Chum enter the rivers dark and very mature beacsue chums tend to spawn a very short time after entering freshwater. Anywhere from a couple days to 1 week is about the average, thus they must enter the rivers very mature and ready for spawning.
Coho on the other hand will spawn a short a short time after entering freshwater but in general they tend to spend 2 weeks to over a month in freshwater, thus they mature in freshwater and tend to enter the rivers nickel bright and even after being in the rivers for some time may still be chrome because they are still weeks from spawning.
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Ryan S. Petzold
aka
'Sparkey' and/or 'Special'