record coho

Fishing guide Glen Hales, 41, of Roslin, holds the new provincial record for coho salmon.

His fish, caught on Sept. 24, 2013 at the mouth of the Ganaraska River in Port Hope weighed 29 pounds, 31⁄2 ounces with a length of 40 inches and girth of 24.25 inches.
Hales says he used an “old 9-weight, 11-foot Diawa fly rod” to land the massive coho, which sucked up his Crystal Egg fly offering.

Having worked as a fisheries technician for the Lake Ontario Management Unit, he had lots of experience working in the salmon program identifying species, and he had seen a lot of large coho “monsters in the 25 and 26 pound range,” so he had no doubt it was a potential record.

“After it rolled and jumped, I realized this was no chinook but a big coho. It was just starting to turn colour.”

He submitted his fish, which was a natural with no clipped fins, to the OFAH Ontario Record Fish Registry, which recognizes the largest fish angled legally from Ontario public waters. This spring it was declared a record.

The former coho salmon record was held by Sandy Smith, who caught it in Lake Ontario near Pickering on August 12, 1998. It weighed 28.64 pounds with a length of 42.0 inches and a girth of 18.5 inches.