Grandpa and Downriggin are correct in that blackmouth are immature chinook. While we think of blackmouth being a Puget Sound fishery they are found where ever one finds feeding chinook - off the coast from California to Alaska as well as the inner waters. In some of the northern waters where some chinook still live to an age of 8 or more years it is possible to catch immature chinook (blackmouth) of more than 50#.

Historically Puget Sound supported an excellent blackmouth fishery on wild chinook. It was noted that most of those fish were from smolts that have spend a year (yearling or river type chinook) in freshwater before migrating to sea. Several decades ago it was found that if the young chinook were held in the hatchery longer than normal (6 or more months) they were more likely to stay in the Sound and support the blackmouth recreational fishery.

The important thing here is that the hatchery chinook are minicing the wild chinook stocks that produced yearling smolts such as the various spring (Nooksack, Skagit/Sauk, White )and summer (Skagit, NF Stilly, and Skykomish) stocks. Thus while the % of wild stock in the blackmouth sport fishery is relatively small those fish are from the more important stocks in terms of salmon recovery. For example the single largest catcher of Skykomish summer chinook is the PUget Sound recreational fishery - higher than Canadian sport or commerical fisheries, the various troll, or net fisheries.

One other note - few of the Puget Sound chinook are caught in Alaska. They tend to feed off the coast of Vancouver Island, Northern Washington coast, the Straits, and Puget Sound. In contrast stocks such as the various Columbia river stocks and the Strait of Juan de Fuca stocks migrate further North and significant portion of their catch occurs in Alaskan waters. In Southeast Alaska the majority of the chinook caught in marine waters are not Alaskan fish but rather Canadian and/or Southern US fish.

Tight lines
Smalma