Incredible "first"

OK DrifterWA posted the first Chehalis chum last week.

Superfly texted me the first winter steelhead on the Hump a couple days ago.

f4b has them both beat with another incredible "first".

First 2013 Springer.... yes, you heard it right. First spring chinook of the season caught on Sept 15.



Spring chinook from the 2008 brood year released from NFL in March of 2010.

Pretty f'n cool if you ask me.

There is a glitch in the matrix!

Excuse my lack of knowledge but how are you able to tell that that's a springer?

congrats! DNA testing I assume or chipped?

What were the measurements on the girl?

Best,

Hey!! Leave my fish alone!

Keith

CWT

Dink

I believe it was a faggot fish.... girl on the outside, boy on the inside.

Note also that this fish was adipose intact.

Keith woulda had to release it in the river.

WDFW should thank f4b for taking it outta the gene pool... after all...

ALL hatchery fish MUST die!

Dip-in?

Yep.... dipped right into my Beckman.

CWT...what do you mean?

Coded Wire Tags right?

How would one know that the fish had one.

Have you ever been at a "take out" and seen the "fish checker?"

Nice work, guys!

Now, post it on ifish so everyone will flock to the C, and get the hell out of my deer shootin/sheelhead catchin' spots!

Nice! Its as chrome as they come. I love CWT fish. Its always interesting to see where they originated from.

+1000

Awesome Shawn! Doc you must really attract those springers as you may remember we got one on your first trip to B10 many years ago in August. It was out in the big blue also. I guess they don't have to migrate far if the food is abundant.

CM

Blackmouth

Nice Shawn!!

What about first crab while trolling herring???

Hey Jesse, believe it or not, we caught another one the next day!

Gonna have to start adding them to your spreadsheet!

Nice.Good luck,
SZ

Add it to the WDFW Fish Checker's list, too.

What species of salmon did you catch?
How many did you release?
How many wild?
How many hatchery?
Any sharks?
Any birds?
How many crabs?

Yeah, another [Bleeeeep!] hatchery fish with a fin.... Gotta love this state. Just clip 100% of hatchery fish so we can actually see how many true "native" fish we have left.... Oh wait, there are hatchery springers that spawn in the Lewis so there must be "wild fish"!

Keith

Depends on who's in the boat

Nice catch, Shawn. Looks like a Cowlitz fish, darker jaw color than the Willie stock, but still a snow belly?

How big was that fish? It doesn't seem more than about 10lbs, but maybe the angle is wrong.

If so, it doesn't seem to add up. You indicate the fish is from BY 2008, so it's now four years old (fall 2008 to fall 2012). It has spent 1.5 years in the hatchery (Oct 2008 to March 2010) and 2.5 years in salt (March 2010 to Oct 2012). Seems to me the fish should be considerably larger, given it's apparent age.

Coho usually get about that size in alot less time. Coho spend 1.5 years in freshwater and 1.5 years in salt before returning to spawn at about that size (10-12lbs). If that fish is four years old, it should be at least in the upper teens, if not pushing 20lbs. But maybe it is, and just looks smaller in the pic.

I realize you're only telling us what WDFW told you. I'm confident you did not extract the CWT, read it, and provide the age information and the hatchery of origin.....

Just another dinker springer... with another 6-7 months to fatten up.

Even in the river, I have yet to break 15#.

Coho are eating machines.... growing MUCH faster than chinook.

Imagine if a coho spent another year or two at sea!

But several years ago, Salmo G helped me to realize THE grand champion eating/growing machine is a pink. It leaves the river as a tiny inch long sliver of chrome and in a year and a couple of months, it can return as a 10-12 pound Humpzilla!

It is not at all unusual for immature spring chinook to be caught in sport fisheries, one reason Puget Sound is closed for a good part of the former blackmouth fishery.

I have not heard of many spring chinook encounters. Please enlighten me.

I had a strong hunch that fish was a Columbia-origin springer, the second it hit the net. Any of you out there know of any other PNW races of kings with a smoky grey-black jaw?

Snake river springs and summers do.

I didn't know we could say faggot on here. Seems like a word that'd be used much more often.

Not surprised that is your take away from this thread. One man's ceiling is another's floor.