fish · The Trophy Room
Silver Salmon
The coho — the acrobat of the salmon world. Pound for pound the most fun on the end of a line, silvers hit hard, run fast, and cartwheel across the surface. They show up in the rips in late summer just as the kings are winding down, and a bright ocean coho is superb on the grill.
Identifying
- spots on the back and the UPPER lobe of the tail only (kings are spotted on both lobes)
- white gums with a dark tongue — the opposite of the king's black mouth
- bright chrome at sea; males develop a hooked kype and reddish sides upstream
- slimmer and more streamlined than a king of the same length
Facts
- surface-oriented and aggressive — silvers will chase a fast-stripped bucktail right to the boat
- the "gum check" is the fastest way to separate a coho from a small king in the net
- run timing keys off the fall rains; the northern fish slide through the islands first
