Local Pier Salmon

[12 Volt Man]

Just wanted to share a pic of my largest salmon ever, caught last week from a local pier.

 

fought like a beast, released to be caught again (or to go up river and spawn lol)

 

fish was taken on, surprise surpise, a spoon!

Edited September 23, 2012 by 12 Volt Man

[davey buoy]

Nice fish!!They sure fight hard.

[spincast]

congrats on the PB, nice fish

[bushart]

Man that is a honker

[solopaddler]

Nice clean looking fish too, congrat's!

[LimbLifter]

Surprisingly silver for this time of year. Nice going.

[azebra]

Posted Today, 10:11 AM

Surprisingly silver for this time of year. Nice going.

 

The fish is so silver because the gentleman who caught it said he caught it off a pier in a lake. Salmon can remain silver up to 3 days upon entering the river system and usually won't change Colours or physical appearance (ie. Kype jaw) until 12-24hrs in the river systems from my observations.

 

Last night on a local Lake Ontario trib 30 or so minutes after sunset a big chrome slab decided to linger in a foot of water inches from my toes. He was so silver I could see my reflection lol. This was all within a quarter kilometre of the rivers mouth.

[Joey]

Wow, nice chrome on that one Congrats on the PB!

[BillM]

Posted Today, 10:11 AM

Surprisingly silver for this time of year. Nice going.

 

The fish is so silver because the gentleman who caught it said he caught it off a pier in a lake. Salmon can remain silver up to 3 days upon entering the river system and usually won't change Colours or physical appearance (ie. Kype jaw) until 12-24hrs in the river systems from my observations.

 

Last night on a local Lake Ontario trib 30 or so minutes after sunset a big chrome slab decided to linger in a foot of water inches from my toes. He was so silver I could see my reflection lol. This was all within a quarter kilometre of the rivers mouth.

 

Salmon start getting dark way before they enter the rivers...

[Snidley]

That information about our Chinnook salmon is basically wrong. Our Chinnooks are a strain the darkens in the lake. They are virtually all coloured prior to entering the river and for some time before entering (ie up to a month) On the rare occasion that a silver 4 year old fish is caught on shore they can change in colour within an hour. I have seen this happen on my own stringer at Thornbury with a still live fish. It would be an interesting experiment to try other strain of Chinnook, like Idaho strains, that stay silver for months after entering the river (somthing about much higher fat content that fuel the long thousand mile migration from the Pacific to Idaho). Imagine full power silver Chinnooks up the river to test shore anglers skills. Even I might break out the pin.

 

There was some talk about bigger strains of Rainbows going into the Saugeen watershed as well. Don't know where that's at but it would be another great idea since the Chinnooks don't seem to be doing all that well in Lake Huron while Rainbows are thriving. These would be good experiments because the animals in question, Chinnooks and Rainbows, have proven themselves as successful transplants unlike Atlantics were a fortune was wasted on a fish species every expert knew would fail as a thriving stocker.

[blaque]

I've heard they only enter the rivers on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[12footspringbok]

Its really hard to tell from that picture but judging by the way the spots on the upper tail radiate out in rows on that fish makes me say steelhead.

 

In my experience the salmon will stay a beautiful chrome colour for days or weeks in the river if the water is cold enough. This morning I almost mistook a beauty silver salmon for a big steelhead.

 

Heres a beauty late silver salmon from a few years ago.

 

Nice catch either way thanks for sharing.

[BillM]

Steelhead? Looks like a big fat chinook hen to me..

[davey buoy]

I have also seen many silver salmon caught recently. Even if it took them a day or week to get where I was,they were still a nice clean color. How does that work then?.

[misfish]

Lots of silver chinny caught in the river here. As for being a steel head,,,,,,,,,,,, Nope.

[Spiel]

It's hard to read through all the misinformation here I don't even know what to say other than, nice big Chinook to the OP, well done.

[azebra]

Salmon start getting dark way before they enter the rivers...

I'm not doubting you because of your status in life and on the boards... But if I only had a picture... There was a silver slab of fish at my feet last night and this wasnt the first time. i have been targeting steelhead and salmon for 9 years and have seen this silver many times upstream from the river mouth. I don't do drugs so I wasn't hallucinating please explained that sliver shiny fish 1/4 km up stream from the river??

[Snidley]

Could be a fish that has not changed yet plain and simple. Most likely it is a 3 year fish that either was blown inshore, was chasing bait or got caught up with the push of fish coming into spawn. I caught a silver Chinook myself last week. It was about 15lb. and was among several others that were dark that night.You notice them because they are different than the majority of the fish being caught. With that being said anyone with experience knows that our 4 year Chinooks start to change in the lake, some as early as late July, and by this time of year they are virtually all changed over be they in the river or lurking around river mouths in the lake. You should be happy that there is the occasional chromer to catch but it is not in any way what the average spawner looks like at this time of year.

[Live2fish85]

I have been out a few times casting for salmon and they do indeed change colours before entering the mouths. Some males also have a kype before they enter as well. I have seen more dirty looking chinooks of the pier then I have silver.

 

We also had some that were really dark while trolling a few weeks back a good distance from any river mouths.

 

I think it really just depends on the fish.

[azebra]

Interesting, thanks for that info!

If only we could have conversations with fish

[BillM]

I'm not doubting you because of your status in life and on the boards... But if I only had a picture... There was a silver slab of fish at my feet last night and this wasnt the first time. i have been targeting steelhead and salmon for 9 years and have seen this silver many times upstream from the river mouth. I don't do drugs so I wasn't hallucinating please explained that sliver shiny fish 1/4 km up stream from the river??

 

I guess fish change when they want to, lol! I've found chromers way up stream as well, and also black boots out in the river mouths before they even enter the river. I guess that's one of the joys of salmon/steelhead fishing, you never know what's on the end of the line

[mirogak]

Nice Salmon - congrats on the PB

[LimbLifter]

I'm not doubting you because of your status in life and on the boards... But if I only had a picture... There was a silver slab of fish at my feet last night and this wasnt the first time. i have been targeting steelhead and salmon for 9 years and have seen this silver many times upstream from the river mouth. I don't do drugs so I wasn't hallucinating please explained that sliver shiny fish 1/4 km up stream from the river??

 

 

I think Bill M was talking generally. It's fairly rare to see such a silver fish such as the one in the picture, even at the pier. Maybe one in 10 fish have a silvery appearance and probably 99.9 percent of these silver fish will be females. These fish, for whatever reason, don't seem to get as dark. I've caught fairly silver fish in the river (when I used to fish the rivers), that were very ripe and spitting eggs.

 

In the northern tribs (Bighead, Owen Sound etc.), they used to have the odd spring run chinook come through in April/May. These were pure chrome fish and would be fully ripe. If anybody has info on this strain, I would be very interested in hearing about it. I have only seen three caught in 25 years of fishing the rivers. Another interesting note - the eggs of these fish were very fragile, would break extremely easy, and couldn't be water cured like a typical chinny egg.

[misfish]

In the northern tribs (Bighead, Owen Sound etc.),

 

We stayed at a camp ground in Owen sound many years ago in July for a laccross tourney (gap the name of it) but it had silver chinnys in it. One kid even tailed one with his hands.

[Dutch]

Back on topic - nice fish OP.