the gumline doesn't become black "in the river environment," otherwise people would be out fishing for "winter whitemouth..."

perfect

A few things come to mind. One thing is the trees in the background have not had any leaves on them in a long time. Definite signs of winter. The Trask has a hatchery return of clipped winter chinook, but that is not one of them. The tail is being squeezed by the young man holding it or it would lay out flat and square like any steelhead. The head is a perfect sample of a female steelhead. If it were a late coho, the nose would be hooked even if it was a hen. It is a perfect broodstock Wilson fish that is lost and has gone up the Trask.

OK, ya got me with that one.

I used photoshop to zoom in, color correct and sharpen the pic... and I say COHO all the way.

The eye pupil isn't small like that of a chinook, the inside of the mouth definitely has too much white and there aren't any spots on the lower lobe of the tail. It looks like the fish may have been mutilated a bit as a smolt in a concrete tank, causing it's nose to be shorter and it's maxillary to be deformed.

ATLANIC SALMON

The guy that cought the fish already admitted to it having a black toung...So that rules out a steelhead...

I vote early springer.

Atlantic Salmon!

Here is a picture of a chinook with an awefully white upper jaw and gum line. My vote is early springer but I wouldn't put much money on it.

Have you ever seen a steelhead that is spotless on the tail?

That is how the fish was described. NO spots on the tail whatsoever.

If the author hadn't said that, I would have leaned towards steelhead.

I'd really like to see the full-sized photo and look at the tail. The spotting pattern would be a dead give-way if it was a steelhead.

I'm only going on what the author said, as photos can be deceiving.

Look at your avatar Parker and compare the anal fins.... [censored] I'm thinking steelhead again.......

Keith

Fins on a salmon in the river will be darker than its belly, as a steelheads fins are normally clear or pink/gray like the ones in the photos. Dark fins are present on almost every river fish except steelhead.

I need to see the tail on that fish. That small photo doesn't cut it.

I guess you'd have to pry that mouth open to know for sure.

It could be a coho. We used to catch them ( chrome scale-shedding hatchery and wild silvers) on a pretty regular basis until the second week in January or so oh the GH tribs. And the scale loss does look cohoish. If you could look in its mouth, it would be a no-brainer.

Could be a steelhead, too, I guess. I've seen them losing scales like that......in fact I have a pic of one I caught a couple years ago that was shedding scales like that. But the tail does look spotless in the pic, doesn't it..........but that could be a camera/digital image issue.

I guess it could be a chinook...........but only because Toff said so.

This fish was shedding scales, but its tail had spots.


Someone pry that f'er's mouth open and let's find out for sure.

Nice fish Dan...

You remember that one, don't you?

Not a steelhead.

ALL mykiss have a STARK white mouth, tongue included.

The original poster of the pic is on the record stating the tongue was dark.

That means salmon.

Somebody show me any chinook with an anal fin that long with a base that short.... ANYONE?

Can't be done, because they don't exist.

I never even started looking at anal fins on these critters until I lost the "coho vs chinook" argument on Keith's all-time CHROMEST platinum river chinook a few years back. Been looking at a whole lot of anal fins since then... to the point that chinook are unmistakable.

Steelhead anal fins have always been a gimme because that LONG leading edge and perpendicular trailing edge looks so different from a salmon.

COHO.... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Steelhead!

spring chinook.