T
Pink Year
- Thread starter Irafly
- Start date
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, in kind of a morbid way, given that the humpies are there now and will probably never be eradicated. What many don’t realize is the huge difference in productivity between Pacific salmon and Atlantic salmon dominated ecosystems. The ecosystem in those far north rivers has developed with a relatively small marine subsidy coming from the native salmon etc, but now there’s a massive increase in that with the pinks. Will the juvenile salmon adapt and start eating eggs and flesh, and grow bigger, faster? Arctic char fill that niche elsewhere, so they might thrive. Or it might just all go to s**t and become a stinky humpy monoculture. What it won’t be is the same.
They always look bigger than they actually are through the viewing window. Did anybody actually hear of a verified, weighed 30# chinook caught in the sound this year? Or even a 25? Or an actual 20? All the “20 pounders” I heard about turned out to be teens when confronted with a scale…
Down in the south sound early in the season there were some verified 25+.
I’ve been catching a lot of them. Keep forgetting my camera though!
Scudley Do Right
Life of the Party
No 30# but heard of and saw over 20# on the scale.
Sounds like sockeye encounters (and people counting and estimating them) would become a thing if pinks were to establish in Lk WA.
That should put the end to thoughts of any Lk WA pink fishery in the future.
SF
That should put the end to thoughts of any Lk WA pink fishery in the future.
SF
SeaRunner
Steelhead
The kokanee fishery on Lake Washington was very good this year. I wonder if there is any connection between that and the hatchery.
SeaRunner
Steelhead
Salmon fishing has been open on Lake Washington north of 520 with a 4 coho limit since 9/16. One option would be to just include pinks in that fishery.
I’ve caught pinks in Alaskan lakes and fished for them like I would frog water in a river
I realize pinks are plenty and handling slimy sail boats like that is tough, but it does bug me when I see big spawners dragged up onto shore. Taking them out of the water drastically reduces survival rates, especially when they are old and weak. I am less directing this comment to you specifically and more to anyone new to fishing who comes across this image and thinks it is okay to always handle fish like that.
What REALLY bothered me on the Snohomish was people targeting pinks during spawning, dragging them up onto the bank, and then leaving them flopping helplessly instead of putting them in deeper water that they can swim back to. (Obviously not something you did)
Respect the fish
Might be the only remaining species one day
Yeah, weirdly it seems like a lot of anglers kind of hate fish!
I'm 21 and grew up fishing Puget Sound, which sadly means I think of mid teens a a "big" salmon. I'm not sure I can even imagine a 60-80# salmon.
The way some anglers treat our humpy friends and their chum cousins breaks your heart. My favorite memory of this summer had to be making my way across Possession Bar at sunset, and watching a school of pinks rapidly crossing the bar the opposite direction headed to the Snohomish. I did most of my fishing in November last year and loved watching the chum make their way upstream while I mostly targeted coho. The one time I targeted them I could not believe how voracious they were, I wouldn't be surprised if I could catch one without a hook if my jig was tied strong enough. Sadly to most people they are just crab bait dog food and egg carriers...
Im in your same boat. I’m 21 and the biggest salmon I’ve seen was probably the 29 pound king some guy landed off the shore one day when I was probably 8 years old. That fish seemed the same size as me at the time, so anything bigger is unimaginable to me.
Hopefully the genes in these fish are still there and the smaller size is just a reflection of ocean conditions, which change.
Hopefully the genes in these fish are still there and the smaller size is just a reflection of ocean conditions, which change.
In Puget Sound among the hatchery fish (adipose clipped) fish that might weight 30# is pretty rare. according to WDFW's 2021 summer selective fishery reports out of 5,939 recreationally harvested chinook measured by creel clerks only 3 were 100 cm (fork length) or larger. Such fish would likely weight in the 30s. One of those fish was caught in MA 5, one in MA 6, and one in MA 7.
Even more depressing of the 541 Chinook checked with Code Wire Tags (CWTS) only 27 (5%) had fork lengths of 80 or more cm. Fish that would weight in the low teens or more. Of the 10 largest of those Chinook 2 were from the Elwha, 2 from the Columbia system, 1 from BC, 2 spring or Summer Chinook and 4 from the more abundant PS fall Chinook
Curt
Even more depressing of the 541 Chinook checked with Code Wire Tags (CWTS) only 27 (5%) had fork lengths of 80 or more cm. Fish that would weight in the low teens or more. Of the 10 largest of those Chinook 2 were from the Elwha, 2 from the Columbia system, 1 from BC, 2 spring or Summer Chinook and 4 from the more abundant PS fall Chinook
Curt
Most of
the big guys i saw at the window had adipose fins. Pretty incredible that Wild Chinook exist in the current Lake Washington watershed at all
not everything with an adipose fin grew up in gravel, especially not in that basin.
