Northwest Fishing Reports

When theese fish are first entering the river are there any definate ways to tell them apart? Like humpys don't get the big hump in them until theyu been in the river for a while right? I have seen pics, and I don't see any big definate differences. Do pinks have the big hook jaw right away? Thanks in advance.

I am not sure I understand your question completly or not, but here I go. Pink is the real name for the fish and humpy is a nick name, same as Coho is the real name and silver is the nick name. But the humpback and hooked jaw you are talking about dont happen until they make there way up the river, this is called the spawning stage. In the rules and regs it will show ocean stage and spawning stage for each salmon. There isnt a huge difference from all the salmon while they are in their ocean stage, but once in spawning stage there is a huge difference.

It is often difficult for people to tell these two apart when fresh from the salt. Generally though the silvers have larger scales with a more defined line between the dark back and the chrome sides and the humpies have smaller scales with a less defined line between the back and sides. Also the humpies have a light pinkish purple lateral line barely visible sometimes running down their sides, and have almost brook trout looking black spots on their tails. I suggest looking in the regs because they also give more detailed descriptions and pretty good pictures.

Oh and also, yes the male humpies will have a hooked jaw, though not as defined as when they are in spawning stage.

It's actually easy to tell even before you get the fish in the boat.

Coho will always go airborne multiple times while fighting.. humpies slug it out under the water...


if it didn't jump, it's a humpie...

Thanks for the help I really appreciate it.

Bob can't wait for the rivers to open. I wonder if they are catching any off the Edmonds pier?

yeah if the fish is still in the ocean kind of stage still the humpy will have a white mouth with a black gum line and theyll have the oval spots on the tail. Went fishing and thought the first pink we caught down in Gig Harbor was a silver then looked again and saw the spots all on the tail.

littleriver wrote:It's actually easy to tell even before you get the fish in the boat.

Coho will always go airborne multiple times while fighting.. humpies slug it out under the water...


if it didn't jump, it's a humpie...

Littleriver, I am not sure if you are joking on this one. So here goes.

Not to be rude or anything, but this method is deffinatly not the best way to tell the difference between the two. I have had tons of Silvers fight like Humpies and tons of Humpies fight like Silvers. I mean really, what are you supposed to tell the game warden when asked, "Sorry officer but the fish stayed under water the whole time and didn't jump so I figured they were Humpies". Depending on how many fish you have just kept in the area you are fishing could cost you dearly in this situation. So really the best thing to do is get a copy of the regs and look at the pictures and read the descriptions. Little River is right in the fact that Silvers do generally jump a lot more than humpies when hooked, I would not base the way the fish fights on what species it is though. Just trying to save you from a costly ticket. No disrespect meant Littleriver.

I've caught lots and lots of coho mallard and I can't recall any that didn't at least move quickly to the surface.. even chinook will do that if you hook them down deep but the chinook don't come out of the water, they will just come up near the surface and take off on a long run that strips line quickly from the reel...... the coho will jump if they are healthy and strong... but even if they don't jump they will fight near the surface..... I haven't caught too many humpies but the one's I caught were slow to surface as I recall and easy to identify once in the boat......

if it doesn't look like a coho or a king and it's an odd year and you are in "humpy" water then it's probably a humpy.....

odds of being a kokanee are pretty remote......

there aren't that many options mallard......

littleriver wrote:I've caught lots and lots of coho mallard and I can't recall any that didn't at least move quickly to the surface.. even chinook will do that if you hook them down deep but the chinook don't come out of the water, they will just come up near the surface and take off on a long run that strips line quickly from the reel...... the coho will jump if they are healthy and strong... but even if they don't jump they will fight near the surface..... I haven't caught too many humpies but the one's I caught were slow to surface as I recall and easy to identify once in the boat......

if it doesn't look like a coho or a king and it's an odd year and you are in "humpy" water then it's probably a humpy.....

odds of being a kokanee are pretty remote......

there aren't that many options mallard......

Yes, Littleriver but basing what species a fish is off of it's fight alone is just idiotic.

No offense to you but I just would like to see people physically identify the fish rather than guess like you.

