Looks like picture #2 will be the mystery of the season. Just wanted to say those are some great photos. Thank you.

Here's the link to the Seattle Times story on last year's giant Lewis River "co-nook"

Lewis River pig

Mark Yuasa contacted biologists for me last week to get some follow-up on this mystery fish, but under limited WDFW funding, this is obviously not a priority item. Like I said, the fish is still sitting in a freezer waiting to be analyzed.

Someone with a fisheries degree being mistaken! How could that happen? You don't need to look any further than Olympia to find a few busloads with fishery degrees who have been mistaken about our fish a few times. I'll bet my worthless Health Information degree that #2 is not a Chinook.

I don't have a degree, but I have spent many years in AK working for a lodge and i have seen thousands of salmon. FROM THE VIEW OF THE PICTURE i say COHO all the way.

i boated a 21#er on the bogie a few years back that made me do a double take. We had been hitting kings all day and then land this big chrome slab, the boat next to says hey nice king i say thanks looked down and saw it was a silver they had to row over to take a closer look because they thought i was pullin their leg.

Bottom line NICE FISH Parker

Wait, wait, wait..... I don't get it here. I caught the darn nookie... Trust me of the couple 1000 fall chinook I've landed in the lewis and couple thousand silvers in the lewis in my time, you can at least trust my word....

IT IS A CHINOOK.. Most of you are used to seeing the typical tule chinook, we have those too. But we have a strain of true native fall chinook in our trib that are all mint bright when they show up, almost like a upriver bright in the columbia....

The only question on that fish is the fact that it is so fresh it's head looks to be a hen. Besides how many 20+ pound silvers have you seen that bright that haven't tossed a few scales between the netting action and being on the bottom of the boat? It is 110% chinookie...

Besides any silvers we have in our system that are over 16lbs then to be bucks and have some bit of a hooked nose....

There's no doubt when Parker says "nookie" it's a nookie...

Keith

The "bit of a hook nose" is one reason I am saying it is a silver. I noticed that before I even scrolled down and saw the rest of these posts.

Hybird, perhaps, I have caught a few that show traits of both.

Bottom line, that picture just reeks of silver!

I guess the moral of this story is to never trust a picture. I took 3 shots of the fish, at different camera settings. Unfortunately, all at the same angle, so you can't see the spots on the fin, let alone the fact that it's tail didn't collapse when holding the fish.

One shot did show a different story on the gums, though. Those don't look "white" to me. Than again, what do I know, really? Maybe all those years handling cohos and kings in the UW Fish Pond were all for nothing.



Heck, I *should* have just said it was a 20+ pound coho.

I don't care if that thing is a gawddamn sturgeon instead of a chinook. All I want to know is WHO IS THAT BABE!

Black gumlines define a chinook per WDFW regs. I don't see black gums on that fish....I see grey. I'm willing to admit it could be a picture angle/lighting issue that is somehow making black appear grey.

And STILL the argument continues.

parker, next time we'll expect an IN-THE-MOUTH shot so as to avoid all the speculation from people who weren't within 50 miles of the fish.

Good grief people, parker's right, you're wrong.............move on.

I thought we were talking about Parker boats. My bad.

Not to beat a dead horse, Parker but in this picture:


the teeth CLEARLY emerge from a light (not necessarily white) gumline. Make no mistake about it, this photo is a superb headshot of a coho!

Still not ruling out the possibility of a hybrid, but I can say with confidence that no self-respecting purebred chinook would be sporting lips that pale. They don't call them "blackmouth" for nothing:



And yes, like others have said.... damn nice fish!
Is it safe to assume that UEC had anything to do with its demise?

Of course, you're taking into account that you're looking straight down into that fish's mouth, while parker's pic is taken from below and behind the fish, right Doc?

Hey, there IS this eye doctor that hangs out here who might be able to help you with..........uh, never mind. KIDDING.

If you knew keith and parker, you'd buy into the bad camera angle thing before you'd buy into them not knowing the difference between a silver and a king.

