That brings back memories!!
and like Hyack said, watching one of those monsters get three+ feet of air in the middle of the river is an awesome sight.
It's been quite a few years since I tangled with one of these prehistoric beasts and my largest fish released was a little over 7 feet. I did hook a much larger fish in the Fraser near Williams Lake some years ago, 12-14 feet was the estimate by some native fisherman who were after salmon a little ways away and came over when they saw this fish/whale role in the current. But alas, after a few hours, the fish got mad and simple swam away spooling my reel.
Awesome fish guys! waytago!!!
As for the age of that fish, my buddy caught a nine foot fish in a Fraser tributary one time and we showed the picture to Fred at Fred's custom tackle in Chilliwack. He estimated the age of the nine foot fish at about 125 years old. By this chart
http://www.coastangler.com/fishing/stur ... ator.shtml it looks like roughly an inch a year once they get larger. 43 year old fish at 8 feet, it would be over 100 years old by the looks of things.