27.95 lb Salmon out of a kayak!

Salmon-a-rama 2017 proved to be another memorable tournament for myself this year. I ended up pedaling 134 miles to catch 20 kings, 5 steelhead and 3 coho during the tournament… numbers way down from last year (67 salmon last year for SAR in 5 trips), but the size was great. I fished mostly the Port Washington area, but once I started struggling, I moved down to Milwaukee and got on some more fish to finish up the tourney.

Fishing was great for me to start off, when I landed a 23.71 lb king on the first day.  Sunday was a wash and I got out of work on Monday early to launch a little after 1:00pm. By 2:00pm, I was hooked up with my new personal best, a 27.95 lb monster king. At that time, it would’ve been in first place overall, so I went straight back to shore, shaking the whole time. By the time I loaded up my gear, somebody had registered a 29 lber, but I decided to register it in the boat division anyways. Went back out and landed 2 more 23 lb kings (23.55, 23.71), an 8 lb king, and then proceeded to lose my last 3 fish, but wasn’t even mad about it. Tuesday-Thursday was a grind. Friday I got back on the fish catching train, getting 6, but nothing bigger than 8 lbs. Moved down to Milwaukee Saturday afternoon and landed 4 kings (17, 18 lbs were the big ones) and 2 coho (8 and 9 lbs). I threw in the towel at that point and slept in on Sunday. I ended up in 3rd in the kayak division (can’t register a fish in the kayak division AND the boat division) and my big fish ended up 7th in the boat division for Chinook. Some real monsters caught.
Thank you to everybody at Salmon-a-rama for putting on such a great event (and all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes – year round) and thank you to Johnson Outdoors for sponsoring the kayak division!

Awesome-way to go!