kickerboat
8/20/2014 8:03:00 PMI still think those are kokes, but spotty ones for sure. Hybrids? Either way, nice fish!
jonb
8/20/2014 10:03:00 PMthere are spots on the upper lobe of the tail, and the give away is the stomach has food other than plankton in its stomach, most of the contents were a grainy dark brown, with the occational blood worm.. kokes only eat plankton and by the diet alone, it must be landlocked coho. thank you for the feedback though.
thanks all for reading my report .
thanks all for reading my report .
kingstonT
8/21/2014 7:37:00 AMI think I may have misled you with my previous post on your earlier report. It was mostly an explination for why these fish were there not so much questioning what they were. You first post was hard to tell from because it was such a small fish. But these are more kokanee like than coho like for sure. That big gold eye screams koke as well as body shape and scale size and arangement. The spots are a mystery for sure but not unheard of for a koke. And as far as diet goes all fish are somewhat opportunistic. They are going to eat what is available. As long as its all smallish stuff its not out of the ordinary for a koke. Check out the wa lakes vid on riffe lake and compare those fish to yours. Also fishing with rod has a koke vs coho id vid on YouTube.
jonb
8/21/2014 5:23:00 PMwell we will find out for sure come the end of october just before bosworth closes, the fish will certainly be showing their span colors and we will all know for sure, the largest of the salmon was a hen just starting to blush and the next largest was a buck. give it a month or more, and it will be blatantly obvious what they are.
kickerboat
8/21/2014 5:47:00 PMAnother thing to consider is that Kokanee are sockeye salmon that evolved to stay in lakes rather than go out to sea. There is no known strain of coho like that. They do plant them in big landlocked resoivoirs, but give a coho smolt an outlet and it will head for the sea, guaranteed.
jonb
8/21/2014 5:47:00 PMthey look like landlocked salmon to me, whether its a sockeye or coho, i don't know, Ive only ever caught 6 in my life so, some people are saying coho, some are saying kokes.. if they are a new type of salmon im naming them after me.. just saying.. lol... again we will know for sure in a month or so when they show spawning colors, then it'll be obvious.
jonb
8/21/2014 5:49:00 PMthanks for the feedback by the way, very informative, a great learning experience :)
kingstonT
8/21/2014 7:32:00 PMIf your fishing there again before they turn and you want to know for sure you can count the gill rakers. That is the white feather like inward faceing part of the gill. . If you count the rakers and you have 30 or bettee its a koke. Coho shouldnt have more than 26.
MotoBoat
8/21/2014 7:32:00 PMJonb, this may help or not. Depending on where the heads are and if the fish are in the belly already.......lol!
Kokanee (Silver Trout)
Its back is greenish blue to silver with faint speckling. The sides and belly are
silvery with no distinct spotting. When kokanee spawn in fall, their sides turn
red to scarlet. The inside of the mouth is white, not black as in some salmon.
Coho Salmon
Black spots on back with a few spots on the upper portion of the tail.
White mouth with a white gum line and dark tongue. Average size scales.
Silver pigment on the tail.
Biggest difference from the two cut and pasted fish I.D.'s above, found in the WDFW reg's. Is the Kokanee has a all white mouth, including the tongue.
While the Coho has a dark tongue. Less obvious would be the Coho's tail has silver in it.
Hmmm..........here is mention of the "gold eyes" someone mentioned:
Sockeye Salmon
No prominent spots on back or tail (small speckles may be present).
White mouth with a white gum line and dark tongue. Average size scales.
Prominent gold-colored eyes. No silver pigment on the tail. Small teeth.
I am curious what your catching jonb. The fish in your picture appear to have "gold eyes". But "gold eyes are not in the Kokanee id. But are in the Ocean going version (Sockeye).
Kokanee (Silver Trout)
Its back is greenish blue to silver with faint speckling. The sides and belly are
silvery with no distinct spotting. When kokanee spawn in fall, their sides turn
red to scarlet. The inside of the mouth is white, not black as in some salmon.
Coho Salmon
Black spots on back with a few spots on the upper portion of the tail.
White mouth with a white gum line and dark tongue. Average size scales.
Silver pigment on the tail.
Biggest difference from the two cut and pasted fish I.D.'s above, found in the WDFW reg's. Is the Kokanee has a all white mouth, including the tongue.
While the Coho has a dark tongue. Less obvious would be the Coho's tail has silver in it.
Hmmm..........here is mention of the "gold eyes" someone mentioned:
Sockeye Salmon
No prominent spots on back or tail (small speckles may be present).
White mouth with a white gum line and dark tongue. Average size scales.
Prominent gold-colored eyes. No silver pigment on the tail. Small teeth.
I am curious what your catching jonb. The fish in your picture appear to have "gold eyes". But "gold eyes are not in the Kokanee id. But are in the Ocean going version (Sockeye).
kingstonT
8/21/2014 7:36:00 PMI still what to know how they got there cause your posts are the only refference to this population of fish in that lake that I can find anywhere.
jonb
8/21/2014 7:47:00 PMi think the most interesting part is that they aren't just a fluke, i am 100% sure there is a HEALTHY population of them, i saw them jumping not 10' from my raft, the bite never really slowed down for more than 20 minutes, and even then i still got small taps from start until i limited and if i didn't limit so soon , i bet i could've caught many many more.... and like you said kingston, no mention of them anywhere.. BUT there is a fish ladder on bosworth creek as it gets to the lake, so who knows whats in there, maybe ill get a blackmouth next trip lol (i wish)
jonb
8/21/2014 8:32:00 PMok Ive got it, they are sockokanoho salmon...thats my name for them until i get a confirmed identification.
losaturn
8/23/2014 4:21:00 PMThey look like Coho. They even have spots on their back, and I've never seen a Kokanee with spots. The two bigger ones look like the jack coho that I pull out of the Green.
gdhenderson
8/30/2014 3:53:00 PMI also caught several of these at Bosworth yesterday. They are definitely different from the trout we were catching. Another interesting observation: many/most of the trout we caught had parasites, or sores from where parasites had been. None of the kokes? did though.
Mike Carey
8/31/2014 6:58:00 AMcall the WDFW fish biologist for this area. I bet he/she could help clear it up.
