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There are a couple of ways to age a fish with special tools and training. The scales - certain bones can have "growth rings" as in the rings on a tree.  

My guess is this fish was a five or six year old.  No reason to believe the lake would suddenly sprout a fish of this size when it never did back in the 70s, 80s or 90s when there was nearly unlimited supplies of alewives for the stocked fish to eat.  

The guy in the photo isn't the guy in all the other photos I've seen of the fish, though it's the best pic of the fish itself.  Who is the guy holding the fish in this picture?  

Jay is going to age this fish Mike using a backbone piece. 

The guy holding the fish is the captain of the boat. Bobby Sullivan of icebreaker charters I believe if I remember correct. Most of the other pictures with the young man holding it didn't seem to do it justice. 

The guy holding the fish in the picture is Icebreaker Charters Capt. Bobby Sullivan.  I fished Wednesday and Thursday morning in Pentwater just south of where this fish was taken and  there are some large kings in the water. Our Kings came mostly on meat rigs over 140' to 170' foot of water.  Wire Divers set at 100'  - 150' out  on a 1 1/2 setting. Coho on spoons on riggers set in the upper 50'.  

Really nice looking fish Dave. Thanks for the pictures. Sure is impressive to see how many big kings are showing themselves up north.

Exactly what I told my son. When they introduced king salmon into lake Michigan they returned on a 4 year to 5 year cycle then somewhere along the line we started getting 3 year returns.

Based on the size I'd definitely say 4 year and good possility its 5.

It's great to see natural reproduction. I'd like to see more rivers with protected sections (off limits to fishing, walking or wading).

Lickety-Split wrote:

Really nice looking fish Dave. Thanks for the pictures. Sure is impressive to see how many big kings are showing themselves up north.

It was fun to catch fall kings for a change.  We didn't break the 30 lb. mark but came close.  Hopefully with the abundance of bait along the shoreline this year some of our  stocked Chinook will survive to return in 3 years.    
 

Great looking Kings Storm Junkie!

I saw the fish at Capt. Chuck's those pictures do not do it justice. The lower jaw looked crazy how big it was.

Something I think we will be hearing more about is "Growth At Age".
The fish can be measured by growth by year. Right now I believe from what I have recently heard, is that our kings are growing faster by age then Lake Ontario's Kings. Good growth equals healthy fish.