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[Narhay]

[bkk]

Yup.

[RG]

Hmm, anal fin lacks a white leading edge backed with a black stripe and the adipose fin doesn't have a dark leading edge all the way around so I'm inclined to say it is not a Coho.  My guess is Rainbow: 5+ dorsal parr marks in front of the dorsal fin and the black border on the adipose with a break in it.  Just a guess based on the photo.

[bkk]

No it's a coho. Have handled millions of them in my career. White edge on the anal as well as the parr marks that extend below the lateral line on every 2nd band. Big band , small band followed by a big band again. The anal fin should also  be sickle shaped but that is not evident in the picture as well. If it was a trout it would have spots on the dorsal fin and this fish do's not. Coho can be a confusing fish some times as there colouring changes quite a bit depending on the habitat they were rearing in as well as how close the fish is to smolting. They can also lighten up in colouring if they are held in a sampling container for any amount of time. Coho are most often confused with juvenile chinook of the same size.

[RG]

True about the spots on the dorsal fin but that is on juvenile rainbow less than 30mm in size, that one looks bigger than that so it's possible it wouldn't have the spots.  I'm probably wrong, but I don't see a white edge backed by a black line on the anal fin, could be there I suppose, not evident due to it not being splayed out completely.  This is fun, love this stuff.

[Dave]

I'm with bkk ... coho

[RG]

I keyed it out the best I could with picture, though hard to do meristics accurately with a photo I suppose, I'll concede defeat.

[Taboo]

100%: not dinner. 

[Dave]

bkk is so right regarding color changes juvenile coho can exibit. I was involved in an elementary school coho enhancement program at Cultus Lake years ago.  We raised the fry to size at the Cultus Lake Laboratory, and released them into tributaries of Cultus Lake. The released fry were put into small white plastic buckets to make it easy for young, keen children,   It didn’t take long for the fish in the buckets to become very pale, almost colorless … but, when released into the stream, became normal colored very quickly.
An adaptive strategy well done.

[Rieber]

Why is that wild Coho being held captive?

[Narhay]

Thanks all.

The lack of black after the white leading edge and its fins were less orange than I usually see in coho was throwing me for a loop but the fish may have been stressed and paled its colours. The anal fin was slightly sickle shaped which is a little evident in the second photo. We are holding this wild coho captive because we are bad people and as part of a regional fish inventory we are conducting.  We released it unharmed shortly after the photos were taken.

[RalphH]

. We are holding this wild coho captive because we are bad people and as part of a regional fish inventory we are conducting.  We released it unharmed shortly after the photos were taken.

Where is Chris and his cellphone when needed? 

[Shinny]

Not to hijack this thread but I have a question about Jack coho.... i was speaking to a couple guys on the river and they told me you can keep a jack coho regardless whether it has an adipose fin or not as long as the coho is longer than 25cm.

So are these guys correct? As long as a jack is over 25cm you can keep it regardless whether it's wild or not?

[RalphH]

not in Region 2. Some years back wild jacks could be retained but not in 10 to 15 years.

[Webo]

The best way to distinguish between salmon and trout parr is to count the number of rays in the anal fin.

11 or less - trout

12 or more - salmon

This fish has 16 that I could count so it's definitely a salmon.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/home/library/pdfs/habitat/adfg_hr_id_cards_v1.1.pdf