Not master guide Greg Brush. Check out this estimated 86# beast released to perpetuate its genetic fitness on June 30, 2004... one day before fishing was liberalized to permit using bait. His all-time career best measured 55 x 34.... WOW! Fabulous catch! Excellent release!


Note: edited for a few more details and a higher rez JPG for the viewer audience to oggle over.

Where else?

That is chrome for a fish that size!!

What a nice C&R.

18 days.......not that I'm watching the calendar.

Truly is a beautiful fish and I gotta hand it to them for releasing. The only sad part is there isn't nearly as many of those beasts today as there was 10 and 20 years ago. 80 lb fish were quite common back then.

AWESOME!!!

Fish C.P.R.

A picture like that is not one you are likely to see on this site very often. BTW that fish is a career best for Greg Brush, one of the most conscientious and professional guides on the Kenai River. He and I share a friendship grounded in the belief that the Kenai's unique genetic strain of truly giant kings are far more valuable left in the river than they are stuffed on a wall, in a can, or in a freezer.

That monster's DNA is far better off seeding the spawning gravel than it is denaturing on somebody's backyard BBQ. Think about it, does it really make sense to slaughter your very best broodstock year after year? Well, that's exactly what we have been doing on the Kenai for over three decades. These are genuinely special fish that should be conserved for generations to come, both human and salmonid.

The client who caught that fish will qualify for a fiberglass replica of that magnificent king for next to nothing $$$, thanks to Mr. Brush's participation in the Kenai River Sportfishing Association's "Release-A-Hawg" program. If a living room adornment is what someone wants, there is absolutely no reason to kill one of these piscine treasures for a skin mount. A replica just makes so much more sense, and will unquestionably outlast a skin mount long after it has begun to peel, shrink, and crack.

I urge any and all of you who have an itch to fish for the Kenai's giant chinook to seriously consider joining in this conservation effort. If you wanna catch and release a big hawg next year (rest of his current season is almost certainly booked), look him up at http://www.EZlimit.com. While you are there, check out the extensive photo gallery's C&R section... I guarantee you will be impressed.

If you are a like-minded salmon angler that is more interested in the pursuit and conservation of these one-of-a-kind fish than you are a fishbox full of meat, this is your man! You will not be disappointed.

Interesting comments and ones that I share with you doc. I fill my cooler with reds when I go up there and we will occasionally bonk a 40 or 50, but the big guys get to go free. It sure is fun to release a big fish in front of a bunch of folks. Most of them think you are crazy, but in the end, you just increased their odds.

I agree wholeheartedly FnP. There would be a whole lot more of those big boys these days if that mentality had been practiced in the past three decades. I really never understood a five fish limit for those monsters. What's someone going to do with 5 fish over 50 lbs. I used to keep two kings a year when I went. However, by the time I stopped going I felt that was too much based on the numbers being whacked. Although I will comment that some of the worst waste I ever saw was a pile of kings that was at least 15' high rotting on the dock down in Kenai by the mouth of the river.

I agree too and practice it religiuosly. BUT you had to know that somebody was going to go on the attack sooner or later. Have you read the Alaska magazine a couple of months back? They published an article that essentially said releasing fish back into the river is causing more damage than limiting the harvest.... Another perspective, one I don't take much stock in. The article was titled, "Playing With Your Food". The author went on to elaborate on the numbers of fish that are returned with serious injury due to release after fishing with barbed hooks and the danger it's causing with the rest of the fishing population due partially to reduced overall fitness of the population and increased susceptibility to disease. They also bring up how cruel we all are for releasing the fish we love to "play with". I say rock-on; release em all!

Hopefully that salmon makes it to its spawning ground. If that fish is a female I couldn't imagine how tremendously enormous the redd would be. Not only that, but that fish could clean a ton of silt out of the river and churn up some pretty big rocks. Kudos to the fisherman and the guide for releasing the behemoth.

I agree with Doc on this one, big time!

I could never really understand folks wanting to harvest salmonids that have made it to the river. I try to keep certain perspectives in simple terms, and regarding this issue of catch and release of salmonids, particularly big ones, whomever is harvesting a river fish is harvesting 'the best of the best'.

I mean, that fish harvested and put on the BBQ often made it past dams as a parr, made it past commercial fishers, orcas, seals, and what not, and made it all the way back to the river to spawn. Hey, those are the fish that I want to propagate and continue the species! And, if a person wants to keep a fish to eat, the fish of the same species caught in the salt is arguably better eating.

This is not disrespecting those who keep fish that make it back to the river to spawn; it's just providing a different perspective.

What a superb fish Greg caught, and two big thumbs up for letting it go to continue its genetics in the gene pool! Hope to catch one of its offspring some day.

FNP-

I hope you always keep posting the great pictures that you do.. It's one the great motivating factors for me to get out there..!


I have expressed my opnion on the release of the Kenai hogs before.. I hate to see a reproduction of a hog on some rich business owners wall... See it all the time in businesses around here..Big ego thing I guess...

I always wondered why anyone wanted to keep some of the tomatos up there that they did. I would much rather keep a salt salmon for table fare. Alaska river reds for table fare...big kings for fun!

I am with you Doc and thanks for the link to the fillet method.

A helluva fish indeed ... that's what fishing the Kenai is all about!

You may spend a bunch of hours looking for one, but when he bites, it might be huge!

WOW Now that's a piggy for sure

That is one big salmon, it would be hard to let go, but these days with the reproduced mounting of fish it's easier to do, it's better to let go anyway to throw those eggs down in the gravel for more hawgs in the future.

Thanks for the fillet method, Doc. I tried it for the first time last night on a couple steelhead, it worked like a champ.