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Author Topic: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach  (Read 5639 times)

typhoon

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #15 on: August 14, 2009, 07:19:30 AM »
Never heard of a clipped Chinook. Do any hatcheries clip springs?
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lucky

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2009, 10:36:59 AM »
Maybe it was a large coho? I'm really starting to wonder, in the past Ive caught plenty of both species and never had a problem telling the two apart. This fish fought like a chinook, and the large irregular shaped spots looked like chinook, as well there were spots on the bottom part of tail. Even a couple of fellows on shore thought it was a chinook.

Here's a headshot of a 7lb female coho from last week.



And here's a headshot of the fish in question which was a 9lb female.



Either way I knew that it was a legal fish, and actually if it had an adipose it would have been released because I initially thought it was a coho.
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DionJL

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #17 on: August 14, 2009, 10:46:04 AM »
Quote from: typhoon on August 14, 2009, 07:19:30 AM
Never heard of a clipped Chinook. Do any hatcheries clip springs?
Yup,
It's gotten me on the Vedder before. Thinking I had a coho when it was actually a spring.
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typhoon

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #18 on: August 14, 2009, 10:50:13 AM »
Quote from: DionJL on August 14, 2009, 10:46:04 AM
Yup,
It's gotten me on the Vedder before. Thinking I had a coho when it was actually a spring.
Red? I've never seen a clipped white.
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DionJL

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #19 on: August 14, 2009, 10:55:07 AM »
No it was a white. It was a Jack.
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kingpin

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #20 on: August 14, 2009, 11:05:14 AM »
looks like a coho to me.

i have caught lots of clipped springs on the vedder, jacks and adults... most are whites.
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Im an advocate for the supremacy of the bait fisherman race and a firm believer in the purity of it.

Tex

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #21 on: August 14, 2009, 11:09:30 AM »
Quote from: lucky on August 14, 2009, 10:36:59 AM
And here's a headshot of the fish in question which was a 9lb female.



It's definitely a coho, lucky.  Check the white gumline along the teeth.  That's the only way to be sure from simple observation.  I thought it was a coho when I saw the initial picture, but didn't realize I could click on it to make it bigger and didn't want to say anything without certainty.

Now that I've looked at the picture above, I'm sure of it.  nice fish!
:D
Tex
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Scott

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #22 on: August 14, 2009, 12:10:46 PM »
I caught about 7 clipped reds in the ocean. 
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gman

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #23 on: August 14, 2009, 12:51:21 PM »
I'll join the chorus that says coho. Nice fish.

The tail is a quick identifier that is an easy give away 95% of the time. Spots on top and bottom spring, no spots or a few on top only then coho. I've seen it wrong both ways though.  I once caught a tyee size spring in the ocean that had not spots at all on the tail.

The mouth is the sure identifier. Black is spring, white line on gumline is coho.
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gman

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #24 on: August 14, 2009, 12:55:44 PM »
Just to beat the topic to death here are the links to fisheries identifiaction along with photos of the jaws of coho and chinooks.

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/species-especes/chinook-quinnat-eng.htm
http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/species-especes/coho-eng.htm

The descriptions on these pages are good, but even they fail to mention that the tail is not a reliable indicator, but the jaw is.
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clarki

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #25 on: August 14, 2009, 05:45:26 PM »
Good point Gman, the spots on the tail can fool you. Several years ago I caught a hatch coho in a river that had spots on the bottom half of the tail. Not as many spots as a chinook but certainly more spots than the top few on a coho. The number of spots threw me so much I had to look at the mouth to confirm my ID of the fish
« Last Edit: August 14, 2009, 05:47:24 PM by clarki »
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adriaticum

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #26 on: August 15, 2009, 11:08:56 AM »
Coho.
Chinook teeth are much more pronounced and cut like a razor.
Chinook also have smaller eyes in relation to their head size.

They to clip some Chinook, for scientific purposes mostly.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2009, 11:10:50 AM by adriaticum »
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FlyFishin Magician

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #27 on: August 15, 2009, 02:33:26 PM »
Nice looking fish Lucky.  Yes - they do clip springs...here's a photo of one I released last Fall:



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BNF861

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #28 on: August 16, 2009, 07:22:22 AM »
Nice fish. As others have said, especially once seeing the head shot, i would say coho. Legal catch either way. I have also caught clipped chinook on the vedder as well. Just a reminder, it helps stock assesment to cut the head off of any sport caught clipped salmon and deliver the head to your local sport head recovery depot. Helps asses stocks and you have a chance of winning a prize.

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/tag-etiquette/SHRP-PRTS-eng.htm
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Toprod

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Re: West Vancouver, August 13th 2009: Mixed bag at the beach
« Reply #29 on: August 16, 2009, 11:51:04 AM »
The head recovery program is awesome.  A couple years ago I dropped the heads of two hatchery clipped springs with them. The fish were caught within 5 minutes of each other in the Strait of Georgia. Turns out one was from the Cowichan River and one was from the Clearwater!!!! I would have thought they were both from the same run.
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