I'm not guessing man...

I mean I was out fishing the nisqually reach this afternoon and my buddy drops a herring down 140 feet and as soon as it hits the bottom it's "boom boom".. fish on.... by the third tug I told him "it's a dogfish"...

and I was right on.....


repeated the excercise several more times and I was 100% for the day.......



fish identification isn't rocket science.. all it takes is "practice, practice, practice"...

Humpy's have little tiny scales and washed out green spots on the tail. Coho will have bigger scales, small black spots on the back and streaks of silver on the tail. If you put two side by side you'll see the difference at once. They're totally different. The other place to look is in the mouth. Coho will have much more aggressive teeth.

I just found out the best way to tell the difference is Cohos have teeth on its tongue and the pinks dont. Be careful checking for this because I cut my finger on a p inks teeth yesterday trying to feel its tongue#-o

yeah, yeah, yeah..... one fish has a fat fin and another one thin, but the real fisherman can tell species before it is in.



You all are sounding like a bunch of rookies...... the way a fish fights should be enough for a seasoned angler to know what he has on the end of the line.... example.. when you have big walleye on it will do a "tail flop" kind of fight.... you'll feel your line go slack very momentarily and then a quick tug and then it goes slack.. that's because it's staying down deep where it was hooked and just flopping it's tail from eyeball to eyeball trying to throw the hook.... a signature fighting style I've experienced with all large walleye I've hooked......

stop reading posts and stop reading books and go out and catch some fish and you will quickly become an expert at species identification....

um, trolling on Possession this morning my fish ran off about 100 yards of line like a screaming bullet. I told Tom to turn the boat around and follow because I had the biggest dogfish of my life.

Just pullling your (fish) tail.

=d>

Right now is starting to get really good beach fishing for the Pinks and an occasinal Coho at Lincoln Park. Pink buzz bombs,spoons and flyfisherman are hooking up too. Not hot yet but some limits caught.(Daily limit 2 Salmon combined plus an additional 2 Pinks)= 4 Pinks "Chinooks must be released". The single barbless hook is still in effect until Aug 15th(So no treble hooks with your buzz bombs)

man i keep meaning to get out there but stuff just keeps coming up.. arg

My judgement is in favor of littleriver.
It has been proven that an experienced angler can tell the difference between fish species before caught by the way in which the fish fights. Case closed.

Yes of course. I guess we are all rookies here, like littleriver said we should stop reading books and posting here so we can learn something...

Anyway, I can't believe it takes littleriver to have a fish on to know what it is. Thats funny. ANY experienced angler can tell what it is before it even strikes. You should be able to sense what is looking at your lure. If it is a fish you don't want just pull it away. Thats how the big shots do it... Yep uhuh...


Back to the topic, what Mallard said is pretty much spot on. Oh but remember, ANY fish that does not jump is a Humpy. So anyone who has ever caught a fish that did not jump, your fish was a Humpy wether you knew it or not... ;)

littleriver wrote:yeah, yeah, yeah..... one fish has a fat fin and another one thin, but the real fisherman can tell species before it is in.



You all are sounding like a bunch of rookies...... the way a fish fights should be enough for a seasoned angler to know what he has on the end of the line.... example.. when you have big walleye on it will do a "tail flop" kind of fight.... you'll feel your line go slack very momentarily and then a quick tug and then it goes slack.. that's because it's staying down deep where it was hooked and just flopping it's tail from eyeball to eyeball trying to throw the hook.... a signature fighting style I've experienced with all large walleye I've hooked......

stop reading posts and stop reading books and go out and catch some fish and you will quickly become an expert at species identification....

Tell that to the game warden, a lot of people are not "professionals" like you are. Some people are actually trying to learn something from others and unfortunately you are of no help on this one. On behalf of the people that actually listened to you on this one, I say thank you for the tickets they received from the wardens.[-x

Haha yeah i kind of find it funny with what Jake Dogfish says because the fish i thought was a silver is because it had the white mouth and because it jumped a few times while catching it and it ended up being a pink when I looked at the other details of the fish.