Gonna have to start adding them to your spreadsheet!

Nice.Good luck,
SZ

Add it to the WDFW Fish Checker's list, too.

What species of salmon did you catch?
How many did you release?
How many wild?
How many hatchery?
Any sharks?
Any birds?
How many crabs?

Yeah, another [Bleeeeep!] hatchery fish with a fin.... Gotta love this state. Just clip 100% of hatchery fish so we can actually see how many true "native" fish we have left.... Oh wait, there are hatchery springers that spawn in the Lewis so there must be "wild fish"!

Keith

Depends on who's in the boat

Nice catch, Shawn. Looks like a Cowlitz fish, darker jaw color than the Willie stock, but still a snow belly?

How big was that fish? It doesn't seem more than about 10lbs, but maybe the angle is wrong.

If so, it doesn't seem to add up. You indicate the fish is from BY 2008, so it's now four years old (fall 2008 to fall 2012). It has spent 1.5 years in the hatchery (Oct 2008 to March 2010) and 2.5 years in salt (March 2010 to Oct 2012). Seems to me the fish should be considerably larger, given it's apparent age.

Coho usually get about that size in alot less time. Coho spend 1.5 years in freshwater and 1.5 years in salt before returning to spawn at about that size (10-12lbs). If that fish is four years old, it should be at least in the upper teens, if not pushing 20lbs. But maybe it is, and just looks smaller in the pic.

I realize you're only telling us what WDFW told you. I'm confident you did not extract the CWT, read it, and provide the age information and the hatchery of origin.....

Just another dinker springer... with another 6-7 months to fatten up.

Even in the river, I have yet to break 15#.

Coho are eating machines.... growing MUCH faster than chinook.

Imagine if a coho spent another year or two at sea!

But several years ago, Salmo G helped me to realize THE grand champion eating/growing machine is a pink. It leaves the river as a tiny inch long sliver of chrome and in a year and a couple of months, it can return as a 10-12 pound Humpzilla!

It is not at all unusual for immature spring chinook to be caught in sport fisheries, one reason Puget Sound is closed for a good part of the former blackmouth fishery.

I have not heard of many spring chinook encounters. Please enlighten me.

I had a strong hunch that fish was a Columbia-origin springer, the second it hit the net. Any of you out there know of any other PNW races of kings with a smoky grey-black jaw?

Snake river springs and summers do.

I didn't know we could say faggot on here. Seems like a word that'd be used much more often.

Not surprised that is your take away from this thread. One man's ceiling is another's floor.