New State Chinook Salmon Record After Angler On Fort Peck Sets The Hook

It seems like the question has been asked numerous times this summer: “Will the current Montana state record Chinook salmon be broken?”

While Chinook salmon fishing hasn't been fast and furious on Fort Peck Reservoir, a few anglers who grounded it out have been rewarded with some very large specimens. It seems like most salmon caught this summer have weighed in the mid-toupper 20-pound range along with a select few that flirted around the 30-pound mark.

Well, the question of a possible new record was finally answered for one lucky angler on Fort Peck Reservoir Aug. 16.

Greg Hauge of Bismarck, N.D., managed to boat a Chinook that measured 38 1/8 inches long with a 26.5inch girth resulting in a 32.05-pound fish.

This bested the previous record, set in 1991 by Carl Niles, of 31.13 pounds.

So why the bigger salmon in 2020? The combination of older, four-year-old fish coupled with a good abundance of large cisco (10-12 inches in length) to feed on was the recipe for a state record salmon this summer.

Last season, FWP fisheries and hatchery staff noticed a decent numbers of healthy three-year-old fish that weighed in the mid-to-upper teens during fall collection efforts in 2019. Those fall collection efforts also resulted in nearly 150,000 Chinook salmon that were stocked into Fort Peck Reservoir during early June this year. While this number was lower than the previous several years, these salmon were relatively large — at almost five inches in length.