Giant Salmon

mrostov

Nomad
Jan 2, 2006
410
53
59
Texas
With a salmon that size you are going to need a whole lot bagels and cream cheese. Good catch.

A field improvised smoking rack and a fire should do the trick. It worked for the native tribes and the early settlers.
 

redsalmon

Member
Jun 12, 2010
21
0
divot
thats some fish mon .. looks like a lot of drying work!

in scotland they (very) rarely come that big, but still a 5 kilo/ 11pounds odds fish, or a few trout is more than i want eat in a day and would be good to know a quick and easy drying method.

hanging it over a fire seems simplest solution but in scotland that could be a lot of effort, at least it looks like you got lots of trees handy over there! not always easy to find trees here in some moorland areas (so rigging any kind of frame can be difficult) and even local fuel for fire can be hard to find; or a lot of work, especially when you've hiked in and spent a good day fishin, or just wantin a bit time to look at the view ;)

like folks have said sometimes best option is to try and get it home , though that might be 2-3 days away. i clean the fish right after catching which slows it going rotten and carry with heather through the gills-mouth. i maybe boil and eat some of fish first and to walk out i put fish into plastic bags (not ideal but otherwise v messy in pack) , it lasts better if wrapped in ferns/bracken first.

heres a wee'er salmon but still plenty tasty!
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cottonwoodroot

Tenderfoot
Jul 13, 2014
53
0
Prince Rupert
Red Salmon that is an awesome photo!! The country looks very unique. We wouldn't get much habitat like that here. If you don't mind I would like to ask a few questions? What kind of salmon is that? What fishing techniques do you use?
One thing I have seen guys doing here lately is to cut the gills while the fish is still alive. This way the heart pumps the blood out and you avoid blue veins in the meat. Another cool technique I have seen is Ray Mears demonstrating filleting a fish with his hands.
On a side note, I hear there is a very important vote coming up in Scotland. Any predictions?
 

cottonwoodroot

Tenderfoot
Jul 13, 2014
53
0
Prince Rupert
Thanks santaman!! Can you believe that people have caught chinook twice that size? I can't imagine how they land it. After you asked for moose hunting pictures I just remembered that I did up a film of my buddy and I hunting moose last year. We didn't get anything, but it gives you an idea of our area. Here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHoZA4luYxw

I will post it in the other forum as well. Hopefully I can do up a film this year with a success instead of a failure.
 

redsalmon

Member
Jun 12, 2010
21
0
divot
its Atlantic or 'Silver' salmon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_salmon

i use simple light tackle, usually spinning a silver mepps size 2 , typically salmon are about 5 - 15 lb (2 - 7 kilo) . i fish small rivers and lochs and the game is to work upriver casting into the pools trying to find and annoy the fish. might fish 5 miles or more of river in a day so by end of day i'm usually pretty puggled for anything more than eat-sleep ...

i see youre at Prince Rupert, lovely part of the world, long lush coast-islands of temperate rain forest if i remember rightly. I worked one summer as a cannery rat sliming salmon up on Kenaii peninsula and Ketchikan (jeez about 30 years ago now) , didn't get much fishin done but saw an awful lot of salmon! have fond memories of hitching back south (east first) through Prince Rupert into an incredible northern lights show. northern scotland is much more barren (we cut a lot of forest down ) maybe more like north east Canada.

those blood and fillet techniques sound interesting, I'll ask my local fishmonger here what he thinks...

hopefully access to land and fish will be better in an indepedent scotland as now most of our 'wild' land is controlled by just a few big landowners and major land reform is badly needed ... this land is my land - this land is your land
 

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