gravity does work differently in oregon

#43 is the biggest kinger...
Broke the 50 mark last B-day...Oh Boy!!!

Clearly, IFish is a way cooler BB.

They catch 50 or 60 20-lb steelhead each season too. 3 or 4 of them actually weighed 20 lbs, too.

There's a pic of a claimed 46# on the ifish thread that I swear isn't much over 28, but it's a true Oregon 46.

Broke 27 and 32 last year, both my biggest ever. Hope to improve this year. I'd feel blessed to some day kill a 40 lb hatchery king.

My friend got a 48" 54 lb at the mouth of the Klamath in August 2002. We thought it could have been a stray from up North- That's a big Klamath fish. Didn't think to let it go-we all gotta start somewhere.

Here's a study that may be of interest to this discussion (see also, Hankin 1993):

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-209043868.html


Imagine that.... big fish beget big fish..... who'da'thunk it?

While not exactly the "silver bullet" study that some folks are demanding to show that releasing big fish makes a difference in increasing the number of larger older chinook in the next generation, one can deductively reason from this paper that giving the big bucks a free pass to the gravel certainly increases the potential to create more big fish from any given brood year.

Would love to see ODFW or WDFW try this on just one lonely stream in each respective state as a pilot project to see if it actually worked. It's really the only way to definitively find out.... run the dam experiment on one stream for two complete chinook life cycles, and let the chips fall where they may.

OK, I'll play as there are a few from Alaska already posted.

fp

Never officially had one down here but have had clients release several that were over 50 in both the Nooch and Halis. Biggest one that got away and we would have been able to keep was a Spring/Summer in the Halis 7 years back that was pushing 55. Darn thing wrapped up in the leader and broke off when he started jumping like crazy! Monster fish for sure. The same day we boated and bonked a 37...Also lost a fall fish a few years back in the Halis that me and the client both believe was over 60. Cool to still see a few like that around. Biggest keeper I've personally landed was on the Kenai where I've had 3 over 50. Biggest keeper for a client down here was 41 and Chrome in the Cow last year, the pics below . My biggest personal fish here in WA was pushing 35 out in the Salt with my late friend Steve Miller on his charter boat Freedom back in the early 90s.

Ive been lucky enough to shake hands with more kings then is really right for someone's life time:
PR is a 55lbr on the fly in AK (yes a boot but longest damn king I have ever seen landed) best pic i have for length scale:
Gear caught:
a few nice client fish:




Fiance got one 40lbs this year that was the biggest/thickest king Ive seen landed in WA, yes a bogi chromer (term for bronzed boot coined by phill mirod)


more somewhere if I ever get the time to dig them up and a few clients have floating around I really want to get copies of someday

sometimes ya can convince clients to release em and sometimes ya can't....







50# on the nose



Not a 50 but a nice girthy girly for the gravel



48" should put this buckster pretty close



Well over....



60+ for the gravel..........

Gotta love those big nooks. It's what keeps me going all summer long. That, and a lot of coffee
Summerrun with his dads gagger Chinook

Linda Dally's 64 pound gagger from Cape Ulitka

Hell I'm well past 50. What was the question again?

BTW I have several Kenai fish over 50 but only one salt fish that made the grade.

Darn nice fishy Keith!

I on the other hand have never come close to 50. Heck, not even 40.

Wow. Some bruisers all around. That 60+ ditch fish was a monster. Hard to argue with Robbo's platinum hog monsters though. Good stuff gents.

kinda funny that the biggest fish boated this last season was on the ditch

Why?

I know they swim there. I have yet to see one over about 35 personally.

Personally, my biggest was a 58 out of Satsop years ago .... bigger yet than anything I've caught up north (51 Kenai fish), but I don't have many personal days on the river up that way, especially during big fish time. Watched many, many others caught by others over the years though Like this one ...

Dandy!

Didn't Parker's dad real up a big one outta Last Chance or Desperation?