When I lived in Alaska I fished the Kenai River every chance I could. Usually I fished alone but one weekend I invited a co-worker. He got a 25 pound spring right off the bat and he sat in the bow of the boat reading a book while I continued to work my gear. I decided to change gear and took off a golf'ball sized Spin n' Glo and replaced it with the smallest Spin N' Glo in my box and tipped it with a small gob of roe.....
First drop I got a serious take-down and this fish, instead of going down stream like most of the springs do in that river, started powering upstream. On the way, it picked up everyone's gear who was boon dogging downstream. I gave up all hope but the guides were absolutely cool....they new I had a big fish on and i'm not making this up....if they could n't untangle their client's lines lickety'split they cut it off with scissors.
The Kenai is a big glacial river with a strong current . I had already motored at least a mile upstream after this fish through a very stout current and i'd cleared at least 40 lines off my gear...I was amazed I was still hooked up to this fish and really wanted to see it.
So I finally get him into a big bennd in the river where the current slows down and got within hand-grenade distance of the fish. It broke the surface and it looked like someone had dropped a Chevy into the river...it was huge!
So i'm working the tiller and working the rod and starting to eye the net wondering how all this is going to work...meanwhile my co-worker is just standing there saying Jeseus! Jeseus!
Because the current is so swift I decided to give him the net. I maneuvered the boat alongside the fish and finally got a glimpse. Not only was it huge but it was chrome bright, rare when the fish get this big. I got the head up alongside my inflatable and told my co-worker to get the head into the hoop and i,d drop the rod tip and goose the throttle at the same time. He just stood there looking like he,d swallowed a whole egg, saying Jeseus! Jeseus! The guy had augured into a cliff....a click shy from total uselessness
I had no other choice but to give him the rod and I'd do the netting. He reached for the rod, reeled down on the hook set, and jerked the tip towards the sky. I saw the tiny Spin n' Glo and the hook it was attached to pop free and the fish slowly, no body movement at all, sunk down into the hole and disappeared.
I know my way around 50's and 60's and that fish was no doubt 70+.....the head was the size of a large silver watermellon
All the way back to Anchorage I couldn't say a word to that guy. I had never seen someone fall apart like that over a fish and I guess it was my turn now
To this day, I fish alone. On the rare occasion that I do take someone in my boat, I hook and net my own fish
This summer I lost a biggie in Rivers. When the hook pulled I said oh well...i've come a long way since that I lost that Kenai fish