I am new to th area, and was wondering what a Blackmouth is. Sonds like a Chinook, but stays in the sound? Doesn't run up the rivers? Thank's for the info

Sounds like what we call a feeder king- not ready to go up the river this year.

A blackmouth is a resident chinook, one who will live out his entire life in Puget Sound, rather than migrating to the ocean, before returning to the river to spawn. Normally they do not achieve the size of ocean-going fish, though I believe a thirty-plus pounder was caught a few years ago. They are analogous to what we used to call feeder silvers (now commonly called resident coho) who migrate no farther than the north Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca and return to spawn at three to five pounds.

Blackmouth is a Puget Sound term for a juvenile or feeder chinook. In Puget Sound as elsewhere there are basically two types of chinook, "ocean type" chinook which smolt or go out of the rivers to the marine environment about three months after they emerge as fry from the gravel (90 day wonders) they then spend some time in the esturary then go out to the Pacific to grow to adulthood, this is typical of fall run chinook. Then there are the "river type" chinook which spend up to a year or more in the river before going out to the marine environment, blasting through the estuary and growing to adulthood within Puget Sound, San Juans and Pacific Ocean, this is typical of spring or summer chinook. Hatchery managers found when they delayed the release "ocean type" chinook fry/smolts for a year they changed their behavior to emulate "river type" chinook, these fish then stayed closer to home or residualized in Puget Sound and the San Juans thus being available for harvest year round. The term blackmouth refers to a technique for distinguishing between small chinook and coho, chinook have black gumlines whereas coho have white gumlines. This is kind of a generalization.

Beezer

how many so called feeder silvers have you seen caught in the sound. been fishing everett for 20 years and yet to see one.will you prove this to me.