P.S
Lazy drifter,

After I skin a fish for mounting you wouldnt want to eat it. It takes about 2 hours for a big steelhead and I use chemicals to prevent scale loss and during the process my fingers are all over that meat. It takes so long to skin for me because I dont like to spend alot of time fleshing as it is tedious and subjects the skin to more risk of scale loss.

In the treaties the natives allowed us the priviledge to fish not the other way around.

I am still upset at one of your state representatives from Eastern Washington who (legally) killed a 14# Rainbow out of the Kenai a couple years ago. He too was going to take it home an smoke it. BTW, he was plunking for kings when he caught it. Just as he legally had a right to kill it (not any more due to new rules) I have a legal right to think he is wrong and express that to him an others. BTW, the group hasn't been back to our camp since.

Just a question for you, do you let all your clients keep those "Kenai Tomatoes"(the 57/65/68/55) as shown on your website? Talk about a hypocrite!

What tomatoes? Sure you got the right website?

Yukon's webpage is one of the few that isn't splattered with tomato ketchup a la Kenai.

How about these.

Attack of the killer tomatoes.

Looking at those fish, it amazes me that people say they cut orange...

Sad thing...

Keith

Wouldn't surprise me in the least if the meat on those fish was rocket red and firm.

Those Kenai/Kaislof fish are nothing like the fall turds we call "salmon" down here.

I think some of the gripe for these Kenai first run(?) fish are that the guides fish for them up on the redds. Since the fish are generally not going to move a whole lot and are hyper aggressive protecting their redds, the pickins' is easy and the fish get hammered on.

I think the big gripe is to let the upper Kenai fish just do their thing unmolested. Am I right on this Doc?

My Dad's ditch fish was a big tomatoe, but the damn thing was a mile from the salt water and had sea lice on it. Just tide-washed for a few days and colored up the outside.

Cap Q, you do prove my point exactly, you have a right to a opinion and to express that opinion. You can accuse me of being a hypocrite but have you ever fished the Kenai?
These guys are right, I have seen true tomatoes with sea lice on them and caught in tide water. Many of our fish flush in and out, many caught in the ocean (especially in the nets) have turned to what you all would call tomatoes.
Many of our fish are very blushed up when they hit the river.
I have caught a chrome bright as you can get hens whose meat was softer than a humpy while a colored up male is bright and firm.

I really don't want to get into it with anyone, that was not the point of my post, my point was that my ethics are not the same as one who kills a 14# rainbow and I have right to express that as does the originator of the thread about the steelhead. And you have the right to rip my opinion about your legistator, which btw, was not intended to be a representation of your fishing ethics, but to show the point of personal ethics.
You all have enough battles to fight to not be battling other sport fishermen over ethics. I have a feeling you all would not like the way Alaskans are master flossers!!

Parker, don't get the good Doc and I going on the first run, spawning beds, and the like, betweeen the both of us we have enough data and opinions to fill up the site bandwidth!

Back In the day when I was operating a 6 pack out of Deep Creek we would target those july Kenai Kings. They reguarlly had a Dark Copper color to them. I think its the Genetic make up of those fish.

Get Back of the subject. Someone bonked a big nat on the Quillute.

Maybe he was hungry.

Thanks for the response Yukon. I have been fishing the Kenai every year for the last 15. My point is that a wild fish is a wild fish. Why is the Rainbow so noble that it must be released(you stated it was legal to keep) and you condemn the angler and yet you help people kill wild Chinook from the greatest strain left in the world?

Capt. Q - That is a very good question and one well all (Kenai Anglers) must ask ourselvers. Why is a 14lb probably 15-20yr old fish held higher than a 70lb king? My guess is the main difference is one is a resident fish and one not. As you have probably seen over the last 15yr(especially the last 3-4 years) the mindset on the Kenai has been changing and more and more of the big hogs are being released, especially with the "Catch a Hog" program.
I struggle with the question every year, and I always get stuck going back to the commercial fisherman who are netting more kings than we are catching and like most of you, get angery. Why and I supposed to carry the burdon of conservation when the not allowing one or two EO's would save more fish than the entire guide fleet releasing fish. Right or wrong it is tough to swallow and yes I know once it is in the river it is past the nets. The truth is we are all fishing spawning fish, if it weren't for the angler all of those fish would spawn once they are in the river.
The bottom line is every year more and more fish are being released, it is up to the guide to educate the clients, and I find more and more of my clients are electing to release fish and are happy to kill a little 30lber if one at all.
And again, my original intent was one of ethics all of ours are different, someone killing a fish legally and me not liking it is okay, you not liking me not liking it is okay, I guess that is why we have these discussions. As in my previous post sportfishermen must be away of in fighting over ethics because in the bigger picture there are a lot of people out there that would not like to see us fish at all because of their "ethics".

Normal blushy fish from up north ...

Very different sexual dimorphism in play in differnt waters.

I'd take a or even fairly red fish from north and put it up against the chromest of a WA fall kings.

That's not to say they aren't taken ... normally the key is the belly, still white usually means good meat, once the black sets in, toss it back.

And to go hand in hand with the original post, I know one of the local motel owners cracked TWO Hoh wild fish last week, one of which was 21 pounds.

Silly given the state of affairs down there and the now-shortened season. When there is no season at all, I wonder if he'll be lamenting about where all his potentional guests are??

Captain Q, Love the Tabitha Stevens avatar!!
Peace
Superfly

You gotta hand it to Fly, he knows his porn stars.

That sounds like there is poor enforcement of the one wild fish per year rule. If the motel owner killed two Hoh wild fish last week he must have little concern about getting busted. How about the plunkers on the Quilleute? Are they killing wild fish in excess of one per year?

I'm sure eventually he will get what he has coming... =) Maybe someone will bonk a forks native? =)