Big Fish

As I type we're seeing the first real snowfall of the year...time to leave 😎 I  thought for this edition of Mile 14 instead of moving along as I like to do we might look back a bit. Ya know this place has always been known for it's big King Salmon, they put us on the map...So I went through some of my old pics and quickly found a pretty good representation of what it was like back ' in the day '.  I hope some of you local guides who read Mile 14 might have a take away - we need this again - and get busy promoting good fisheries management as well as some plane old fairness in our fisheries management as well.

The million dollar boat circa 1995 or so. Those three guys have all their fish over 60 pounds.  It was an exceptional day and we released several smaller ones to get these. Right now there are those on the river advocating the release of all salmon like these and I kinda have mixed emotions about that but it sure can't hurt, there must be some sense to the gene pool theory and for those of you think that we are responsible for where the fishery is now all I can say is.... who would have guessed and nobody did anything illegal or immoral, times just changed and the big fish are harder to come by.

That fish there is the first legit 80 pounder I ever saw. I didn't guide it , my friend Carl Butcher did and we had it on a brochure that we shared in the mid 80's . This was certainly the ' golden era ' of the Kenai...many fish, many guides, many boats, pretty exciting. I think it's simple, more fish = more big fish and when we return the numbers to what they were we shouldn't be surprised to see these babies again.

That's my friend ' Latch' , Mark Egholm right here at Mile 14 in the mid 80's. We took that fish to The Maverick Club to show the guys and when a rough neck named Corky Moore asked my where we caught it and I pointed at his lip I damn near got my ass kicked for being a wise acre.

That's my dad, the Colonel with an absolutely gorgeous salmon. He was a pretty steady visitor to the world famous and I had this feeling that he felt like that every time he sat in my guide boat he was recovering another $150.00 of the lettuce he spent on the education I never used.

That fish of my dad's was so pretty I thought I'd follow up with this shiney model of Dale Einwalter's. If I remember correctly that fish was real close to 60 pounds, about as big a female as you'll ever see. Out of the thousands....yes I said thousands of King's I've seen up close the biggest female was 63 pounds...and oh baby did that salmon fight !

I'm kinda load testing my memory here....that fish was the 1st 70 pounder I ever guided. The big guy Kennedy caught it down at the pastures on one of the first trips I ever made that far down river. His buddy helping is ??????? darn it......yahooo on my proof read I just got it, Ed Walsh, he was a great guy.

If any of my friends recognize that fish it's because it's the one I have on my wall. My friend Marty Holleran caught it in the mid 80's and gave it to me mounted. How cool. The fish was an Old Hunter Fisher Skin Mount and about 25 years ago I was sitting in my recliner below where the fish was hanging and I looked up and happened to notice movement...YIKES....it had bugs living in some of the oil that was coming out of it's head. SO, I was doing business with Mark Oslund of Alaska Real Life Taxidermy and he took it and put a fiberglass head on it and repainted it and to this day it is gorgeous. The first time I met Marty he and his brother had come to fish as we had mutual friends in Redwood City CA. Well, Marty got in a car wreck returning from a halibut trip in Homer and spent the rest of his trip in the hospital. Not to be detered he returned the next year and was rewarded with that Jumbo slimey.....love ya Marty !

Neil Devaney from Helena Montana with his first King ever. I know it ain't a jumbo but I wanted you to see the boat with that awesome Merc on it....they called them the ' Tower of Power' as they were an in-line 6 cylinder. That boat with that motor was the fastest it would ever be. In the day the boats were quick enough that if you bored of the lower river or if you thought you might catch better up river you'd just check your gas and go....many a time I ran from Mile 14 to Mile 35 or 40. The custom paint work had to go when I got the Honda sponsorship , it was done by another Montanan and a friend of Neil's named Gary Allison in Homer Alaska, great people I've known along the way. That pic was taken in the spring here at Mile 14 and you can see how low the river was and that I had the riser on the stern to accommodate the Jet Unit we used to run.

I can't tell ya those guys names but I love that pic and the way they're standing in the river. Those fish are easy 50 pound class and a matched set, one boy, one girl.

This final pic is a customer of mine holding that 70 pounder that he's going to catch next year...We're pretty darn good at it but not everybody gets the jerk they desire. He doesn't look to stressed about the situation does he ??? , I like that.

Most likely the next time you hear from the staff here at Mile 14 we'll be temporarily billeted at the Mile 14 Southern Bureau...I'll fish my first morning and post a fish pic that same day, maybe 😕. Hope you come back for a look - see .