On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:11:44 -0700, rw
wrote:

daytripper wrote:
On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:09:02 -0500, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:


daytripper wrote:

I'm baaaaaaack. And holy crap this group has gone plumb crazy without me! ;-)
snip

Yeah, we miss your steady demeanor and calming influence. You're
like a virtual cigarette soothing roff's nerves. ;-)


Thanks. I knew you'd miss me most ;-)


Damn, that is one ugly, friggin' fish. It looks like it's on it's
last legs and about to expire right in front of the camera. Do
those things live to spawn another day or is that a dead fish
swimming ?


That's actually a fairly fresh king on this river. When they first hit the
estuary they're already colored pretty dark. Beat fish have a mottled
appearance - lots of random light yellowish-tan patches that stick out like
the dickens, and their fins show degrees of damage from struggling upstream.

As could be seen, this one had none of those signs - it's in virtually perfect
condition. And judging by how quickly he took off when released, he had plenty
of gas left...

I'd say it was around midway between fresh and spawned out. A fresh king
has a silvery color, an active spawner is bright red, and, like you say,
a spawned-out one is patchy.

Nice fish.

When I fished for Kings running in the Hood's Canal they were often red, but
I've fished the Salmon River for four runs now, and have never, ever seen a
red salmon...

/daytripper