2007 salmon preparations thread (april 7th opener)

A king always has spots on the tail.  A silver may not have any spots on the tail.  If  it does they will only be on the top half. A king has blotchey black and white gums while a silver always  has a destinct white line on either side of their teeth at the gum line.  They say a fresh caught king smells like fresh cut grass.  (i have never smelled one I just caught)  A king has smaller briter scales.  a silvers scales are about the size of a whole punch.

As far as telling silvers apart from kings, like bluekayak said "the gums, the gums, the gums." This is a 100% way to tell the difference, the teeth will be in the white gum line, very easy to tell them apart by that alone.  In the tens of thousands of salmon I saw as an observer looking for non-targeted bycatch (other salmon species) I never saw a silver that did not have this feature.  I did see a few silver with spots on both the top and bottom parts of the caudal (tail) fin, but not that many considering how many fish I saw.  Goldenarrow aluded to this, but any commercial salmon fisherman will tell you about the king "smell." I didn't believe it until I worked a gill net fishery outside Seattle from 7pm to 7am and I saw two fish coming up over the rail, then I did smell it.  Kind of just fishier, I don't exactly what it smelled like but it was definitely different.  It made sense then when the commercial guys would hate when a sea lion would enter the seine net and pick out the  couple of kings amongst thousands of chum.
Anyways, once you see a few silvers you definitely get the hang of it, just look at the gum line (100%), there are other characteristics you start to notice, but that is once you've seen tons of them.

thanks, that pretty much means I am netting it and examining it then. Well, it's not like I am
going to singlehandedly dent the coho population anyway.

I guess just like with blacks/blues, once you see a pile you know real quick which it is and can
release the silver without making it say "aahhhh".

J

Another tell tail in the water sign is that a king will have a black line around the tail.  I agree with the others the the gums are the only way to be sure the your king is not a silver.  I mention the tail stuff because if in the water the tail has no spots and no black line.  Let it go because their is no way that it is a king.

When you have a fish near the boat it'll speak to you and either say "king" or "silver" when you look at it When it says "king" you'll have a nice feeling in your gut and your net will move lightning quick

I agree with the master, but the problem comes when you've not caught any salmon yet in the year and you're hoping it's a king.     The gums are good, but I like making a judgment on the greenish back and very irregular spots that a king has.  Being a big fish (over 10-15#) helps too!   

Here are some shots that show the black line GoldenArrow's talking about I think:

Go ahead and put yourself to sleep tonight fantasizing about the fish that you don't have to look for any Chinook markings - I know I will!