I know Parquito already started a series of these, but I'll supplement with a few of my own... although not necessarily in Kronologikal order.

Thought I'd kick my series off with the pig of the trip. Credit goes to my bro Noel, and our tireless oarsman "fishook" who hosted Team KeenEye on the last driftboat Monday of the season.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the float from Centennial to Harry Gaines proved to be uneventful. Well, that's if you don't count the half-rack that disappeared over a few short miles of river.

Things finally got cooking at Big Eddy where my bro bounced up this brute. Couldn't keep him in the hole, so we lost any other chances of hooking up at Big Eddy. Finally put this one in the bag a 100 yds above camp at Riverbend. He measured fork length 51 x 30.5 girth... or about 64# on the fNp Kenai formula. Asked him if he wanted a Release-A-Hawg trophy mount?

"NOPE.... saving it for an 80-plus," he said non-chalantly.

simply not worthy..... very schweeet pics

Once again Chinook pictures of the summer come from The Keen Eye MD. Very nice and gonna be very hard to top. Jake has some good ones too but those are awsome. -TBJ

Oink.

Out of the DB even.... That's hardly fair.

Keep 'em coming! Although I have to say, showing the biggest fish first is a questionable move...

Holy crap! Huge!

What a magnificent creature, two thumbs up at releasing that fish for future generations.. beautiful..
thanks for sharing

Awesome !

dude! nice

I heard the stories al week, but that's the first I've seen photos of that fish!

Way to go, Noel!

Now, I'm going to take a piss, have a beer, pull the anchor and move on down!

Wouldn't have it ANY other way.

Well, we continued on downriver after a nice little lunch/beer/pee break at Riverbend.

Stroked on over to Hog Island kitty corner from camp... then as per Cap'n Fishook's sage and repetitive advice, "drop the hook, take a piss, drink a beer, then S-L-I-D-E on down.

Well, we slid right down thru the Fallin In Hole and about 1/3 of the way down the run, my bait/diver rod takes a bit of a dip... then another... and another.... and BAM! She goes down for good, and line is just a screamin' off the Calcutta 400TE.

I bark, "Grab the rod, Tanner!", and we're off on a Nantucket sleigh ride! Fish rips out the first 50 yd topshot of 65# PowerPro as the Bimini/Cat's Paw/Bimini splice went flying past the rod tip on the king's first downriver run. Then it's all Tanner could do to get line back on the reel as that HOT tide-fresh hen charged back upstream at warp speed, parting the waters with her broad back along the way. Fishook is stroking like hell to try to keep Tanner's line tight, but it's utterly pointless. Line is slacker than a teen on his first full-time job. BUT WAIT! Only had to endure two more seconds, and the fish would tighten the line for him anyway.... STRAIGHT UPSTREAM!

Holy [censored]! Line is literally melting off the spool as the fish sprints upriver.... while the DB continues to drift downriver. Fishook has to kick the oars back into high gear in an attempt to slow our barge's downstream S-L-I-D-E. In an instant, the Bimimi/Cat's Paw/Bimini is out of sight again, and in the next instant the second 50 yd topshot of PowerPro is gone and we're into the 30# IGFA Dacron backing, and it's disappearing fast.... progressively so, as the diameter of the remaining spool of line continued to shrink precariously. The fish nearly spools Tanner when he passes me back the rod. "Here, you take it!"

Fishook is stroking like a mother to squelch the uncontrolled outflow of line, while I lean the rod low and to the side, applying progressive thumb pressure to the bare spool in an attempt to turn that fish!

WHEW! She finally stopped, and decided to just free drift with us at the end of her 200-plus yd long MEGA-leash. I scrambled eggs at warp speed to gain line, and once all of the base top-shot of PowerPro was back on the reel I passed the rod back to Tanner to finish the job. A few more runs and topwater antics, and she was ready for the bag. Beached the boat below a familiar island (see my FishAlska avatar), and it was time for a few glory shots of a FINE hen!

Always great stuff Doc!

My fave...



You deserve that hundred pounder as much or probably more (because you will release it) than anyone else.

Wow!!!

Thanks for the sentiment, Harry.

Funny you should say that, because the best I could muster on this auspicious day was this micro-jack. Just my size, dude... perfect for me 'cause I get to bonk the SOB for nutrition, I get to cleanse the gene pool of the fish that REALLY need weeding out.... AND.... I get to keep fishin'

What more could a guy ask for?

As a bonus I got to use the homemade birch de-hooker fishook's son made up for his driftboat in my honor! Too cool!

Way cool doc. As usual! My favorite pic is the close up of the head with the Jurassic teeth!
CHeers,
neal

Nice stuff as usual Doc!

you never cease to amaze me and make me even more jealous as I continue to lose big fish on the Skykomish I only dream of hooking something as monstrous as you seem to get on a regular basis,LOL

Nice.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Thought I'd put up a nice CLEAN hi-rez version of the moneyshot for the entire trip.