Looking at the original photo I thought coho also. The sun is shining hard on the head of the fish so could be wrong. But the enlarged photo is not convincing of it being a King. I agree with fishNphysician. I see a light gumline. I don't think anyone can argue parker and stlhdr1 are great fishermen. But it is going to be very difficult to convince people from that photo, that's a king. All great looking fish though. fishNphysician has a great photo of a king. I see no light coloring at all. Next time I land a king I will take a closer look.

Any shots that show the tail?

I mean a bad angle on the gums and no tail view is NOT the way to convince the guy that took the pic he's misidentified the fish.

Gotta admit the hooknose is interesting, though. Re: hybrids, the only example I've ever seen is a chumpy.

No. It's never safe to assume anything. Especially when I'm involved!

My last big batch of UEC from Perfect Drift has too much dye in it. The eggs are coming our painfully red. I'm sure they still fish OK, but it's got me freaked out a little. It's that confidence with the egg thing.

Anyways, I tried a batch of the the latest UEC and some of my go-to cure (Stlhdr1 cure). The fish did not want the UEC eggs. They went for the old go-to (Stlhdr 1) cure.

Fall fish are like that. Some days they like cure X and some days the like cure Y. That's why I always try to take at least two batches of differently cured eggs when fall fishing.

Oh, and fish #2 was a nook, not a coho. I think I've mentioned this before.....

PS Sky-Guy - I have 3-4 jars of eggs for you. If you're ever in Seattle, you can stop by and pick them up. Or, I can attempt to mooch a spot in your boat out in the salt and just bring the eggs with me.

And to think I thought that was a Steelhead, dang I'm all messed up. :p

Parker:

As always, your posts inspire one to seek higher edumacation.. (and class appears to be open on this thread). Now I'm totally confused.. :rolleyes:

My thoughts are that it is a damn nice fishy..and if it was legal to keep either Kings or Coho then all the better.

BTW, you said the Stlhdr1 cure was better. Is that one available for public dissemination?

Mike

I think most of "this class" just failed Fish 101. Or, maybe they just failed "Internet 101".

The moral of the story is to never trust what you see on the internet.

The fish is a king. Unfortunately, the only shots I took DO NOT show spots on the tail, and radically illuminate an artificial "white" or "pale" gum line.

As Glub as my witness, it was a king.

Based on the photo, it dang near looks like a coho, and I could see how people think it is a coho. It is not. Just looks like one in that photo - only because they can't see the other necessary (or convincing) evidence. Naturally, having a degree in fisheries and have personally caught and/or handled thousands up thousands of chinooks and coho, means nothing to this rowdy crowd. Oh yeah, and I thought I'd posted somewhere that I'd never seen any clipped kings on the Lewis. Damn that Photoshop.

Yes. One of the nicest trib kings I've ever seen. You can keep two salmon on the Lewis. Either clipped cohos or unclipped kingers. Can *not* keep unclipped cohos.

I said Stlhdr1's cure was better for that particular day. I heard from Perfect Drift that the cure he gave me has been just decimating the fish in different sections of the river on different days.

Welcome to fishing for fall fish. What they like yesterday isn't necessarily what they will like tomorrow, or today.

That's why Stlhdr1 and I ususally have 4-5 different cured eggs with us, and a massive pile of scent (all homemade) bottles. You just gotta find the right combination of cured eggs and scents.

Sorry, that cure is not public information. If Stlhdr1 wants to hand it out, that is fine. But I swore my 1st and 2nd born children that I would not give that information up. Same goes for the scents. You are welcome to sniff the bottles and take a guess at what is in them, but the recipes will remain a mystery.

Well, lemme tell you a little about how this game is played.


"Smells like shrimp with maybe a little Anise"

"Yep"

"Smells like some alcohol in there"

"Yep"

"Smells like some extract of Taiwanese Hooker in there"

"Yep"

"Smells like Keith pissed in it after a night of hard drinking"

"Yep"

So, I guess those guys put all kinds of stuff in those bottles.