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<p>Caught this fish in Lake Erie in PA waters in about 125-130 FOW, it was suspended at about 40 feet if I remember correctly. Had it for dinner last night and tasted great whatever it was. I automatically assumed Steelhead but someone on another forum pointed out that it has a forked tail and two others said it was a Coho Salmon. Salmon are in Erie but are MUCH less common than they are in the other Great Lakes. I thought I remembered the faintest pink stripe down the lateral line but it was very faded and could've been just a light reflection. What do you guys think? </p>
<p>http://roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-6-field_photoset-62670</p>
Looks like a small chinook to me - forked tail, spots on entire tail.
Or Pink?
This is the only other picture I have.
http://roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-7-field_photoset-62670
Don't Chinooks have squared caudal fins though?
I've caught them that size before- definitely a small chinook.
Awesome then! Finally got my first Salmon to add to the lifelist :)
Well, while I'm questioning open water Trout and Salmon I've caught this year. Any ideas on this thing? Pretty positive it's a Steelhead this time, caught it 4th of July weekend in 76 FOW.
http://www.roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-8-field_photoset-62670
http://www.roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-9-field_photoset-62670
Looks like a steelhead to me! Coho would have only sparse spots on the upper part of the tail and white gums.
It's kinda hard to ID salmonids w/o a clear picture of the gums though- I'm still waffling back and forth between Steelhead and smaller Chinook.......
Yeah I didn't realize that gums were so important until after I tried to ID the first fish. From now on I'll be sure to take pictures of the mouth and th entire body laying flat with fins erect if I can't figure out what the fish is.
This one is definitely a rainbow trout - steelhead.
Why is it that I never question whether a Steelhead was really a Salmon until after they're filleted, sigh. Well, thinking these are both steelhead but I'll let you guys decide. We chaught 7 nice ones this weekend in Erie and kept 3 Saturday and 3 Sunday but of course I never took mouth or gum pictures.
Fish 1) http://roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-11-field_photoset-62670
Fish 2) http://roughfish.com/content/misc-fish#slide-12-field_photoset-62670
Bump.
That's what I figured. First one sort of looked like a Coho to me but I didn't get a good look at the mouth or tail, of course it was the only one that would swim away :)
Learn the anal fin method. It's been fool proof for me. It's described at the bottom of the page:
http://www.multispecies.com/Leagues/MMTS/MultispeciesScoringSystem/TroutNSalmonIdentification/tabid/816/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Nice catches BTW!
I know this thread is old, however, earlier today I had several people on another forum tell me after posting a picture of the original salmon that it is a Pink Salmon, not a Chinook. I'm not sure if they're correct, but upon further investigation, the description of the pink salmon fits the fish much better than a Chinook's description as the fish had no teeth on the tongue and there was large ovals on the caudal fin with no silvery marks. Just a thought, I may be wrong though. For those of you who didn't see thread when I first started it: The fish was was caught supended 60' down in 133 FOW on a yellow and orange spoon in The Pennsylavnia waters of Lake Erie's eastern basin (far northeastern PA waters bordering both Canada and New York).
I've always thought it looked more like a pink as well. The size and number of the caudal spots point to it being a pink. Every Chinook I've ever seen has had much smaller spots and many more. Also, the size of the pupil is different from the size of a chinook's. From my experience, I've seen that Kings have small pupils whereas cohos and pinks have large. The shape of the tail, head, and overall body look like a pink as well.
That's awesome if it is a pink because, to my knowledge, DNR's never stocked them. I've always thought they were accidentally released into Thunder Bay, Lake Superior and have since reproduced to their current population. That would make your catch a naturally spawned fish and would show that pink salmon have spread all over the Great Lakes.
It's amazing what one accidental stocking can do, a few thousand fish thrown in Thunder Bay to dispose of them after an unsuccessful stocking effort in Hudson Bay. A few years later and they're spread throughout every Great Lake on all shorelines. Personally, I'm against the stocking of non-natives in general (with a few exceptions), but if they're going to stock Pacific Salmon anyway, why not throw in some Pinks as well, they're cool fish and fight just as well as other species pound-for-pound.
I remember seeing this fish and thinking it kinda looks like a pink salmon, but it was large for the Great Lakes- maybe a rare 3 year old fish - and the photos didn't show a few key identifiers. Pretty cool if it is though, considering that fish's history in that area.
Without an anal fin shot this is really tricky.
My gut says pink for a few reasons.
Main ones are Pupil size in relation to the eye and the tail shape and spot size and pattern.
I have some pictures Ill dig up in a bit to show what I mean.
Neither of these two things are used in a scientific ID in a lab but both together are a good indicator of the species.
Chinook salmon have small pupil relitive to the iris of the eye. And the tail spots are typically not elongated and are smaller than the pupil or the eye or well defined and not faded in appearance.
Pink salmon and Coho salmon have large pupils in relation to the Iris and the spots on a pink salmons tail are large, elongated and not distinctly edged (faded and fuzzy)
One thing I cant see in the picture is the mouth color and if there are spots on the upper body. those spots are visible on silver fish, though faint in appearance.
The fish does have a large pupil in relation to the eye, very narrow caudal peduncle and large indistinctly edges elongated spots on the caudal fin.
Its also possible though very unlikely it is a Pinook. Not sure of any Pinook records on that lake though.
I really do see the pupil differences between the salmonids now, thanks for sharing this J. And hey if I were ever to call a fish a Pinook, it'd be this one! Impossible to tell without anal fin and mouth photos like you said, but the overall body is weird and inconclusive. I now think this is a big fresh pink, but still unsure.
Here are some Illustrations of eyes showing typical pupil shape and ratios.
And a row of tails. Though I have seen cohos with more heavily spotted tails, its highly uncommon.
If you would have shown me only this much of the tail I would have said Pink without blinking an eye.
The size and location make it a strange catch.
This is some interesting stuff!! Thank you Josh for the details with the eyes and such. The tail does look forked more than a pink but sometimes that can be that way from wear on the tail. Looking at the spot size on the tail, the eyes, ect it is a very interesting set of evidence Josh put up.
It is all perspective!
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Wow, I never thought I'd spend so much time trying to ID a fish that I caught 7 months ago, and I can see that some of you are even more determined to figure it out than I am LOL. At is point, I'm confident it isn't a Coho and it probably isn't a pure Chinook so I'm going with either a pure Pink or a "Pinook" as someone else said.
As a little background, the PFBC currently only stocks Steelhead in Lake Erie (same as NY does) but they used to stock Cohos back in the 60's, 70's, and possibly the early 80's as well. I also heard they used to stock Chinook's briefly in the 60's but all those fish should be long dead by now, unless there's a small, reproducing relict population. They never stocked Pinks but I'm sure most of you know their story and they used to be a somewhat common catch (1 Pink for every 500 Steelhead caught) in PA Tribs back in the 90's and early 2000's. But since about 2005, Pinks have been an incredibly rare sight in any of the Tribs. I will say, though, I spotted a very hefty spawning male Pink (~24") in one of the PFBC's nursery streams attempting to spawn with Steelhead, so apparently there's still a few left out in the lake.