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.