Salmon gill/health question

[DWM]

Hello,

I'm a beginner fisher and I caught a coho today, and when I cut its gills, I noticed that they were light pink and did not bleed when cut. The fish otherwise seemed normal (ran quite a bit and was flopping around before i bonked it). The meat seemed ok.

Could anyone explain the significance of what I saw? I wonder if the fish may have been sick.

Thanks for any advice,

 

[agentaqua]

The colour of the gills being bight pink (verses deep red); and the gills not bleeding when cut would indicate no (or very limited) blood pumping thru the gills. Hard to say why that might be.