Puget Sound

VMP said:
They look like Euphausiids (Pacific krill) to me. Fishing from my boat yesterday I found a long line of bird activity foraging on both redish zooplankton and about 2-3 inch size herring, all on a weed line in just about 20-30 feet of water. Every so often a salmon would come from below and smash on the herring, staying maybe 5-10 seconds close to the surface and disapearing down again. All happening on mid-morning broad sun and clear water. It was windier than expected, the wind was pushing this line of activity towards shore, my boat was kind of drifting on an angle through it so had to reposition often. I started working with a small jig and was soon rejected by a salmon. Changed to a pink and chartreuse cone fly and rejected again. Put a simmilar all white cone fly with UV blue flash and bang, fish on. Landed a couple cookie cutter 4-5lbs coho that went back, lost some at the net and finally kept a 26 inch, 7 lb hatchery buck. Empty stomach. In Central Puget Sound we typically see lots of pacific krill, crab larvae, copepods, amphipods and other zooplankton in stomachs earlier in the season (some pictures from samples from June/early July below), often times completely stuffed with them, by now they are often empty or have moved into baitfish. Interesting to see such a stuffed coho on krill this time of the year.

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This was from late August of this year. Stomach contents of a standard resident.

IMG_8542.jpeg

Here’s a question I’ve had for many years. Probably 15 years ago or so I caught a beautiful coho in MA9 that was absolutely stuffed with shrimp. The kind of shrimp I want to cook for dinner, not the krill variety. The stomach lining burst when I was gutting it and they all poured out. Probably 20 of them and all in the 1 1/2 - 2” range and freshly eaten. I almost considered robbing the contents for my own culinary use 🤣. Shrimp pink in color. Any ideas on what those might have been? Unfortunately I did not get a picture.
 
Stonedfish said:
Stomach contents of a hatchery coho I harvested today. This is about half of them. The fish was stuffed.
SF

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I agree that those are krill, most likely Pacific krill (Euphausia pacifica). Another possibility would be mysids (relatives of amphipods and isopods). There are several species of mysids that form dense schools along the shoreline. Mysids are similar in shape to krill but do not reach as large a size. Mysids typically have a "broken back" appearance when compared to the relatively straight body of Pacific krill.
Steve
 
SteelHeadDave said:
This was from late August of this year. Stomach contents of a standard resident.

View attachment 192684

Here’s a question I’ve had for many years. Probably 15 years ago or so I caught a beautiful coho in MA9 that was absolutely stuffed with shrimp. The kind of shrimp I want to cook for dinner, not the krill variety. The stomach lining burst when I was gutting it and they all poured out. Probably 20 of them and all in the 1 1/2 - 2” range and freshly eaten. I almost considered robbing the contents for my own culinary use 🤣. Shrimp pink in color. Any ideas on what those might have been? Unfortunately I did not get a picture.
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I’ve seen that before as well.
Were they similar to this? Color wise, this is similar to what I saw in a coho.
SF

wdfw.wa.gov

Ocean Pink shrimp

Commercial shrimpers off the Washington coast harvest large numbers of this species. They are also found in southern Puget Sound, through they are
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
 
Stonedfish said:
I’ve seen that before as well.
Were they similar to this? Color wise, this is similar to what I saw in a coho.
SF

wdfw.wa.gov

Ocean Pink shrimp

Commercial shrimpers off the Washington coast harvest large numbers of this species. They are also found in southern Puget Sound, through they are
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
Click to expand...
Thanks, SF, it’s very possible that was Pink Shrimp. I remember they were all curled up (head touching tail) just like if you blanched some cocktail shrimp. One of my few regrets in life is not taking advantage of such a generous offering 😁
 
SteelHeadDave said:
This was from late August of this year. Stomach contents of a standard resident.

View attachment 192684

Here’s a question I’ve had for many years. Probably 15 years ago or so I caught a beautiful coho in MA9 that was absolutely stuffed with shrimp. The kind of shrimp I want to cook for dinner, not the krill variety. The stomach lining burst when I was gutting it and they all poured out. Probably 20 of them and all in the 1 1/2 - 2” range and freshly eaten. I almost considered robbing the contents for my own culinary use 🤣. Shrimp pink in color. Any ideas on what those might have been? Unfortunately I did not get a picture.
Click to expand...
Those look like typical gammarid amphipods. The three major groups of amphipods are gammarids (= scuds, the type of amphipod that you would find in tide pools or on a sandy beach (e.g., beach hoppers) or at Rocky Ford, hyperiids (amphipods with very large, elongate eyes, and caprelllids (aka, skeleton shrimp that look at bit like preying mantids). Caprellids are exclusively benthic. Hyperiids are exclusively marine and pelagic. Most gammarids are benthic with many freshwater and marine species. Therefore, I would suspect that the silver feeding on them must have been cruising along the bottom and slurping them up in large numbers.
Steve
 
VMP said:
They look like Euphausiids (Pacific krill) to me. Fishing from my boat yesterday I found a long line of bird activity foraging on both redish zooplankton and about 2-3 inch size herring, all on a weed line in just about 20-30 feet of water. Every so often a salmon would come from below and smash on the herring, staying maybe 5-10 seconds close to the surface and disapearing down again. All happening on mid-morning broad sun and clear water. It was windier than expected, the wind was pushing this line of activity towards shore, my boat was kind of drifting on an angle through it so had to reposition often. I started working with a small jig and was soon rejected by a salmon. Changed to a pink and chartreuse cone fly and rejected again. Put a simmilar all white cone fly with UV blue flash and bang, fish on. Landed a couple cookie cutter 4-5lbs coho that went back, lost some at the net and finally kept a 26 inch, 7 lb hatchery buck. Empty stomach. In Central Puget Sound we typically see lots of pacific krill, crab larvae, copepods, amphipods and other zooplankton in stomachs earlier in the season (some pictures from samples from June/early July below), often times completely stuffed with them, by now they are often empty or have moved into baitfish. Interesting to see such a stuffed coho on krill this time of the year.

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Last picture are crab larvae
 
Big Migratory Beach Coho 2026.jpg

Big Migratory Beach Coho 2026 2.jpg

Big Migratory Beach Coho 2026 3.jpg

I connected with a long & stout migratory beach coho that ripped the fly hard. It gave a great fight with a couple trips into the backing, then swam away strong towards the spawning grounds. My best coho of the 2026 season so far. Thanks to @Stonedfish for the fish photography!
 
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