Your Fishing Adventure

The chinook salmon is blue-green on the back and top of the head with silvery sides and white bellies; black spots on the upper half of its body with gray/black mouth coloration. Chinook salmon have been recorded up to 58 inches in length and weigh up to 129 pounds; although chinook salmon range in size from 5 – 70 pounds, depending on the time of year.

This species is usually 18-24 inches in length and 8-12 pounds in weight. The head is conical with a snout bluntly pointed but greatly extended, thickened and turned down in breeding males. These breeding males are characterized by their inability to close their mouths. Adults in the ocean are colored a steel-blue to slightly green with silver sides, white bellies and small black spots on the back.

Silvery sides with a green or blue back and white tips on the ventral and anal fins. Sockeye have no large spots on back or tail, but some may have speckling on the back. The color gradually changes from silver with a dark back, to spawning colors dominated by a typical sockeye color pattern of a bright red body with green on the head and tail.

The pink salmon is metallic blue-green in the water from above and silvery from below; black spots on back and on the caudal fin. When spawning, males develop humped backs, hooked jaws and reddish-yellow sides. The females tend to be more greenish. Up to 30 inches in length and weigh up to 12 pounds; pink salmon usually weigh from 3 to 5 pounds.

A mature adult chum is usually about 25 inches in length and 10 pounds in weight. The snout is bluntly pointed but greatly extended, compressed and turned down in breeding males; the lower jaw is enlarged and turned up at the tip making it impossible to close this sharp toothed mouth. A steel-blue and the back and upper sides with fine black speckles turning into a silver-white on the belly characterize the chum.