chinook versus coho

The lack of spots and hook to the jaw are dead giveaways. Coho. I agree w/ Pole, it's a quick look and you know. No different than after rockfishing after a while.

Z

Or how about the scales?  You all notice the big scales on that silver.  The scales on a coho are larger (relative).  Chinook scales are medium size.  Pinks have small scales.

Lot's of clues to choose from.  Sum them all up and it starts to become pretty apparent what type of salmon you have on the line.

-Allen

Chinook have a particular smell to them too.  Moreso when they are immature.  Sort of a metallic smell.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

-Allen

I still have that smell saved as a fond memory. Nothinglike it whenthe first nookie hits the deck at the beginning of the season...

BTW i had guessed Silver on that photo, while reading the post, before you confirmed. for a while i thought Id never be able to tell the diff, but after hooking a few coho it became pretty easy. I'm still fairly careful when the fish are close to min size, cause they are harder to tell apart when smaller. Usually the acrobatics give the Silver away, but now and then you get a lazy silver, or a feisty King.

Quick test ... what is this?
-Allen

DINNER!

What's this one look like?

Here's a couple more shots of the same fish...

A chinook will very often have a green back, so the old green vs purple rule isn't so reliable...

Spots are sometimes misleading, especially as they are heading to fresh water.  Looks at the spots on this coho.  At first glance of this pic, I might have guessed chinook.  But something about the how the side looks leads me to coho.  The gumline is the giveaway.

-Allen

Great example, Al.

"Irregular" spots often look like a cell about to complete the process of division.

Chinook have a particular smell to them too.  Moreso when they are immature.  Sort of a metallic smell.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

-Allen

I worked in Puget Sound as an observer for salmon fisheries and the smell for Chinook is something the gillnetters taught me.  This is something I've witnessed sea lions pick up on too, when there is a purse seine with 5000 pinks and a few Chinook and the sea lions would always slip over the buoy line, find a Chinook and slip back out, only to find out there were only two more Chinook in the whole load of fish.

Or how about the scales?  You all notice the big scales on that silver.  The scales on a coho are larger (relative).  Chinook scales are medium size.  Pinks have small scales.

Lot's of clues to choose from.  Sum them all up and it starts to become pretty apparent what type of salmon you have on the line.

-Allen

After working (observing commercially) and catching them this is the first thing I notice with coho when trying to tell the difference between chrome salmonids ...ALTHOUGH I would never teach this to anyone as there is only one thing that is 100% (characteristic) about coho that is unique to the species and that is the white gum line of which the teeth are embedded along with a black rest of the lower jaw including the tongue.  Coho always have the majority of there spotting on the upper lobe of the caudal (tail) fin but sometimes other species can have this and why the tail spotting shouldn't be used for ID purposes.  EVERYONE SHOULD STOP LOOKING AT EVERYTHING ELSE AND GET FAMILIAR WITH THE LOWER JAW OF COHO WITH A WHITE GUM LINE WHERE THE TEETH ARE EMBEDDED, ITS THE ONLY CHARACTERISTIC YOU NEED, PERIOD.  And the best thing about it (aside from being 100%) is that this characteristic is where the hook is (or should be).

Care to take a guess? I took this picture for ID purposes only.

Heres is another one someone told me about. If you run your fingernail along the top edge of the tail fin the chinook will feel smooth whereas the top of the tailfin on the coho have ridges like the ridges on a quarter. I know thats moot at this point on this topic but it is one more difference. I learned alot here. Thanks Allen and Eric and Bluefin!

Care to take a guess? I took this picture for ID purposes only.

Coho?