Silverbright.

Oncorhychus gorbuscha anadromous

Cherry salmon - O. masou. Native to the western Pacific (Japan).

Not normally seen on this side of the pond......

O. Keta- Chum

not a blackmouth, thier tails are about as chrome all the way around as thier bodies are

spots are too small for a pink

tail fork isnt deep enough for a sockeye or chum

not enough spots for a spring

seeing how the original poster said its not a steelhead the only species left is coho

O. Clarki = Cutthroat Trout

Now that you mention it, it does look like a cherry salmon tail, but it also looks like it's on the floor of a sport boat. I'm not so sure Doc would go that far to stir the pot

Hey Doc-you have a pic of the whole fish, dont ya?

Don't be holding out on us!

For whatever it's worth, I think it's a coho, although nothing would surprise me. Like many, I used process of elimination to arrive at my guess.

My thoughts:
- Spots on tail not big enough to be a pink.
- Tail wrist looks too narrow for a chinook.
- Tail does not appear sufficiently forked to denote as chum.
- I have handled very few sockeye, but I seem to recall they have very small scales, and the scales on this fish look medium to large.

Whatever it is, it's a beautiful specimen (at least on the tail end).

I'm going with a coho...but it's a pretty ambiguous looking tail...

Fish on...

Todd

My vote goes to.............

























































Todds





































Avatar !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're right about that. But I thought maybe his camera doesn't pick up silver well. Here are some pictures to prove my point.

Here's a blackie I caught this past Sunday... just like you said, chrometastic!


Here's another blackie I caught 3 Sundays ago... both were Kings, but this one's tail doesn't look chrome because of the camera shot.


Not to say I'm "SURE" this is a blackmouth... but that's just my best guess.

(Sorry for the bloodydecks.com watermark... I don't know how to post pictures via this forum other than to link from another site)

It's not only the tail that isn't as chrome in that second pic Quan... the whole pic is underexposed.

In Doc's photo, the lighting on the caudal peduncle is as bright as it is on the tail.

My guess for Doc's pic is a coho jack.

Good point. I guess I got a lot to learn about photography...

Oh well, throw my theory out the window then.

Coho.

SPOTS.... Prevailing dogma says none to few on coho, typically small dot-like, limited to the upper lobe. Conventional wisdom says sparse to dense prominent black spots on kings, both lobes. Large blotchy oval gray-black spots on pinks. None to light peppering of tiny spots on chum/sockeye. This one's got sparse elongated black spots both lobes.

CAUDAL PEDUNCLE... (Tail wrist) Proportionally broad for coho, moderate for kings and sockeye, skinnier for pinks, skinniest for chums. But that's for full grown adult spawners.... all bets are off for immature fish. This one's pretty skinny.

FORK.... least forked in kings, then coho, then sockeye, then pinks, most forked in chum. Again that's in mature spawners.... lots of forked tails among sub-adults. This one's got moderately pronounced fork.

PEARLESCENCE.... (chrome in the tail fin) Broad and diffuse in kings. Radial streaks in coho, most prominent mid-fork region. Very faint (if any) on pinks. Virtually none on sockeye or chum. This one's got the radial streaks mid-fork.

COLOR.... note the aquamarine-blue-purple hues in the dorsal half of the wrist.

Finally there's this astute quote:



Yes that's MY boat, so it's a local fish... no cherry's. And since it's physically on board, it must be a legal fish to retain.

And yes it is a recent pic caught this season.... Sept 28 to be exact. Anyone who knows where I was fishing that day knows there was only one species legal for retention in that body of water.



I do have that pic, just not where I'm typing. But at this point it doesn't really matter since I've given enough clues that the correct answer is obvious.

Answer was, is, and remains.......coho!

P.S. the clues didn't hurt either.

Ok, that was easy. Next fish?

Skinny little girl.....