I was fishing with 8 pound tippet when I hooked into the Coho salmon of a lifetime. After a 25 minute battle, I managed to grab its tail as our guide was busy chasing fish that Bob and Geir were fighting. My Coho salmon measured 35 inches (88.9 cm) and weighed 22 pounds (9.98 kg). After weighing and measuring it, I quickly released it back into the river. It was by far the largest Coho Salmon I had ever landed in nearly 20 years of fishing for them.

Jeff Pierce Mustad US Sales Co-ordinator

The next day, I looked at the International Game Fish Association, IGFA, Record Book and saw that the 8 pound tippet class Fly Rod record was 19lb 9oz. My fish beat the World Record by well over 2 pounds. I felt sick, because I did not go through all the necessary steps to register the fish as a record. So, the old record stands, but we all know that I beat it.

The fish was caught on one of my special flies I came up with, called Jeff's Coho Candy. It is tied on a Mustad 80500BL size 10. Recently I have started tying the same fly on a Partridge SINGLE SALMON SALAR BLACK in size 9 as well. Above on the right, you can see me holding the "would-have-been-a-record" Coho. From now on I'll carry a copy of the IGFA Record Book in the back of my fishing vest.

Best fishes
Jeff Pierce