Benicia Beach launch 9-8 - Not a Striper!

Chinook for sure. Plus the fact that you can see a slight tint of red/purple on the back of the fish. This is the way I tell in the ocean whether they are kings or not without taking them out of the water. Coho are lighter green on the back with a kind of translucent milky green below the top of the fish.

Cool catch! and release!

Great to see a Cali Chinook! Not to be a buzzkill but taking such a delicate native in a delicate run out of the water is a pretty bad idea. I know it's hard to resist but getting it back in the water ASAP will give it the best chance to spawn. Best way to tell if the fish isn't doing well is when they look off into space. A nice strong fish looks down.

Sorry BD if this comes off all preachy but I've tried to CNR a lot of salmon and they go south fast. I just want you guys to have a nice run again.

Z

Hell Yeah!!! Nice Fish...wow...thx for pics and post...!!!

Zee,
   Thanks for the info.  This was a first for me.  The fish swam off and went deep immediately upon release so I'm pretty sure it was unharmed.

Martin

I sent the picture to DFG for an opinion on the species.  This was their response: I still can not see the gum line clearly.  Chinook have an all black gum line,
coho salmon have a narrow light gray band at base of bottom teeth.  Steelhead
gum line is all white.  I still believe based on what I can see of the fish that
this was a Chinook salmon.  Fall run chinook salmon should be entering into the
SF Bay currently and beginning to make their way upstream.  There are
essentially no coho salmon left in tributaries to the SF Bay!

Martin

I sent the picture to DFG for an opinion on the species.  This was their response: There are
essentially no coho salmon left in tributaries to the SF Bay!

        

I knew Coho were in trouble but man.

Michael

I sent the picture to DFG for an opinion on the species.  This was their response: There are
essentially no coho salmon left in tributaries to the SF Bay!

        

I knew Coho were in trouble but man.

Michael

Correction:  There are NO coho left in SF bay tributaries.  Not to say that a stray couldn't come in, but there are currently ZERO populations of coho salmon in SF bay.

Look at the anal fins carefully.  This would be the characteristic to look at if you can't see the lower jaws of these fish.  100% Chinook salmon.  Nice catch.