Help with fish ID

BigBoat

Crew Member
The friend of mine who caught this fish has received differing opinions as to species. Some say sockeye others say coho. I offered to post his pictures on the forum to get some real expert advice from the fishing community. What do you think?

head.jpg mouth.jpg front.jpg tail2.jpg tail.jpg scales.jpg filet.jpg
 
spots in pic 2 indicate coho.
the flank of a sockeye tends to have a clear line where it goes from white/silver to blue/green rather than a gradual transition.
 

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healed scar where the apidose should be as well. its a hatchery fish. Coho!

Not that the hatchery clip is any indication that its a coho! I've seen people that think this erroneously, not that you necessarily do, just thought I'd mention.
 
Not that the hatchery clip is any indication that its a coho! I've seen people that think this erroneously, not that you necessarily do, just thought I'd mention.

Never seen a sockeye with a clipped apidose. Have you? White upper gums, white around the teeth and subtle spots on the head with none down the back should be the tell; it could also have the odd spots on the upper tail but this one doesn't, but if the apidose is clipped it should be another give away it isn't a sock. As the OP didn't ask if it was a chinook I left that possibility out. The eye should be another give away as sockeye have large eyes for their size. But I guess I should've figured out other ways to tell the difference in my 35 odd years of fishing this coast.
 
Never seen a sockeye with a clipped apidose. Have you? White upper gums, white around the teeth and subtle spots on the head with none down the back should be the tell; it could also have the odd spots on the upper tail but this one doesn't, but if the apidose is clipped it should be another give away it isn't a sock. As the OP didn't ask if it was a chinook I left that possibility out. The eye should be another give away as sockeye have large eyes for their size. But I guess I should've figured out other ways to tell the difference in my 35 odd years of fishing this coast.

Sockeye plants in Cultus lake were adipose clipped to help rebuild that population. Again I just wanted to mention that the adipose clip is no indication of species. Like you I think this is a coho.
 
Sockeye plants in Cultus lake were adipose clipped to help rebuild that population. Again I just wanted to mention that the adipose clip is no indication of species. Like you I think this is a coho.
Yes - it's no indication of species - but more because very few sockeye are raised in hatcheries as compared to Chinook and coho - and fewer still hatcheries clip a large portion of their outplants. Not impossible to have a clipped sockeye - but unlikely - even if you managed to snag one on sportsfishing gear. The sockeye hatchery I have heard of is in Penticton.
 
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We got a few small clipped Coho recently in Sooke that had almost no spots. Very faint and hard to see.

If I remember correctly a few years ago there was mention of a hatchery in BC doing some hatchery Sockeye as a pilot test program. So who knows there may just be some clipped Sockeye out there??

But the one you show is a Coho for sure.

coho.jpg sockeye.jpg
 
White lower tooth line= coho, no question. I've only cleaned about 30 000 of them.
T2
 
Thanks to all for a great response. The angler sent these pictures to a seiner skipper with 30 years fishing, a gillnetter and a fish biologist.

Here was the seiner response: "It is a rag sockeye. Hatchery raised to eat anything. Reasons it is not a coho, tail too dark, back too blue, small blunt head, fine teeth, and meat too red. Coho tail is much more silver, head is larger, gums whiter, tongue has teeth and teeth are 2-3 times larger, it is all about the teeth."

Gillnetter response: "It is a Fraser River sockeye. Small head and definitely a sockeye tail."

Fish biologist response: "It's a coho. White gums and body shape are the key things, but obviously the tail is lacking the normal silver." After consulting with co-workers he responded, "Fraser sockeye are still around so it is a possibility. The characteristic that says sockeye to me is the thin caudal peduncle area. Coho are generally a bit thicker. So now after asking several co-workers we are now leaning sockeye given the weight."

Does this change anybody's thinking?
 
No. I got a coho way darker red the other day. Seiners (I was one) don't know coho; neither do gillnetters.
The head on Chasin Dream's coho pic looks the same as your picture to me.
 
No doubt..coho
 
Could be a sockeye - but it does look a little more like a coho. Do you still have the gill rakers or pics of the gills? Sockeye's gill rakers are numerous (28-40), fine and long - like the tines in the old-style hair combs for men; coho - short, strong and spaced far apart (19-28 gill rakers) - in comparison.
 
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Could be a sockeye. Do you still have the gill rakers or pics of the gills? Sockeye's gill rakers are fine and long - like the tines in the old-style hair combs for men; coho - short, strong and spaced far apart - in comparison.
Sorry. He didn't get any pictures of the gills.
 
I vote Coho... the white lips. Ive caught several coho with meat that dark red color. Beautiful in the smoker.
 
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