A Pair of Record-Breakers Caught

A couple of Alaska fishermen, within 20 days of each other, have caught fish that, if submitted and certified, will break the listed all-tackle world records for king salmon and Pacific halibut.

The catches:

--On April 28, James Bostrom of Homer caught a 374-pound halibut in Cook Inlet.

--On May 17, Les Anderson of Soldotna caught a 97-pound 4-ounce king salmon at the mouth of the Kenai River.

Both fish exceed, by wide margins, listed all-tackle world records, but must be certified by the International Game Fish Assn. to be official. The listed halibut mark is 350 pounds, also caught out of Homer. However, the Alaska state record is 440 pounds, a catch that was never IGFA-certified.

The all-tackle king (chinook) salmon mark is 93 pounds, a fish caught at Kelp Bay, Alaska, by Howard C. Rider in 1977. Commercial fishermen have netted kings well over 100 pounds, but the IGFA record book lists only three kings over 76 pounds 4 ounces caught on rod and reel.

Bostrom, 40, a contractor who is also a commercial fisherman, caught his barn-door-size halibut--it was 8 feet 3 inches long--on 130-pound-test braided Dacron line, with a 90-pound-test monofilament leader. His Mustad No. 3 circle hook was baited with a frozen, year-old hunk of Dolly Varden trout, pulled 140 feet to the bottom of Cook Inlet with a two-pound sinker.

Said Bruce Warner, a friend of Bostrom who witnessed the struggle: “James had that fish on for an hour before we even saw it. We were in my 21-foot cabin cruiser at the time, but halfway through the fight James switched to a 24-footer with a bigger transom.

“We’re not sure yet if we’ll have the catch approved (by the IGFA), because the rules say you can’t harpoon a fish in order to land it. But halibut that size have killed fishermen in Alaska. We harpooned it once, but he broke the three-eighths-inch nylon line. We harpooned him a second time, then shot it five times in the head with a .22 magnum.”

The fish was caught 35 miles outside Homer Harbor, on three-foot seas, in bright, sunny weather, with the St. Augustine island volcano smoking on the horizon, 25 miles away.

Homer is famed for big Pacific halibut.

Warner said: “In the two years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen dozens over 100 pounds. The one James caught was the third I’ve seen over 300 pounds. There was a 319-pounder brought in here last week. Our goal is to catch a 500-pounder on rod and reel. Commercial long liners have caught them that size.”

Anderson, 68, a retired Soldotna service station owner, was trying to get a jump on other locals when he tied into his big chinook.

He was trolling near the mouth of the Kenai River on one of the first days of the salmon run. In Soldotna, the king salmon runs normally begin in late April but doesn’t heat up until mid-May.

The king was so big--58 inches long with a girth of 37 inches--that Anderson’s fishing partner, Bud Lofstedt, couldn’t get his net around it and had to grab it by a gill.

A Happy Camp, Calif., man was jailed for 30 days and fined $500, and a woman was ordered to pay a $455 fine in a poaching case involving two deer and a mountain lion. William David Whittaker, 59, was jailed and fined after pleading guilty to illegal possession of the lion and deer. Joan Whittaker, 47, was fined for illegal deer possession.

The Department of Fish and Game said the case grew out of an undercover case where a lion hide was sold to undercover DFG officers Cindy Pourroy and Al Stegall.

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