Joined: May 15, 2003 Posts: 888 Location: Portland, Maine
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:18 pm Post subject: Steelhead Or Salmon....What Do You Think??
ring..ring.. "Hello?" --- "Dude. That bottom picture of your chromers is NOT a steelhead." I say, "What are you talking about?" ...Jason-C replies, "Dude, look at its mouth and its back - I think it is a Coho Salmon?" .... I say, "Hmm..now that you mention it - maybe it is????" So, neither of us are sure --- but the mouth certainly loooks kinda salmonish and the back has a kind of salmon arch???? What do you think??
Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 85 Location: Syracuse, NY
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 1:57 pm Post subject:
From the Alaska Fish&Game website:
(pay special attention to the last sentence)
Coho Salmon
Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum)) also called silver salmon................
General description: Adults usually weigh 8 to 12 pounds and are 24 to 30 inches long, but individuals weighing 31 pounds have been landed. Adults in salt water or newly arrived in fresh water are bright silver with small black spots on the back and on the upper lobe of the caudal fin. They can be distinguished from chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) by the lack of black spots on the lower lobe of the tail and gray gums; chinook have small black spots on both caudal lobes and they have black gums. Spawning adults of both sexes have dark backs and heads with maroon to reddish sides. The males develop a prominent hooked snout with large teeth called a kype. Juvenile coho salmon have 8 to 12 parr marks evenly distributed above and below the lateral line with the parr marks narrower than the interspaces. The adipose fin is uniformly pigmented. The anal fin has a long leading edge usually tipped with white, and all fins are frequently tinted with orange.
click for larger imageCohos, or silver salmon, are smaller in size than their cousin the chinook. Although larger specimens over 30 pounds have been captured, a typical adult coho weighs ten pounds.
Cohos were stocked into New York State waters along with chinook salmon in the late 1960s. Today, they are routinely stocked into Lake Ontario (and its tributaries) and provide excellent lake and river sportfishing opportunities. While natural reproduction of coho salmon has occurred in New York State waters, it is too limited to support a viable fishery. Therefore, DEC annually stocks hundreds of thousands of coho into the Lake Ontario system.
The behavior and distribution of coho salmon is very similar to chinook salmon. In early spring, cohos move inshore where they can feed upon smelt and alewife and find warmer water temperatures. During this part of the year, coho can provide extremely good fishing. As summer approaches, they move progressively offshore and anglers have less success in locating them. In the fall, sexually mature fish move back to the areas where they were stocked or hatched to spawn. Cohos spawn a little later in the fall then chinooks, with peak spawning runs occurring in October and early November. Anglers generally use the same techniques and gear for catching coho as they use for chinook.
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/fish/fishspecs/salmntxt.html#cohosalmon
It's still a bit tough to tell from the pic, but I think coho may be right. Salmon also have more anal fin rays than steelhead, 14-16 (I think) as opposed to 12-13. Still tough to tell from that pic.
It is not uncommon to find coho in the river in Nov. as Jason has pointed out. They are also very fast movers (just ask Jeremy). The will move through the entire river in 1-2 days depending on the flows.
Nice catch Jason. BTW Nice job on the BC trip. I am very envious!
Joined: May 17, 2005 Posts: 92 Location: Medway, Massachusetts
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:41 pm Post subject:
And it's been pretty mild this fall in NY as well. Hell I still have leaves on the trees where I live. That could push the run later also. Got any pics of the tail Jeremy?
Joined: May 15, 2003 Posts: 888 Location: Portland, Maine
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 5:22 pm Post subject: ok
ok - i combined these 2 pics of the fish - it was first light so the lighting was horrible - hence we had to use the flash and without flash = kinda blurry. but maybe this helps - now i am kinda leaning towards it being a steelhead.??? the pink on cheeks in bottom pic makes me think that. but i could be wrong..what do you guys think? certainly, all of the arguments so far are equally valid. so - we still don't have a definate answer. maybe after these photos we will - maybe not?
Joined: Jan 21, 2005 Posts: 119 Location: Kodiak, Alaska in winter, bristol bay alaska in summer
Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:00 pm Post subject:
I'm 99.9 percent sure that is a coho salmon. I should know i'v caught thousands over my stay in kodiak and it looks like a classic hen coho. Don't be fooled by the gill plate, right before a coho starts to turn they sometimes develop a blush gill plate and sometimes even start to blush along their sides making a stripe similar to a rainbow.
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