Huge Kenai Bow

[Kodiak Commando]

Was fishing next to this guy several years back and put down my rod to watch in awe as it took him forever to land this huge fish. Today I was surfing the web and found the pic he took in the alaska outdoor journal hall of fame and it brought back memories!

[TroutFishingBear]

I've seen and caught a few rainbows approaching that size before. I should show some ken gallegos pictures, he fishes certain big fish rivers in my area. (mostly the tailwater as he is a flyfisherman, which are flys and lures only) He has all sorts of rainbows, browns and cuttbows in the 10-25 lb. range, although he only catches 1 fish every 3 trips.
I'll see if I can find some ken gallegos pics on the internet

[scansy]

A few years ago, I was on a trip to the Kenai with my Dad.  On a guided trip on the river, we hooked and landed two rainbows - fighting them both at the same time.  One was 9 lbs, the other 12 lbs.  Needless to say, the boat was crazy while we were fighting them.  I'll have to try to find the pics.  Unfortunately, mine was the smaller one.

[wny angler]

thats a decent size fish .how much ya figure it weighed  ?  11 or 12 lbs would be my guess  but its hard to tell from pictures.
   

[Kodiak Commando]

It's a lot bigger than 11 or 12 pounds on the site it said it was 30 inches long with a 21.5 inch girth So i will calculate the weitght.

21.5x21.5= 462.25x30=13867.5/800=  17.3 Pounds

This way of calculating is not always exactly right but is never off more than half a pound. This fish was on the Alaska outdoor journal hall of fame photo  gallery. This gallery contains only trophy fish, the minumum for a bow to make this gallery is that it is over 15 pounds. 11 or 12 pounders are to common on the kenai, i personally caught 13 fish between 10 and 12 pounds last year.

[wny angler]

It's a lot bigger than 11 or 12 pounds on the site it said it was 30 inches long with a 21.5 inch girth So i will calculate the weitght.

21.5x21.5= 462.25x30=13867.5/800=  17.3 Pounds

This way of calculating is not always exactly right but is never off more than half a pound. This fish was on the Alaska outdoor journal hall of fame photo  gallery. This gallery contains only trophy fish, the minumum for a bow to make this gallery is that it is over 15 pounds. 11 or 12 pounders are to common on the kenai, i personally caught 13 fish between 10 and 12 pounds last year.

wow!17+ lbs,thats a lot bigger than i thought but its hard to tell from pictures.
that sure is a nice fish

that calculating is kind of confusing to me ,i cant make sense of it..
my biggest  rainbow was 37 inches long with a girth of 24.5  -i never got it on an acurate scale only one of those cheap hand scales.   you say the formula is pretty acurate. wish i knew how to do the math 

[Kodiak Commando]

I learned this method from a tide book. It's in all the tide books for alaska and it should be noted in only works with salmonids such as salmon trout and char because of their body shape. Heres how you do it in 3 simple steps

1. Square the girth of the fish
2.Multiply that by the lenght of the fish
3.Then divide that by 800

So by using that method your fish should have weighed closely around 27.8 pounds

[TroutFishingBear]

my biggest  rainbow was 37 inches long with a girth of 24.5  -i never got it on an acurate scale only one of those cheap hand scales.   you say the formula is pretty acurate. wish i knew how to do the math 

don't you mean steelhead? Lol, another thread for another day.

[wny angler]

my biggest  rainbow was 37 inches long with a girth of 24.5  -i never got it on an acurate scale only one of those cheap hand scales.   you say the formula is pretty acurate. wish i knew how to do the math 

don't you mean steelhead? Lol, another thread for another day.

ok -ok      it was a steelhead/rainbow  but everyone knows big  steelhead are twice as hard to land    anyone can catch a big rainbow

I learned this method from a tide book. It's in all the tide books for alaska and it should be noted in only works with salmonids such as salmon trout and char because of their body shape. Heres how you do it in 3 simple steps

1. Square the girth of the fish
2.Multiply that by the lenght of the fish
3.Then divide that by 800

So by using that method your fish should have weighed closely around 27.8 pounds

thanks for the explaintion on the formula
     my fish was estimated at around 22 lbs  so i took it off the wall to double check the measurements  ----- either my memory isnt so good or the fish is shrinking  the gith only measures 22.5 inches now 

anyways sorry for highjacking your thread      

that kenai bow would be a trophy anywhere - nice fish

[Kodiak Commando]

WNY Angler you have never fished for big alaskan bows that fight just as hard and steelhead including the steelhead i have caught in alaska and british columbia. In fact i go out with a kind of do it yourself camp that does have guides and the maine guide/owner says he used to guiede for steelhead in two places and the rainbows of the naknek put them to shame. Those places were oregon and western New York

It's not surprising they fight so great because when you are fishing for them they are gorging on protein rich flesh and eggs. Lots of protein= high metabolism which=lots of energy which= Fighting Power!

[scansy]

WNY Angler you have never fished for big alaskan bows that fight just as hard and steelhead including the steelhead i have caught in alaska and british columbia. In fact i go out with a kind of do it yourself camp that does have guides and the maine guide/owner says he used to guiede for steelhead in two places and the rainbows of the naknek put them to shame. Those places were oregon and western New York

It's not surprising they fight so great because when you are fishing for them they are gorging on protein rich flesh and eggs. Lots of protein= high metabolism which=lots of energy which= Fighting Power!

Definately a lot of high powered food there.  Also, they are strong from fighting that current all the time in the Kenai.  It is so much more swift and powerful than the rivers I'm familiar with here in PA.

[TroutFishingBear]

WNY, just so you know, our rainbows are mostly cuttbows and wild. Stocker rainbows, which is mostly what you easterners have, are smaller and fight very weak compared to a real, wild rainbow. Rainbow/cuttbow trout are the hardest fighting fish out there, they put bass, lakers, walleye, and everything else to shame. Our rainbows/cuttbows eat primarily flannelmouth suckers, white suckers, and roundtail chubs, all very high caloric fish. Ours really don't eat that many bugs.

Are those kenai bows stocker or wild kodiak? Also, do they hybridize with cutthroats? or do you have no cutthroats?

[Kodiak Commando]

We have a small isolated group of cutts near prince william sound but they are pretty small compared to the lower 48 kind and they are not near any bow populations. Yes the kenai and naknek bows are natural, all the stocked bow in alaska inhabit lakes such as the kodiak road system. They are stocked in places such as kodiak because of lack of rainbows or in city areas such as anchorage or the mat su. All the river systems especially the major ones such as the kenai,naknek,kvichiak, bristol bay drainages and the mat su rivers contain wild only rainbows. In Fact fish and game believes rainbow trout inhabitit alaska years before they lived in the lower 48 area. It is believed they slowly made their way over hundreds of years to places like the colorado river.

I also must agree wild rainbow fight much better than stocked!

[scansy]

Wild trout of any kind fight better than stockies.  Here in PA, we have a lot of native brookies (state fish).  They don't get very big, but fight like heck.  We also have some "wild" browns and rainbows - not native, but naturally reproducing now.  They are real fighters too.

[reubenpa]

KC I think that WNYanlger was teasing!!!   lol     These steelies are natural to. If they happened to be stocked it was as fingerlings so woulnd't really have much of a rememberance of there roots   I would love to fish the KENai its my dream someday to take a trip up there!!!!!!!!   I also want the char, dollies, halibut, salmon and thos efish that I just forgot he name for that have the huge fins..