If sockeye got as big as kings you couldn't land one. They are not agressive biters which gets old soon enough. Hot fish though and they get my respect.

King salmon are awsome fish and somtimes SIZE DOES COUNT. Sometimes hooking a king reminds me of tying my line to the bumper of a car and trying to bring it in. The power and the glory. Just the same, you can get one to lay on its side after a prolonged battle. If you find a place to fish them near tide water where they have to hole up at low tide, they can be as fierce, acrobatic, and fun as any fish that swims. Guys who fish the "ditch"(WA,not AK) know exactly what I'm talking about.

My favorite of the salmon is the chum. swinging flies at chromers on the tide is THE COOLEST method I have encountered so far. I have hoooked 40+ on one tide on the Alagnak and am sure this has biased me in some way I don't recall any of them laying on their side and concedeing defeat. Tough fish, agressive biters, what more could you ask for.

The fish that kicked my arse the hardest however, was a 30+lb Quinault river steelhead. I was fishing with Robbin Rhoades when I hooked this wet dream. A good hookset, and the fish was instantly under the boat, faster than you can snap your fingers. A credible job of speed reeling caught up with the fish. Four feet of air just behind the outboard revealed what I would be seeing in dreams for the rest of my life. The biggest steelhead either of us had ever seen(Poetic licence). An obsceneley powerful 100yard run taxed my 10lb ultra green to the limit. Another magnificent jump into some brush overhanging the bank and we were all to soon parted. Kinda funny how "the one that got away" sticks in your memory more than those brought to hand and keeps you coming back.

I don't know nuthin' about pound for pound, but I'll take steelhead.
Anyday. Allday.

peace
Rich