Normally, but not always.......... A Chinook gill plate will bronze like the one in the picture. More often than not a coho will turn red or pink when a male matures. The fish is 100% male, but remains to be seen if it's a pink, coho, or king. The spots on it's back are too big for a coho jack.

My 2 pennys worth anyway.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...


It appears to have teeth on it's tongue, which (I believe) rules it out for being a pink.

Hohbomb -
I too debated whether the tongue had teeth or not and decided I could not say for sure from the picture. Which is why I said coho but there was that little doubt.

Sure would like a clearer picture

Doc?

Tight lines
Curt

Well if you must know, I voted coho on the poll when I first set it up. But unlike you, I had the benefit of having the little devil in hand. But like so many of you, I was rather perplexed by those big-a$$ king spots. I still think there's a good chance it's a hybrid.

I purposely posted the composition that would bounce the flash away from the camera to bring out the bronze undertones of the skin. The brown background reflecting off the scales also adds to the gold/bronze "tule-esque" skin hue. (Damn I sound like one of those hi-falutin' Spey dudes describing a single-malt Scotch!)

Like I said, more pic later tonight... gonna have dinner with my daughter first.

More pics to come

i did pic coho...and i did catch a fish in the salt very similair to this fish, i let it go without a pic..but it kept me guessing for a while..i would not have kept it anyway because it was small...but i did go to cali about 4 or 5 years ago to fish the king run going to the Sacramento river and Delta...(in Benicia) i belive that that is where i caught my first white King...(had to visit mom and grandpa) i remember wanting to let it go and everyone saying NO thats a King...i was saying, No looks like a Coho..(most places in Cali i guess you cant keep Coho) they later told me that they were White kings...that was the first time i knew of them...i never really looked at the one pic i had of that fish, and have no idea where it is...im sure my mom has it...hahahaha....but i did choose Coho...and still think its a coho...the i think if it was a jack chinook the teeth would be larger and sharper...

oh yeah and i forgot...if you look at the pic..it looks like the fish was bonked...and in the cooler or something...it has a line to it...you know how a fish looks like it has been up against another fish in some areas, the colors change...it looks like the top part of the fish color has changed to to being in the cooler, or something touching it, or half out of the water for a while...me 2 cent...c

Chinook was my first impression and voted same PRIOR to all this confusion.

oh wait a min...he said he released it...c

Bonked?

That fish is very much alive... the color change is the portion of the fish above the water line. HINT: It's still in the water, dude.

yeah...figured that out..but still looks like that water line you get in a cooler...plus ive been home for a couple hours, drinkin and playing on the internet..hahaha...c

I said 110% Coho.... Wonder if Stam would take that bet with me too, I'd like to be rowed down a river someday..... Always seems when I'm with the buddies I get stuck on the sticks....

Keith

Keith,

I'll getcha out in April if yer willin'...just don't bring your buddy from down yer ways who thinks "nads" means running a sled up an open waterway with nine inches of water...I hate it when people wig out in the drifter going through rocks and trees!

Fish on...

Todd

I haven't looked inside a salmons mouth to identify the species forever. The big oval spots scream Chinook....I've never seen spots like that on a Coho before...

Doc, I'm sure this is not the first one of these (hybrid looking Chinnho) you have caught. Have you ever taken scale samples and sent them to WDFW? It could be interesting.

Ike

You lost me there bud.... But if I have the time free and not out slaughtering the early Spring Chinook I'll certainly take you up on the offer.... I'd love to fish a few of them tribs you fish, there's some nice big steelhead there.... Can I bring some eggs??

Keith

OK, from the hoochie rvrfshr spinner shot, this bright fish with white gums (both above and below) screams coho.

In the lip-grip shot, taken at an angle that mutes the chrome, the spots scream chinook.

I didn't think to take a close-up of the tail. What you see is what you get. Don't think there are too many spots in that caudal fin. The fin that gets my attention is the anal fin.... it has that pale spot at the distal end of the long leading ray. It also comes to a point at that spot. Very chararcteristic of coho. Chinook tend to have that broader based anal fin with a shorter leading edge an a somewhat flared trailing edge.

Doc -
Thanks for the other picutres.

Clearly not a pink!

I'll stick with coho.

Tight lines
Curt

Thank you Doc, this was a helluva thread!

Let's all join in chorus and sing to Stam:

Row row row YOUR BOAT
Gently down the streeeeam...........

Gota go "chinook". Have caught 100's of both silvers and chinook jacks, during my 40 yrs. on Grays Harbor, but for sure the 1 indicator is smell.......ugh to king jacks in my boat.

Hope everyone has a great river salmon season????? Let's not be praying for "early rains", or it could be another 2006 year.

Yep still 110% coho jack...

"Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily life is but a dream...."

I know Stam would have took the bet so I win... Where you rowing me Stam? You want to row me and the Kid together?? We can stand up front and catch fish all day...

Keith

I still say Coho and the new pics are even more convincing, Great thread BTW!-TBJ