It was the Babine and yes I will keep you in touch as I can not wait to see the pictures myself!!
A 50" is most likely pushing 40 pounds as there is a story about a legendary steelhead flyfisher by the name of Jerry Wintle. He caught it on the fly out of Skagit, he did not get a girth measurement though. Wintle believed the fish was possibly 40#. Also on the Skagit, a fish checker, years back, checked a 47" steelhead. The fish was described as 'snake' and it weighed only 29 pounds.
By calculation, the 47" steelhead caught out of the Skagit had a 22" girth. Thus, the Babine steelie's girth just needed to be 3 inches more then the Skagit river 47"er to hit 40 pounds. That is a sure thing as it is only November and the fish has yet to lose alot of weight.
And what if that Babine fish had a 28" girth?? 50 pounds!!!...but I think that is pushing it, well, maybe a little bit.
[ 11-26-2001: Message edited by: RPetzold ]