After the two departed out of Crescent City Harbor, they found "real tough" fishing. They managed to catch one quality king salmon and were trolling back to the harbor when Cox hooked the fish of a lifetime.

"We were trolling 40 feet deep in 200 feet of water when the rod slammed down hard as a fish struck my bait," noted Cox. "I had no idea how big the fish was, because I was too busy trying to hold myself in the boat!"

Frank fought the powerful fish for over 20 minutes as Captain Ed warned Frank not to lose the fish. "Ed got a good look at the fish and told me not to break it off because I would be very sorry. Of course, once he said that, I got nervous, trying hard not to horse the fish in," he said.

When Ed and Frank finally netted the salmon aboard the Trophy Bayliner, all the two could do is look down at the monster fish in amazement. The fish had a total length of 48 inches and a 15 inch girth.

"We really had no way of knowing it was a record fish, since the scale on Ed's boat only went up to 50 pounds," said Cox. "I didn't think too much of it until we got back to the harbor and we saw the crowd of people waiting to take a look. I took the fish into England Marine, where Dave Hedead weighed the fish for me on their certified scale."

What makes this fishing story even more impressive is the irony of Frank catching his personal-best salmon just one day prior to the record chinook was boated. "Fishing Crescent City has produced several large fish for me recently, including a fat 32 pounder I caught just two days after the 65 pounder was caught," added Cox.

Cox fishes regularly for salmon off the coast, as well as fishing for black bass and other species at Clear Lake and other northern California lakes and rivers.

"Although I love to fish rivers and lakes for trout and bass, my main passion is ocean fishing for salmon," emphasized Cox. "So far this year, I have taken 6 salmon, with only one small fish."