The largest salmon ever caught in the Columbia River were summer Chinook
destined for tributaries in the interior and upper Columbia River Basin,
primarily in Washington and British Columbia. The fish began arriving in the
upper mainstem Columbia and its tributaries in June, and because of the size of
the fish they came to be known as “June hogs.” Fish three to four feet in length
and weighing more than 60 pounds were common.
Angus McDonald, who was in charge of the
Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Colville, just downstream from
Kettle Falls, from 1852 to 1872, wrote: “Salmon as
heavy as one hundred pounds have been caught in those falls.” The Spokane
Spokesman-Review newspaper reported on Sept. 21, 1900, that two Chinook salmon
were caught at the mouth of the Little Spokane River, one weighing 50 pounds and
the other 52 pounds. The Upper Columbia United Tribes’ Fisheries Center at
Eastern Washington University has a photo of a four-foot-long, 64-pound salmon
caught in the Spokane River in the spring of 1937, and a transcript of an
interview with a woman whose husband caught the fish. The woman, Christine
LeBrett, reported that the salmon runs stopped in 1939, which is one year after
the construction of Grand Coulee Dam blocked passage of anadromous fish.
The big fish spawned in British Columbia, too. In October 1910, under the
heading “Nelson News of the Day,” the Nelson Daily News reported:
“A beautiful salmon was landed at the pool, Slocan Junction, yesterday by
Robert Elliott, weighing exactly 50 pounds. The fish was caught on rod and
line, with a rather small spoon, and was landed after a fight of an hour and
twenty minutes. Its length is four feet two inches. It will be on display this
morning in the window of the Nelson Hardware company, with whose tackle it was
caught.”
The pool on the Kootenay was about a mile upstream from the point — Slocan
Junction — where the Slocan River flows into the Kootenay River about half way
between Nelson and Castlegar.
