FishnDoc, I didn't vote in your poll since I don't fish the Columbia, but your story reminded me of an incident I had back in 98.
I always set my drags tight (gotta wrap around your hand to pull line) and I always explain to my guests why I do this and how I really prefer they don't mess with the drag. Well I get these 2 couples who have done there share of salmon fishing in Wa. and B.C. and seem to know the drill pretty well, with 1 exception, 1 of the guys informs me that he always fishes with virtually no drag and plans on doing this during this 4 day trip, I inform him that its both hard on fish and is very time consuming and keeps others from fishing while he's playing these fish. I let him know if he brings 1 up that I don't think is going to make it, it goes in the box, no debating. This guy is a decent fisherman and did ok for 3 days, no real problems but I always reminded him if he hooks a big king he better tighten down the drag and he would always come back with "don't worry about me", well, guess what happens on the last day, with about a 1/2 hour of fishing time left in their trip he, his wife and I all watch a king that was every bit of 45 lbs. grab his herring about a foot below the surface and head out at mach 3, the fish is doing its best flipper impression heading for the horizon, I throw the kicker in hard reverse and tell him he "has" to put some pressure on the fish, in less then 15 seconds that fish spooled a full Penn 109 (1 and only fish that has ever spooled someone on my boat) this guy proceeds to throw down the rod (GLoomis ) and claim it was my fault for not firing up the main and not chasing his fish, we exchanged a few words