40 years ago in July, Jerry Downey set the IGFA Men’s 8-kg (16 lb) Line Class World Record with this incredible 35.15-kilogram (77-pound, 8-ounce) Chinook salmon. Jerry was drift fishing the Kenai River with a spin glo lure and landed the record salmon after a 30-minute fight. The mid 80’s produced some of the largest Chinook salmon in the IGFA record books. #fishIGFA

That is a good one for sure.

That doesn't happen anymore. King salmon on the down slide nowadays. Almost state wide. Not much agreement on why.

Costa Rica,,,?? There is a river there that the kings moved to after the building of Bonnivive dam

On the bucket list,,,…..

The entire Kenai is going to be closed again this summer; third year in a row.

Hefty Hefty Hefty!!!!

I think the Nushagak River also
Sucks

The Alaska fishery has been getting milked hard for decades now. Lots of tons of fish get hauled out of there headed south every year. The ocean floor could not be constructed more perfectly than it is to produce lots of fish year after year. Looks like it is maybe having an impact. I was up there maybe 12 yrs ago. When the salmon were filleted back at the dock the bellies were thrown in the garbage. Asian women were there cutting out the belly meat and they were jumping up and down with joy. They say the belly is the best part of the fish. When grizzlies or/and browns catch salmon the belly is the first thing they go for.

Kills me when I see people cutting off the bellies when they filet salmon. It's really the best stuff.


Also the Pink fishery has expanded by tenfold or so and some biologists think that all the hatchery pinks may compete with the other salmon.

I paid $300 for "a day of halibut and salmon fishing" Caught two chickens, they took my pole and gave me a different pole...caught three pinks and I was done. Not my idea of a day of fishing. No catch and release even.

Been a goodun next year.

But the belly is where most of the toxins are. Like mercury, p.b.b., etc..

Pacific salmon don't have any of the toxicity of the great lake salmon. You can eat as much as you want if it's wild Alaskan Salmon.

King salmon runs are struggling everywhere. Halibut spawning biomass at a 40 year low. Same day a roughly 20% reduction in sport, commercial and subsistence it was announced that pollack trawlers had dumped 99K lbs of baby halibut in the past week, fishing “mid water” gear in designated nursery zone, and roughly 300 chinook per day for the past month

Like this? Friend saw this on the Kenai R last summer

My soul. It hurts.

Between hatchery frye....in the billions and trailers, our salmon returns are doomed.

MT, you mean Trawlers?

My friends always want me to bring them back salmon. So I give them the fillets, and keep the bellies for myself.

Is that the " Texas " style of filleting fish? Kinda reminds me of the " Texas " style of butchering moose.