I have a guide friend in Alaska who is writing an article about giant kings.... pretty much have the scoop on the top ten fish to come out of the Kenai. They range from 89.06 to 97.25 pounds.

There is a Skeena fish that weighed 92# that could dethrone one of those Kenai top ten. Anyone out there know of any other documented sport-caught Skeena or Kalum fish that surpass the 89# mark? Predator Dawg are you out there?

The other place for giant kings is the Rivers Inlet area. Dave Vedder, are you aware of any Rivers Inlet, Chuckwalla, or Kilbella fish that top the 89# mark?

Check out http://www.riversinletresort.com
I think there is info there on rivers inlet record fish.I know they had a picture of a huge hatchery fish on that site.I think it was in the 80's but cant remember exact weight.

There is actually a picture of a sport caught chinook down on the naselle river that was in the low to mid 80's. It must have never been officially weighed as it's not noted as a state record. But it sure looks to be a monster, the pic was from the 30's though...

I know the run no longer exists but the elwah and columbia basin used to get summer run chinook that topped 100 pounds in the late 1800's and early 1900's before the dams.. Of course there are no sport caught records for them though..

Keith

Ahh, "BIG KINGS" a topic thats close to my heart!
Been trying to intercept 1 of those "BIG" Skeena river fish for 12 of the past 14 seasons, maybe this year will be "my year".
Back in '89 the resort I work for had the 1st and 2nd largest recorded non-Kenai kings, 78.8lbs. and 73.5lbs. I'm guessing Skeena fish.

Is there any documentation that exists on the kings that used to go in to the Elwa? I heard that they were monsters also.

Washington at one time had it share of exceptional large kings!

Reportly the hatchery on the Elwha has collected brood stock that were as large as 100# - though haven't heard of any close to that large in several decades.

As mentioned the Columbia summer fish were hogs as well - remember reading some reports about the fish trapped when Grand Coulee shut off the upper river with fish in excess of 90 pounds being captured.

The Skagit in Puget Sound also had some very large fish. As recently as 25 years ago several fish in the 80+# range were reported. About the same time I found a spawned out male carcass that was about 66 inches long and wider than my shoulders - guessed its weight at ~75# - scary to think what it may have weighted in its prime.

While habitat problems (example the Columbia dams) have affected these giants the major problem has been the ocean fisheries. Fishing on these fish's feeding grounds (Canadian waters, SE Alaska, Washington Coast, Neah Bay) severely selects against these old fish (6 to 8 years old). While at one time it was commerical troll fisheries that accounted for much of the impacts now sport fisheries are a major source of impacts on these stocks and selection against old/large fish.

Tight lines
S malma

Smalma, did you mean 56" Skagit fish? for a 66" fish to only weigh 75lbs. it would have a 30" girth, extremely anorexic for a fish or that length!

2 or 3 seasons ago a skeena lodge released a fish that was 99lbs using the lenght times girth. There is a picture of a 107lb broodstock fish that was beach seined from the kalum in either Northcoast Anglers or Fish Tales tackle shop in Terrace (Fish Tales I think). The Kalum river in terrace gets chinooks every bit as big as the Kenai , just not as many. The net cught record from Rivers Inlet is 126lbs, sport caught is 89lbs.

Hey there Doc,

My input was going to be what rln just commented on. C&R the world record fish, that's pretty awesome. Rivers inlet gets some big ones but I've never heard of one topping 90, although plenty in the eighties. The Kilbella has been held pretty tightly for news/reports coming out of there for good reason, I doubt you will find a documented monster king from there. The Skeena has definitely kicked out some 90+ fish. I remember seeing a picture of one back in 95 at one of the tackle shops in Terrace. It was a football shaped (very, very large football) king that was ridiculous in size. As you know, both the mainstem and the Kalum are the place to hunt. The released fish came from a couple miles below the mouth of the Kalum if memory serves me.

Only other place I know of would be Kamchatka.

This summer on the Elwha my dad and I were walking up above the mouth and we were on a log jam when down below us was a chrome king that was at least 60 pounds. I've seen big kings and this was definitely the largest I've ever layed eyes on. The big kings are in the Elwha and even though its closed people still fish it. They still seemed proud of themselves too.

I myself have seen fish in the 80lb plus category in the elwha. I hooked and landed some in the 40 to 50 lb. class on accident during the silver season, early. I tied into one one time that was probably 70 plus, but kicked my butt. There out there in Washington to, just not as much traffic as Alaska by far, so you don't see them as much. just 2 cents, tight lines everyone

A couple years ago at Fred's tackle in Chilliwack they told me they weighed a Vedder fish that was 80 plus lbs earlier in that week.

