OMG - It's On Topic! We Went, We Fished, We Caught Monsters!

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

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:17:03 -0700 (PDT), DaveS wrote:

On Oct 16, 2:11*pm, rw wrote:

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.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Even when they are comming out of a fresh water lake? (Question, RW,
not a criticism)
Tripper, didn't you live on Hood Canal once upon a time?
Dave

Yup - in the burgeoning metropolis of Lilliwaup (population: 60, back in the
early '70s ;-)

As I responded to Steve, these fish are never, ever red...

/daytripper

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:34:50 -0400, daytripper
wrote:

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

fwiw

The only fish I've seen during the run that could be called "silver" were the
occasional chromer steelhead like this one from last season

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...teelie_hen.jpg

and some early-run Chinook salmon - which I've caught on rare occasions, but
which we saw nary a one this trip.

I didn't see any Kings landed that were any lighter than that big dude, most
were as dark or darker, or that beat-up mix of colors. Also, we spent about a
half-hour during lunchtime our first day standing on a highway bridge that
spans the estuary and observed pods of large salmon entering the river mouth,
and as best as I could tell they were all the same dark tone as the one in the
picture.

So, while I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure the Kings start their run already
quite colored...

/daytripper

DaveS wrote:
On Oct 16, 2:11 pm, rw wrote:


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.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Even when they are comming out of a fresh water lake? (Question, RW,
not a criticism)
Tripper, didn't you live on Hood Canal once upon a time?
Dave

I've only fished for kings (sea-run) in Alaska. Can't vouch for
freshwater lakes. Are they not silver colored coming out of the lakes?

BTW, do these fish spawn successfully, or are they all hatchery fish?

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:59:59 GMT, (Kiyu) wrote:


Dave,

That is one damn nice Goliath.
My oldest son commented a full season of caught brookies wouldn't add up to
that one fish - and he wants to go with us next fall :-)
But that is truly the best catch of all.

Kiyu

And I'm looking forward to it - especially as his wife has packed enough
weight on him that he won't simply float away if he has to chase a fish into
the river ;-)

My oldest lives in Northern New Jersey working for Johnson & Johnson, so we
only get to go fishing together a couple of times a year - usually on brookie
ponds and streams near our 2nd house up in the White Mountains (hence the
brookie reference :-) I'd love to see him wrestling with some of these big
dudes!

/daytripper

On Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:00:19 -0700, rw
wrote:
I've only fished for kings (sea-run) in Alaska. Can't vouch for
freshwater lakes. Are they not silver colored coming out of the lakes?

BTW, do these fish spawn successfully, or are they all hatchery fish?

Most of the fish in the river are indeed hatchery products, but according to
the NY DEC, there is some degree of natural spawning as well. They reserve the
uppermost half mile of the river below the controlling reservoir dam for this
purpose (no fishing allowed - and the DEC cops keep an eye on anyone venturing
above the demarcation lines) and there are tributaries that are loaded with
spawners this time of year. There are also some thin backwater sections of the
river that veer off the main stem and return that are reserved for spawners,
though some of those we noticed the No Fishing markings were missing this
year...

/daytripper

On Oct 16, 11:33*am, daytripper wrote:
On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:31:19 -0700 (PDT), "

wrote:

Chasing *that* fish over the usual Salmon River bottom?? *Wow. *Is
Melinda's shop still open?

Melinda's shop is indeed still open and apparently doing just fine. In fact,
on the first day Dave P. discovered his ancient, well-creased waders were
springing multiple unfixable leaks and picked up a new pair of Dan Bailey's
for fairly cheap money (discontinued model) there, and I replaced a rotting
pair of gaitors as well.

She's also a willing and eager co-conspirator: Paul and I pulled our favorite
prank and told her that Dave was keeping all the steelies he caught, upon
which she gave him a haranguing while threatening him with a rod tube. Poor
bastid didn't know wtf was happening. Great fun! :-)

/daytripper

I'm jealous, wish I coulda made it up there this year...

On Oct 16, 1:58*pm, 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...

/daytripper

Supposedly the strain(s) that were picked for the Great Lakes tend to
wait longer to begin their spawning migration than most others. If
this is true, my guess is that this was done because GL feeders tend
to be small and very short, at least when compared to the Northwest
rivers.

On Oct 16, 2:55*pm, notbob wrote:
On 2008-10-16, daytripper wrote:

It's usually a dead-giveaway that a salmon is foul-hooked when it is doing
cartwheels across the stream, whereas a fair-hooked fish will usually try to
bull its way out. Generally, people will try to long-line release or simply
break-off a fish once it's obvious the fish isn't fair-hooked.

Hmmm. *I would have thought a fish that is foul-hooked ....what I call gut
hooked.... would be kept for eating as there's a good chance it will die,
anyway. *Your reply would seem to countradict that. *Am I mistaken? *If so,
how? *Thank you for your previous enlightening reply.

nb

People who keep salmon almost always smoke them. Personally, I don't
think that the salmon meat at this stage is all that good, it often
has a mealy texture and doesn't really taste like what you would
expect. Smoking it helps overcome that.

On Oct 16, 5:11*pm, 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.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

It looks like that red color disappeared once these fish were stocked
in the Great Lakes: I have never seen a red one. These turn bronze,
become increasingly dark, some to the point of almost being black, and
then become mottled as Dave said.