I kind of got in the habit a few years ago, when I was reading scales for a living, of collecting scales from fish I released and aging them. I did catch one buck, a 17 pounder, that was on his second run. He was real suspicious looking - was colored up but overlain with chrome edged scales. From the degraded condition of the scale margin I would say he gained no weight at all in saltwater - might have even lost some - but was in excellent condition for all that and fought like a devil. Wish I had a pic but that was in the pre-digital days.

Also, when I was port sampling in the 70s, I got to see a huge steelhead in spawned out condition that was brought in by a troller - caught him in the ocean out of Neah Bay. Nitwit killed him and tried to sell him as a king (...but the tail has spots...). That one was over 25 I believe and looked to be in good shape. So some of those big bucks survive.