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Know Your Salmon


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Guest gbfisher

I think Drifter has it....It isnt an Atlantic like the one I caught yeterday out on Lake 'O' thats for sure... :lol:

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MJL ... YOU DA MAN!!!

 

Folks, we have a winner - the fish is indeed a cherry salmon, also known as Oncorhynchus masou. They're only found in northern Japan, Korea and the extreme south-east part of Russia, where they occupy the same ecological niche as our North American coho. I said this was a tough one. Unless you've ever been lucky enough to fish in Japan or Korea, you've never seen one of these fish, so it doesn't come any tougher than that!

 

As per everyone's different responses, cherry salmon do look a whole lot like a coho and a little bit like a chinook, but they have a completely unique spotting pattern. I'm told their spawning colours are stunning ..... black backs and cherry red sides (hence their name), but with dark vertical blotches all over (kind of like a spawning chum salmon). The males apparently get big hooked snouts like sockeyes, and have teeth like a Doberman.

 

I've never even seen a cherry salmon, much less caught one, but I hope to change that when I go to Korea for a short business trip this fall. I'm told they're a lot like coho -- 6 to 10 pounds on average, crazy aggressive, jump when hooked and make long, powerful runs. Should be an absolute blast on a centerpin.

 

That was fun everyone .... thanks for playing along.

 

How about another? Anyone have an even tougher one?

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I really hope this program is successful. Coho are so much fun to catch they're totally worth the cost of raising them in the hatchery.

 

Good guesses so far on the salmon ID. I will admit, this is a tough one.

 

 

I agree 100% ... I will be fishin the Credit this fall for sure ...right through till Christmas !!! .. I love river run Coho (and I feel good eating them) ...just can't bring myself to even come look at the river run Chinny ... lets hope this Coho move catches on again .. it was such a wonderful fishery in the early eighties ... and bountiful and fun to fish for !

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Okay, why doen't you start posting pictures of some obscure beetle from outer Mongolia(no offense to any Mongolians). How about sticking to the local species that will keep everyone informed and honest. <_<

 

 

You're seriously upset? HAHAHA!

 

Craig that was pretty interesting thanks! (My guess was sockeye)

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Okay, why doen't you start posting pictures of some obscure beetle from outer Mongolia(no offense to any Mongolians). How about sticking to the local species that will keep everyone informed and honest. <_<

 

All in the name of good fun, my friend. Fact is I didn't expect anyone to get it, but what was truly interesting was reading along as people went through the whole process of elimination. Maybe we didn't know what it was, but we sure knew what it wasn't, and that alone is pretty impressive to me. It's especially interesting since this cherry salmon does seem to share so many characteristics from the different salmon species we're more familiar with. There are parts that look chinook-like, and there are parts that really say chum, sockeye or coho. Overall, the closest thing on our shores would be a coho, and that seemed to be the most common answer. Pretty good job, I'd say.

 

We can do local species too. It would be fun to try a couple of different minnows from the average bait bucket. I guarantee I would screw up most of those!

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All in the name of good fun, my friend. Fact is I didn't expect anyone to get it, but what was truly interesting was reading along as people went through the whole process of elimination. Maybe we didn't know what it was, but we sure knew what it wasn't, and that alone is pretty impressive to me. It's especially interesting since this cherry salmon does seem to share so many characteristics from the different salmon species we're more familiar with. There are parts that look chinook-like, and there are parts that really say chum, sockeye or coho. Overall, the closest thing on our shores would be a coho, and that seemed to be the most common answer. Pretty good job, I'd say.

 

We can do local species too. It would be fun to try a couple of different minnows from the average bait bucket. I guarantee I would screw up most of those!

Oh god no not the minnow one.Didn't we have one of those about 6 mths ago on a draw or something.

Anyway Craig it was a good post and probably a bit of a refresher for many of the salmon species-kinda like subliminal learning through interesting reading.KUDOS

Kerry

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I agree 100% ... I will be fishin the Credit this fall for sure ...right through till Christmas !!! .. I love river run Coho (and I feel good eating them) ...just can't bring myself to even come look at the river run Chinny ... lets hope this Coho move catches on again .. it was such a wonderful fishery in the early eighties ... and bountiful and fun to fish for !

 

I don't expect much of a run this fall. The 2007 fall run was the last run of MNR stocked coho. Metro East Anglers resurrected the coho program when we took over operations of the Ringwood hatchery. The offspring of the 2007 run were stocked in 2008. We did collect eggs in 2008 as well and will stock them this fall. The 2008 runs were quite small and collecting enough eggs was a challenge.

 

I expect a couple more lean years before we start to get good runs of coho's again.

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