Not the largest fish (I'm sure) but last fall a fellow on the lower Rogue landed a 71.5 # fall king on a fly rod .... and 7# leader!!!

He was fishing for summer runs and hooked something a tad larger than expected. Fellow down stream from him (both were in prams) netted the fish as it came up and rolled on the surface.

However it got in the boat, that's a lot of fish!

Does anyone remember the mounted king that sat in the meat market just before you went into Westport? Was 125-130# king that was pulled out of a net circa 1920 I do believe. Was one helluva fish. I know when it was bought out (the market that is) the fish disappeared. Wonder whatever happened to it?

Hey 69, I stopped by the meat market to show the Fish to clients this last Oct. It is now in a Westport Motel or restaurant. 126# Hog.

Ok, thanks. My Dad and I had admired that fish for years going out that way. We'd always stop off there to buy some cranberry sausage and a few other meats. Glad to know it's still viewable in public.

AKKings -
Remember that the fish was a spawned out carcass that had probably been in the river for 3 months prior to spawning. While fishing I had seen the monster spawning the week before and returned to the same area on the off chance of finding the carcass. It was about 1/4 mile downstream in a couple feet of water. When I liftted the fish up to get an idea of its weight I was looking eyeball to eyeball and its tail tips were still touching the ground - since I'm 5 -11 I always figured that it was about 5 and 1/2 feet long! It was a snaky fish. Even if I'm several inches off in its length still one heck of a fish - never seen anything like it. The same year the tribal nets reportedly caught an 86#er.

Steelheader -
I believe that the 126#er was caught in Alaska near Petersburg in a commerical fishery. Have seen several replicas of the fish as well as pictures of it. Had an incredible girth.

Tight lines
S malma

I can remeber seeing a lot of 40-50# fish at Sekiu...

Last month's Reel News had a quick blurb about prehistoric salmon weighing as much as 250# !!!

Smalma... I heard the eggs from the Elwha were frozen. Any truth to that? Wonder if someone will attempt to bring those monsters back

When and if they remove the elwah dams, i believe salmonn runs will grealy increse on that river to rival what we get on the other OP rivers due to the fact that most of the river is still in pristeen condition. We might just see more of thouse huge monsters again on this river.

There are obviously more "big king" fans on this board than on I-fish where I posted the same question... more than 3 times as many responses here!

Doesn't sound like any documented sport catches exceeding 89# have come out of OR, WA, or Rivers Inlet. The Skeena/Kalum drainage seems to be the top contender. It held the world record at 92# until Alaska reclaimed it with a 93# slab caught in the salt in Southeast. I know about the 99# king caught by a lady from Germany that was released in 2001. There was a picture of it on Noel Gyger's website. Anyone have a contact for Terrace and District Guide Association? These guys might have the river's biggest kings documented somewhere.

Hmmmm, not sure Smalma. I remember this being a skin mount, and an old one at that. So not a replica. And could've sworn it said something about a fishtrap out of grays harbor on the plaque. Been 10 years since I've seen it. So my memory is a bit vague.

Doc,

This guy will know the answers to your Skeena / Kalum questions;

http://www.sportfishingbc.com/articles/freshwater_fishing/kalum.htm

PD

I don't know how much truth there is in it, but I do remember much talk of a carcass found "somewhere" on the coast here by a bio doing spawner surveys about 10 years back of a carcass that if girthed out normally would have been 113 or something ...

Urban legends. I'll volunteer for the Mythbusters host job on this one!

Smalma is correct, the fish was taken in a fish trap in petersburg. The crew started to carve it up but luckily someone knew what they had. It ended up in seattle in the late 30`s. Down to Werstport during the Glory years. Languished in the meat market until its been reborn in Westport again. And Steelheader69 is correct. It is the original skin mount. Awsome Fish.

Oregon sport record 83lbs. Umpqua river 1910, Coho 25lbs.5oz. Siltcoos lake 1966.

I'd rather hook one 40lb. chinook than 4 10lb. steelhead. One of these days I'll be able to plan a trip to Ak. to target big chinook and halibut.

In the late 60's and early 70's I witnessed a fish in that class up in the Nass Valley near the Canadian/Alaska border. My brother played the fish for about 20 minutes before it tired with us and decited that it had enough. In that time we had the fish on the surface at 30 feet away long enough to see that it made a more common 40 lb fish, in that river, look quite small.

I have heard about that fish also Bob.

I have seen some mighty big Summer Kings up in the Park on the North Fork Hoh In Late Aug through Oct. A couple 60's for sure but no 80's.

Bob, I believe you are correct. When my uncle was the head bio for the Quinaults, he did fly overs all the time and told me years ago about spotting a spawned out king on the Queets that he believed to be over 100#'s, easily (and he is as about as honest as they come).

