Salmon Chinook
name: Salmon Chinook
other names: King Salmon
The body of the Chinook salmon is elongate and somewhat compressed. For most of its life the Chinook's colour is bluish to dark grey above, becoming silvery on the sides and belly. There are black spots on the back, upper sides, top of the head, and all the fins including both the top and bottom half of the tail fin. Coloration changes during upstream migration; spawning Chinook salmon range from red to copper to olive brown to almost black, depending on location and degree of maturation, and they undergo a radical metamorphosis. Males are more deeply coloured than the females and are distinguished by their "ridgeback" condition and by their hooked nose or upper jaw, known as a kype.
Chinook spend the majority of their adult life out to sea only returning to freshwater to bread. These freshwater streams and estuaries provide important habitat for Chinook salmon. They feed on aquatic insects, amphipods, and other crustaceans while young, and primarily on other fish when older. Chinook have now been introduced into great lakes originally to control bait fish, but are now stocked purely as a sport fish. In such lakes if the abundance of food is available these fish will also grow quickly.
Juvenile Chinooks in freshwater feed on plankton, then later eat insects. In the ocean they eat a variety of organisms, including herring, pilchard, squid, and crustaceans. Salmon grow rapidly in the ocean and often double their weight during a single summer season. Likewise, Chinooks that live entirely in freshwater feed on plankton and insects as juveniles, and pelagic freshwater bait fish in the lakes. Alewives and smelt are the primary food items, and, in fact, Chinooks and other salmonids were introduced to the Great Lakes and other inland waters especially to help control massive populations of bait fish, which they consume voraciously and thus quickly grow large, stocky bodies.
Chinook salmon may spend between 1 to 8 years in the ocean before returning to their natal streams to spawn, though the average is 3 to 4 years. Eggs are laid in deeper water with larger gravel, and need cool water and good water flow (to supply oxygen) to survive. Mortality of Chinook salmon in the early life stages is usually high due to natural predation and human induced changes in habitat, such as situation, high water temperatures, low oxygen conditions, loss of stream cover and reductions in river flow.
Chinook are one of the largest Salmon species and therefore tackle required needs to match the size of fish. There are various methods to fish for these salmon to many to mention. Contact us and one of our guides will help with your tackle selection dependant on your fishing location.
