salmon age

[Fog Ducker]

Agentaqua has pretty much got i think but i think Jacks for the more common ocean type chinook are 2 years old, Aged 0.1 (european age) which means they have spent 0 winters in fresh water, and 1 winter in salt water, i.e. fish spawns in fall, egg hatch in winter, fry migrated to sea and smolt in the same spring, spends that summer that winter and the next summer at sea (approx 1.5 years) then returns as 'Jack' to spawn in the fall, 2 years after is parents spawned. the stream type, or river type's can add one or two full years to that in fresh water, so a jack would be 1.1 or 2.1 age. your 10lb'ers would have spent probly 2 winters in the ocean. the majority if the fish on the coast are 0.2 and 0.3 aged chinook when they spawn, so the 0.3 chinook has a 4 year life cycle.

hope that makes sence...

Cheers... Fog

 

[wasabi]

So, if I'm grasping this, the 10 lber's have spent their 2 years in the strait and will return to a stream in Washington. These are Ocean type chinook as most feeders are and because of their shorter lifecycle compared to river type chinook, are smaller.

Please correct me because I'll be explaining to the next generation and they like to talk...a lot...and Uncle Wasabi wants to look good

 

[agentaqua]

quote:Originally posted by wasabi

So, if I'm grasping this, the 10 lber's have spent their 2 years in the strait and will return to a stream in Washington. These are Ocean type chinook as most feeders are and because of their shorter lifecycle compared to river type chinook, are smaller.

Possibly - but you won't know for sure unless you do DNA and scale work.

Captain Dudds - ya, interesting. Lots work now being done on ladders, and yep - they aren't as good of a fix as people wanted them to be....