Not a Trout - Not a Kokanee - What is it?

[blurock]

Well Cody and I were trolling around Lake Stevens on Saturday ALL DAY trying to figure out what's going on with the Koke bite right now, and finding something that would entice the picky little buggers into biting, when FINALLY one of our surface rods went off.
After a not so dramatic fight, we got it to the boat, ecstatic to see the flash of what looked like a Kokanee. Scooped it up in the net, and our hearts sank a bit when we saw it's head covered in spots! All that work for a koke, and we ended up with a trout... (not that trout are bad, just really looking for kokes)
However, something still seemed a little fishy to me (sorry for the pun) so I decided to investigate a little closer. And upon further inspection, noticed that this fish had a forked tail like a salmon, not a trout. The spots didn't go down it's sides very far, with not a single spot below it's lateral line, and only spots on the upper lobe of it's tail. It also had a black gumline, and silver streaks extending into it's tail. The scales were small and came off easily like a kokanee's. When we cleaned it the meat was red like a salmons, but not as vibrant red as a kokanee's.

So we knew it must be a salmon of some sort, and we have never seen a Sockeye Kokanee look like this... Our best guess, and one I'm fairly confident in the more I look at it, is that it's a Landlocked Silver (Coho)
What baffles me, is that we are not suppose to have landlocked silvers in Stevens (as far as I understand at least) and know I've never caught one out of Lake Stevens before.
So what are your guys thoughts on this weirdo? Maybe there was a mix up at the hatchery?

[spokey9]

Looks just like the silvers that come out of Riffe lake to me.

[AJ's Dad]

It seems to be blending nicely witht he silver nail polish. I think it's a silver.

[rseas]

Blurock, looks like a silver to me. Not widely known but a few adult salmon do make there way through the Lake Stevens drainage system. Going back to when I was a kid I had heard rumors that there were adult salmon in the system but had always figured that the rumors were just that, rumors. Then while fishing for kokanee 3 or 4 years back I hooked a large fish off a meter mark and after a lengthy fight the fish turned out to be an adult chinook. Not having a salmon net in the boat I didn't have a chance at getting it in the boat but I did get a solid visual on the fish.

[Steelheadin360]

Spots on the head like Juvinile Coho, But there landlocked brotheren dont have spot down their sides.... and as far as i know and the phone call i just made there shouldnt be any Silvers planted in Lake Stevens. That fork in its tail is super deep for a coho though... Im calling it a Cohokanee

And as rseas just stated, the creek that runs out of Lake stevens at the cove end runs into the pilchuck river, and Coho are pretty well know for swimming up anything with running water in it and in the fall it would be no problem for an adult salmon to scoot right up that thing.

[blurock]

Wow rseas - that would be a trip! Catching a chinook on koke gear! haha Too bad you weren't able to land it, but I bet it was still fun!

I started this same conversation on my facebook, and have gotten some pretty interesting feedback as well. Everyone's pretty much agreed that it's a Coho
Steelheadin360 - I like your idea of a Cohokanee haha!
And I wasn't aware before catching this little guy and beginning to talk about it that adult salmon got all the way up into the streams. Pretty cool actually!

[racfish]

As long as it tasted good.

[Bustinbeats]

I'm going with landlocked Coho as well . In fact, I'm sure of it . There was a popular soft-cover guide book to Washington lakes and rivers sold locally back in the 70s , I forget the name but it had listings by county for each water, which included a species list , and a paragraph about the fishing . Landlocked Coho salmon were listed for several of the lakes on the Catherine creek watershed , including Lk Stevens and Cassidy. Blackmans was listed as well, if I recall correctly ( going back 30 years here by straight recollection, yikes) . The same book had a short write-up on these landlocked Coho , describing them, and how to tell them apart from a Kokanee (it was all about the spots, and the black mouth). ....which they often share the same waters with.

Not sure about these days, but back in the 80s ALL those creeks out there around Lk. Stevens still had solid salmon runs in them, several species. You gotta know a few fish were still making it up Catherine creek to the main lake . Blackmans Lake in Snohomish actually had a runs of both mature Kings AND Coho that would come up Swifty Creek , through the lake (imagine a 50+ lb. King in a little suburban lake) , then up a creek that runs north from the lake and ended at some spawning ponds up by where King Charley's hamburger stand now sits. The Little Pilchuck had plenty of salmon in it during the fall, pinks for sure and some gnarly lookin Sockeyes too. There were some Steelhead running those creeks in the fall and winter, as well. My guess is that remnants of these fish runs still exist, with fish counts being WAY down , nowadays.

I have no idea if these landlocked Cohos are , like Kokanee ,spawning upstream in tributaries to their home lakes, or if they are somehow still connected to the sea in their life cycle. I suspect the former.

