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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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2013 was a year of records for fish

Phil Colyar poses with his state record mackinaw as it's weighed on the certified baby scale at the Lake Chelan Community Hospital on Feb. 4, 2013. (Courtesy photo)
Phil Colyar poses with his state record mackinaw as it's weighed on the certified baby scale at the Lake Chelan Community Hospital on Feb. 4, 2013. (Courtesy photo)

FISHING -- In my Dec. 29 package of stories looking back at 2013 from the outdoors perspective, fish and fishing were riddled through everything, even beyond the one story focused on fishing highlights.

It was a year to remember -- one we'll be referring to again and again as we compare future numbers to records set in 2013.

The end of year fish counts weren't official when I filed my 2013 in review story on Dec. 29. But Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman has this list of record numbers to remember in his just-posted look back at 2013 outdoors.

2013 COLUMBIA FALL CHINOOK RUN BY THE NUMBERS

1,200,000-plus Estimated fall Chinook run size at the mouth of the river

952,944 Final passage at Bonneville Dam

253,575 Sept. 7-11 king count at the dam, a period which included the first, second, third, sixth and seventh largest single-day tallies back to 1938

63,870 Record daily fall Chinook count at Bonneville, set Sept. 9

30,306 Record daily fall Chinook count at McNary Dam, set Sept. 22

29,307 Aug. 1-Sept. 22 king catch in Columbia between Buoy 10 and Bonneville, 1,000 more than old record

23,332 Estimated upriver bright catch in the Hanford Reach, 10,000 more than old record

Not a lot of individual fish set records in 2013, but those that did were impressive, especially the lunker mackinaw landed by a former Spokanite and handled like a baby for official weighing on a hospital emergency room scale used for infants:

2013 RECORD FISH*

WASHINGTON

Lake Trout, 35.63 pounds, Phil Colyar, Lake Chelan. Lake whitefish, 6.81 pounds, Tony Martin, Lake Rufus Woods.

• Saltwater records: Dolphinfish (dorado), 16.27 pounds; Pacific Hake, 4.06 pounds; Opah, 28.18 pounds.

IDAHO

Tiger musky, 44 pounds 4 ounces, Edward Kalinowski, Little Payette Lake.

*Idaho’s largest rainbow was landed below Dworshak Dam, but the 28-pound, 9-ounce fish isn’t an official record. Nez Perce member Tui Moliga legally caught lunker under tribal rules. But N. Fork Clearwater was closed to nontribal harvest of rainbows over 20”, so it didn’t qualify for record status. 



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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