USA: Lake Michigan huge salmon

A historic salmon season on Lake Michigan this year could be traced back to 2009.

That's when Michigan's Department of Natural Resources allowed anglers to keep five, not three chinook salmon as had previously been the case. The move was intended to thin out the number of fish, allowing the remaining ones to grow larger on the consistent forage base.

It worked. While the average size of fish in the past few seasons has been 12 to 15 pounds, this year 20 and 30 pound king salmon are not uncommon, according to Petoskey News.

Even 7-year-olds, like Christopher Kavanaugh of Alanson, Mich., are cashing in on the historic bite. Here he's pictured holding his 26.8-pound salmon, caught at the mouth of the Bear River on a Little Cleo. "It was awesome," said his father Matthew