SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Department of Fish and Game biologists were stopped in their tracks while conducting a salmon survey when they encountered what may be the biggest Chinook Salmon ever found in California, DFG officials said.

The salmon, which measured 51-inches long, was found dead from natural causes in lower Battle Creek near Red Bluff last month, officials said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The length of the fish would have beaten the current state angling record for Chinook Salmon, officials said.

DFG biologist Doug Killam said that the fish could have weighed more than the 88-pound salmon caught in the Sacramento River, which is the largest recorded Chinook Salmon in California.

Most of the salmon biologists weighed were between 20 and 30 pounds.