There has been a lot of debate about this on one of the Pike angling sites. I have to agree with the general view that this fish is not over the 64 pounds..probably closer to 40-45 pounds.
The first length x girth was given as 56 x 50 inches...the second was 56 x 40 the third 52 x 40
There is then a post saying that the length of 56 inches is the correct one, as measured by 6 different people. Then another post says 4 people measured it at 56 inches. yet another says 54 inches!
If you use the girth x girth x length devide by 800 formula to work out its weight, the shortest, thinest report fish would work out at 104 pounds!!!!!..the biggest reported would be 175 pounds!
Using the Gowan calculator that was developed on the Tay and has proved to be accurate to 5% (On Tay fish) you get a small weight of 126.8 pounds and a high weight of 212 pounds!!!!
You can do your own estimates here
http://www.letsflyfish.com/weight.htmUnfortuantly most calculators do not relate to UK Atlantic salmon...but the Gowan one was worked out using 826 salmon from the tay.
I personnally think it is a fantastic fish, but no where near the record...perhaps a 50...but certainly not over 65. You only have to look at the cast of the fish in somers to get a good idea of sizes.
I did find it amusing that amoung the congratulations on catching what is obviously a very large fish, many said well done for returning it. Is it me or is the fish a tad coloured and therefore should have been returned by law?
One last thing, and this was noted with Pike, but is relevant here...if you lay a fish on a measuring board, you get one reading, if you then take a tape measure from the fork of the tail and have it follow the contours of the fish to the snout you get a much longer reading as the tape is following all the curves of the fish. In the case of a particular Pike I saw, laid flat it went 42 inches, measuerd with a tape it went 50 inches..enough to add about 20 pounds to the fish using a weight calculator.
Still a great fish..well done...another image of it...