One thing for sure, that's a fairly rare fish these days ....nice catch !

[natetreat]

Getting a good look at the mouth and it's all dusty black. Landlocked chinook? With a black mouth like that that's what I'd guess.

[Bodofish]

I'm with you Nate. Coho's don't have black in the mouth and their spots are very small. My fish plant used to dress pond raised Coho's for an aquaculture outfit and little land locked Coho's look like the little PS 2# natives. I'm going to go with land locked King, big spots, black mouth and a V in the tail.

[hewesfisher]

Not the best picture for detail, but it looks just like the landlocked Chinook in Lake Roosevelt, confirmed by the marine biologist at weigh-in during the spring trout derby 2 years ago...

[HoeDog80]

Looks like dinner to me.

[Steelheadin360]

Looks like dinner to me.

^^ I'm with him on this one!

[blurock]

However, on the landlocked chinook front... the mouth was not black enough to be a chinook. You can see in the picture of it's head, the base of it's teeth is gray not black, and you can see the minimal spots on the tail and that they are only on the top lobe of the tail. Chinook have spots through their entire tail. This little guys spots were round also, where chinook spots are usually oblong. And no matter how small they've been, every time I've caught a chinook (in the salt or river) they have a distinctive solid black mouth. There's no mistaking it.

[racfish]

Seeing the picture like that it looks like a Shaker Chinook from the sound.

[blurock]

Seeing the picture like that it looks like a Shaker Chinook from the sound.

My Shaker Nooks have always had full black mouths, no white/gray gums

[fear_no_fish]

I'm going with landlocked Coho as well . In fact, I'm sure of it . There was a popular soft-cover guide book to Washington lakes and rivers sold locally back in the 70s , I forget the name but it had listings by county for each water, which included a species list , and a paragraph about the fishing . Landlocked Coho salmon were listed for several of the lakes on the Catherine creek watershed , including Lk Stevens and Cassidy. Blackmans was listed as well, if I recall correctly ( going back 30 years here by straight recollection, yikes) . The same book had a short write-up on these landlocked Coho , describing them, and how to tell them apart from a Kokanee (it was all about the spots, and the black mouth). ....which they often share the same waters with.

Not sure about these days, but back in the 80s ALL those creeks out there around Lk. Stevens still had solid salmon runs in them, several species. You gotta know a few fish were still making it up Catherine creek to the main lake . Blackmans Lake in Snohomish actually had a runs of both mature Kings AND Coho that would come up Swifty Creek , through the lake (imagine a 50+ lb. King in a little suburban lake) , then up a creek that runs north from the lake and ended at some spawning ponds up by where King Charley's hamburger stand now sits. The Little Pilchuck had plenty of salmon in it during the fall, pinks for sure and some gnarly lookin Sockeyes too. There were some Steelhead running those creeks in the fall and winter, as well. My guess is that remnants of these fish runs still exist, with fish counts being WAY down , nowadays.

I have no idea if these landlocked Cohos are , like Kokanee ,spawning upstream in tributaries to their home lakes, or if they are somehow still connected to the sea in their life cycle. I suspect the former.

One thing for sure, that's a fairly rare fish these days ....nice catch !

I believe i own said book you are talking about.
But in another place i read that some of the local lakes including stevens were once (1920s or so) planted with steelhead to head out the pilchuck.
All the little creeks around though are in pretty bad shape so i would expect to many salmon returning anymore.

[jd39]

Mouth looks coho to me, nice fish!

[Heatherlyfish]

Could it possible have been one of those steelhead plants? They put a ton in some years ago. They have spots, are geenish hue, but if the mouth had any black then it was not. But these truly genetically steelhead were planted in abundance due to a lawsuit that did not allow them to be released in the the rivers. They also had red flesh or pink or slightly orange.

[riverhunter]

That's a coho. Funny how they are showing up in several lakes this year. I even seen reports (not on this site) of 6-10 pounders coming out of long lake in Kitsap county. Maybe the abundance of rain this year? Definitely not a chinook as kings have all black mouths and yes coho do have black mouths but the difference is the gumline where the teeth are. They have white gums with black mouth or should I say tongues. Make sense? Kind of confusing to some and I see it all the time. I've even heard ppl call silvers blackmouth just for the fact that they have a little black near the mouth but that's just incorrect. No lakes with outlets or streams to river or the sound got any steelhead plants. The steelhead that were planted were not an abundance of fish but instead fish destined to be left to die at the hatcheries after the lawsuit between them and the so called conservation group so wdfw decided to throw them in lakes where they have no chance of getting out. Green lake, tye lake, bitter lake rattlesnake lake just to name a few