Cut the kid some slack, the guide is worth his salt. Sure, he helped the young man as any good guide would do especially seeing how he knew it was his first time out for King's. The guide even stated the fish got caught up in the planer boards and had to be untangled which would require a hand no matter how experienced you are but unfortunately people like you can't stand the fact that an inexperienced fisherman broke the record with some help. You will never take away his moment, his glory or his experience with what appears to be a great guide and genuinely good person. Never trying to steal the kids thunder instead he showed just as much excitement if not more knowing the potential record breaking catch caught on his charter and a kid that had never fished for Chinook a day in his life just broke the standing 43 year record and the guide was there to let him know just how big of a deal this is and neither one of them will never forget the experience shared that day. I doubt you will ever beat this kid and his guide as they are now the true masters holding a state record, a lifetime bond, bragging rights and the stories that go along with it. Unfortunately there will always be angry little trolls around to knock people down and make them feel as they do not deserve their achievements. This group will be remembered for years to come and you will be long forgotten in a moments notice. The two DNR agents won't forget this and neither will Field and Stream seeing how they published an on-line article about this event but never mentioned your insignificant name. The kid will hopefully be obsessed about hooking anything with scales or skin no matter how big or small for the rest of his life, the next generation hopefully having a passion and respect for the outdoors that started on the Icebreaker II and hopefully working towards mastering a skill that had only just begun. Hats off to all involved, hopefully y'all created a monster! To the newly anointed King of Kings, the rest may be downhill and there won't be any pressure on you for the moment. Just remember the record could be broken tomorrow or fifty years from now we will never know. That being said keep on keeping on, stay with it if you can. Remembering the more time spent on the water the better the odds are of beating your personal best! It happened to me on Lake Fork in the early 90's and I'm still working on winning back the title but if it doesn't happen I will always say I had the most fun trying, it's aqua therapy for me.
Not really great news from what I’ve heard… I forget the lake it may have been Ontario but from what I’ve heard before the alewives went completely extinct in the lake and thus the king salmon went bye bye the fish caught started getting bigger but they started catching less
These 4 year old kings eventually die when they come in to spawn at their maturity peak. It's DNA won't be in the MI system, but at least there's data to keep potentially a good ratio of class in the high 20-30lbers.
