Dude you're comparing a King to a Mud Chicken?? That is blasphemy!! 
A lake trout is like reeling in a shoe. A King will go acrobatic, not as much as a steelie, and they will make crazy runs and put up a long hard fight. Cohos may for their size but up the better fight comparably speaking, don't know haven't found one yet, but the power and size of the King is hard to beat. And nothing like a Laker at least on the open lake.
Ya Bug,I knew it would rub you the wrong way!
Both the Kings and lakers have size on their side so naturally they can give you a good fight and like I said I know it's different out on the lake. I've done some trolling with riggers but it's not my cup of tea.
Another thing to consider is by the time I would be targeting these old boots they have started to change into spawning colours and slowly start to die! Also being in a river limits their ability to make those deep runs that you lake guys get.
It's a totlally different kind of fishing,I never use more than 6lb test line and often it's 4 and even 2 lb line.The rods are made for this and infact my floatrod is rated to break at 10 lbs! so the limit is 8pound test line,although I use 10 lb as a backing line because the reel holds about 600 yrds of 10lb so I;b need about 800 yrds of 8lb to fill the reel.
With my flyrods I use a flyline but the tapered leaders go down to 4 or 6 lb and I tie a leader on to that that is usually much lighter,they use an X rating and 6x can be 4,3.5.3 or even 2.7 lb depending on who makes it and what it's made of.
Get a hook into a good 10 to 12 pound brown or steelie in a river thats wadeable,like 3 ft deep or less and you'l understand what I'm taking about. I've seen fish jump and knock another angler down because it hit him smack in the chest! I've been tripped by a King that swam between my legs than anothe guy had on,even had fish go onshore and back into the water trying to shake the hook. But most the kings just find a pool and hold unless spooked when they decide to head back to the lake.....
So from my point of view ya kings are old boots and treated as such,I tend to break them off or straighten the hook if I can! I'd rather catch a half a dozen little guys like Ghi caught than 1 20,30 pound king. I wouldnt eat the big ones anyways and always release them,however I've been known to bring my limit home of brookies just to feast.
Oh and dont ask where I catch the brookies,I'm taking that to the grave!
