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Chinook Salmon
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
Identification
tips for trouts and salmons
- Length: 20 to 35 inches
- Weight:3 to 15 pounds
- Coloring: iridescent green to
blue-green on back; sides below lateral line silvery; silvery to white underside
- Common Names:king salmon, tyee, spring
salmon, quinnat
- Found in Lakes:Stocked in Michigan,
Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior
- Many chinook salmon end their days as
trophies mounted on tavern and game room walls. In tribute to their size and character,
they are also known as "king salmon."
Chinook were the first Pacific
salmon to be transplanted to other parts of the world, but the only notable success in
creating self-sustaining stocks has been in New Zealand. A key factor in this general
failure was that, like other Pacific salmon, chinook salmon seek the stream of their birth
to spawn and die. They have apparently failed to find the right kind of spawning streams
along Lake Michigan, so continuous stocking is necessary to maintain the chinook as one of
the lake's most prized game fish.
Chinook are generally caught by trolling. But
as winter approaches and the lake becomes colder, they disappear in search of more
suitable water temperatures. Some say they veer south along a route five to 15 miles
offshore; others say that, unlike cohos, they simply move offshore into deeper water.
For several reasons, this salmon species is
especially popular with fish management agencies. They can be released five to six months
after hatching and therefore are cheaper to hatch and stock than cohos, which require 14
to 16 months. During their four- to five-year lifespan, chinooks feed on large numbers of
alewifes and so put more pressure on the lake's alewife population.
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copyright University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
Brook Trout illustration copyright 1998 Gina
Mikel
Chinook salmon photograph (c) Shedd
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Drawing from Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Last updated 05 February 2002 by Seaman |