Chris Paulson is an avid angler and onetime publisher of a local sportfishing magazine called Fishin’ Times. He visited his great uncle recently, and was able to get a copy of an interesting salmon photo the older man had carried in his wallet for 73 years. This is a huge Chinook, especially from local waters, and here’s what Paulson had to say about the fish and his great uncle:
“In the attached photo, (my great uncle Rolf) is standing in the alley behind a building owned by a drugstore that he worked for holding the fish. At the time, he was a few inches over six feet tall, which gives you a perspective on the size of the fish. The reason he is wearing white pants is that he was the guy who made the ice cream for several drug stores. He said he’d had the fish hanging in the freezer inside the building.
“I wrote a small description if you decide this is something you might like to use.
“Rolf Paulson caught this 87-pound Chinook in 1938 while drift mooching off Columbia Beach (Whidbey Is.). He was using a bamboo Calcutta rod and no reel. His silk line lay coiled inside a coffee can (yes, he had to hand line this monster in). Rolf, who just celebrated his 100th birthday, said, ‘I’ve never seen a bigger one caught out there.’
“Thank you for any consideration in publishing this interesting tidbit of local fishing history.
Fellow angler, Chris Paulson”
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