Originally posted by fishNphysician:
[b]Conserving giant Kenai kings.... and sad to say, a bit of a losing battle at this moment.

OK, back to keeping this thread on topic. If we're talking hand-to-fin combat, here's my story:

Backtrolling the Pillars on the Kenai with K-16's and divers, just me and my brother Noel in 1998. Line angle on one rod starts to go vertical.

I tell my brother, "Hey you're snagged up."

He says , "Nah, the plug's still working, it's OK"

"No way, its almost straight up and down... you're diver is snagged up and the line is just slipping through"

"OK, you're right"

He starts reeling and the line is now past vertical and pointing upstream. He says, "Damn, it's really snagged up.... motor up."

"I am," as I begin powering upriver.

"I said motor up, dammit"

I barked back, "I am, dammit! Look... we're way above that other boat now," pointing to the boat that was alongside us just seconds earlier.

OK we'd had him on for the better part of an hour. No problem, he's leading very nicely... just drift down across Chicago (aka the Crossover)and beach him on the next bar above Beaver Creek. As we're working our way across, the line suddenly goes limp.

After more than an hour, all we had to show for our efforts was a swivel, 3 ft of 80# test leader, a mangled up 00 Zebra Spin-N-Glo, and a pair of 7/0 octopus hooks! OK, we did get some video footage, but not one scene showing the actual fish. After it porpoised in the first minute of the battle, it never suraced again. The only other glimpse I had was a vague headshake.... I could only imagine how much fish was beyond the 2 ft of viz we had in the water.

When I think about the odds.... giant fish breaks off a previous angler, a one-in-a-million hookup on a barrel swivel, the epic battle, the predicament of running out of rod, then running out of beach, only to have the hooks pull loose.... WOW! I've yet to touch another fish that size again....but you never know! That's what keeps me coming back year after year. [/b]