Posted by Angela Montana on September 18, 2025Cliff Chamberlan has been chasing salmon on New York’s Salmon River since the 1970s, pulling in monsters like a 38-pound Chinook, but this summer he hooked the fish of a lifetime—a 6.1-pound pink salmon that crushed New York’s decades-old record. For a few breathless hours, Chamberlan was on top of the world—until DEC told him the pink salmon category had been “retired” in last year’s bureaucratic cleanup, erasing his record before the ink was dry. “I went from the highest high to the lowest low in about five hours,” he groaned. Still, for a man who fishes every day like a windmill just for the joy of the drift, the catch stands as proof that unicorns do swim in the Salmon River—even if Albany won’t write them down. Photo credit: Cliff ChamberlanTopics