Gary, could it have been a burbot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbot

Angela Percival
Angela at stillwatersci dotcom
Olympia, WA
------------------------------

Message: 16
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:29:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gary Bletsch <garybletsch at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] fish question
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Message-ID: <774083.91684.qm at web51308.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear Tweeters,

Yesterday I stopped at the Martin Road fishing access, which is now
tiny, most of the land having been taken by the river. This spot is just
up from Rockport.

I smelled something, and took the little trail to the river (a 15-meter
walk). In the water was a fish a good yard long. It was mangled, or had
perhaps been filleted? This fish was as big as a big salmon, but was NOT
a salmon, NOT a steelhead, NOT a sturgeon. It had what appeared to be a
long second dorsal fin--not an adipose fin. The shape of the head was
somewhat reminiscent of that of a grouper or sea bass. The pectoral fins
were large and rounded, and of a brownish-orange color. Since the fish
was under a foot of water, I fished it out with a stick. I took some
wretched photos; let me know if you think you could ID the fish, and I
will send one. I don't have a website.