New Zealand Salmon Photos

[glen]

Hi guys,



Here are the pics of the salmon my bro and I caught in New Zealand. i caught the slightly larger one. weighed in at 7kg and the little one was 6kg!!!



That was the biggest fish I ever caught I think!



Cheers, Glen

[Jazman]

Gack! They are massive! Top effort mate, I assume you got them on the fly? Details of the fight?



Did you keep em? And if so, did they taste better than the salmon you buy at Safeway?



Stupid question, are they atlantics or chinooks? They look quite a bit like chinooks to me, but from memory atlantics change shape when they run up the rivers.

[flounderpirate]

Hahaha,



Whoppin' beasties!



They look delicious! I bet they were some fight.

[glen]

Hey guys. they are chinook salmon. we kept them and yes they tasted nice but i didn't think it was very different to eating trout. we were planning to get them smoked. there is still plenty left in my brother's freezer!



we caught them on spinners! similar to a silver wobler. They do fight very hard but I had 15 pound line so I was not too worried. It was a struggle to land them since they did not fit in the net!



See below for some historical info about NZ salmon:

New Zealand anglers are extremely fortunate to have a sea-run salmon fishery as it is one of the very few established outside of the salmon's native range. Chinook salmon from Sacramento River stock were introduced into the Waitaki River in the early part of this century and quickly spread to other Canterbury rivers. These large, snow-fed rivers remain the stronghold of New Zealand's salmon resource but small populations also exist in Marlborough, Otago, Southland and on the West Coast. There are also land-locked populations in a number of Canterbury high country lakes. One of the most exciting aspects of the fishery is that, because of large annual fluctuations in the size and the number of returning fish, no one is able to predict how big or how many salmon there will be until the season is well underway.