that were short but very round, (hence the nick names). For some reason the strain of salmonids that return to the South Fork of the Smith tend have this rotund characteristic. This fish has since been BBQ'ed, but his replica will soon be hanging on Val's wall, thanks to Mark Hamblin's artistry. What a Christmas present.

Joseph McNamara, left, and guide Dan Carter Joyce Miller from Nevada is our 3rd salmon slayer. This is her largest fish to date and it gave her the battle of her life for 30+ minutes.

The winner of our biggest fish this year is Joseph McNamara from San Mateo. This beauty was caught on November 15th and weighed in at the Hiouchi store's certified scale at 50 pounds. Way to go Joseph.

Well you can see we had quite a season this year. There were many exciting fish stories born in 2002. Maybe next year you can get into one of these pictures.

Tight Lines

Joan Carter

Columnist Joan Carter co-owns, with her husband, Dan Carter's Guide Service.