The largest king salmon ever recorded by an individual angler was an astonishing 97-pound, 4-ounce behemoth reeled in by Les Anderson on May 17, 1985, from Alaska's famous Kenai River, setting a world record that stands to this day. Meanwhile, the largest king salmon ever captured via commercial fishing operations weighed an immense 126 pounds, harvested using a structural fish trap in 1949. These colossal specimens far exceed the typical weight range for the species, which generally peaks between 10 and 50 pounds under normal marine conditions.