To all who said cherry or masu.... I posted these two years ago.



Cherry salmon have the overall physique of a chunky coho, esp the signature bulbous hook-nose but minus the stark white lip liner. Large calcified chum-like canines protruding from both the upper and lower kype. Also calico bars like a chum, but red-orange/brown-black in color scheme instead of the familiar maroon-purple/olive-green. Lots of black spots like a chinook, but generally finer. Opening pic certainly looks the part... except perhaps that it's missing the round bulbous nose.

BUT....

Hankster hit it with his Feather River comment.

That's where the boot king was caught.

I believe the diagnostic feature in the opening pic is the mouth. Chinook are classically taught to have black lips/gums.... except when they wash out with maturation in the river. The key is to look exactly where the teeth emerge. Those tiny islands of black from which the teeth emerge are 100% chinook.