Thought I'd share these old B&W's of some pretty big (and very famous) kings:

World record 126.5# Point Colpoys fish trap Prince of Wales Island, Alaska 1939



World record sport-caught king 97.25# Kenai River Alaska 1985

I think the one Bob was talking about might have been from a Quileute Trib. Maybe Im wrong.

Anyone remember in the early 1980's (1982?) the guy in Canada who played a king for two straight day's running two boats out of gas before losing the fish? Estimates were well over 100#. The news cameras recorded the fish being lost. It wouldn't fit into a single net so they tried to net it with two head/tail and it snapped off. I don't remember what river.

stlhead,

I think that was also the Kenai,and IIRC it was the early 90s. They speculated that it would have been the new world record,beating the fish in the pic a few posts back.

FishnDoc, great photo's, especially the 1st one. I've netted probably 15 fish between 50 and 62lbs. and the last few moments are always very exciting and somewhat nerve-wracking, I can't even imagine seeing that top fish coming into net range.

Stihlhead and HBP,

I thought that fish you guys are talking about was at River's Inlet in B.C.?

There was a two page fish tale in Fishing Holes back when it happened...the fish was estimated to be in excess of 100#, the two guys who were in the boat were guides who went out to do a little fun fishing, and fought the fish for something like 18 hours before breaking the fish off.

There was whole entourage of boats that went out to watch when they were notified by another guide boat of the ongoing drama, and I think that a helicopter even went out to watch.

They had the fish in the net at one point, but couldn't get enough of it in to pick it up, and the fish flopped out.

Somewhere I have a box with all the 70's Fishing Holes magazines...what awesome mags those were back in the day...the best maps and information I've ever seen in a magazine.

Fish on...

Todd

I too am a fan of catching big kings and searching for my personal Holy Grail of a 70 plus pounder. I read an interesting article in Popular Science magazine a couple years ago where scientists genetically manipulated some Chinook using a gene from a very deep running bottom fish that lives in extremely cold water (some type of flounder I believe) and used it's growth gene to manipulate the Chinooks growth rate and cycle and produced two fish weighing in excess of 500 lbs. One was 574 if my memory serves me correctly. Although not a fan of genetic engineering I have to wonder what a fight that would be.

That GM Chinook was in Australia, I believe, and soon after the government ordered them to destroy the fish and put the research under lock and key. Can you imagine a 500# hungry king?

the biggst kings in rivers inlet come out of the wannock river. its closed to hook and line, but several hundred pound carcases have come out of this river.

I have never seen a big King in real life. Stupid question but when a fish gets really big say over 50 pounds or something do they taste good ??? My buddie caught a 250 or so Halibut and it tasted sort of bad.

I would be willing to pay to see a picture of a 500lb. king, genetically engineered or not!
I imagine the seals would probably leave it alone at least. Let's see... 50lb. stand-up tackle, Penn Senator loaded with 60lb Spectra with dacron backing, half a chrome truck bumper for a flasher and the biggest squid sold. You would have to beef up the downrigger of course, I don't think the old Scotty is going to cut it.
I wonder if the nets in the river would have a chance? I'd love to see one of those sliding upriver once...

Here's a monster of a Skeena/Kalum fish:

Here's one more from the Kenai:

Theres no doubt those are damn big fish but me personally, I would much prefer a chrome 60 lbs. "ocean" king over those red/gray 80lbs. (+or -) river fish.
If those fish were smaller and caught down here they would be referred to as "boots" but since their big there trophy's,

I'm with you AkKings........those big red things are big........but nasty.

I once heard a story about a near 14ft fossil of a salmon along the Columbia.

Yikes!!!!

Based on the angle in which those photos were taken and how they are being held out in front of the camera, I don't believe those kings would run much over 50lbs

Guess again!

I don't know about the Skeena fish, but I can tell you for sure that Kenai fire-engine weighed 90.3# and was the biggest king taken in Alaska in 1993.

It was caught on the last day of the season in the upper river on a #5 Vibrax spinner. I know most of you are wondering why anyone would want to kill a fish of this caliber when it was already so far past its prime.

If it's any consolation, it turns out this fish was beyond "past its prime".... it had actually spawned BEFORE it was caught. That's right! It was a spent-spawner, and it still weighed over 90# without any milt sacs!


I've seen my fair share of 50-60# bucks being butchered at the fish cleaning tables on the Kenai. The milt sacs on those fish are each the size of small 5-7# salmon. The ones on this hawg surely weighed 10# apiece if not more. Had this fish been taken a few weeks earlier, it surely would have weighed 110#-plus.

Like they say, timing is everything.