First time on salt/Fish ID

Finally got time to get out on saltwater! I tried for coho off of Pt Wilson for a few hours Wed afternoon. I trolled CKs and KFs with no luck and then tried jigging while drifting along. I managed to catch this tiny guy on a Crip Herring (Crip Herrings are always blue...) that was just about exactly half as long as the fish. Coming up it fought too feistily to be a bullhead or flatfish so I wondered if I had caught some sort of thought-disordered surfperch that decided to go for a lure. Still being new at all of this I'm not sure what kind of salmonid I caught. Can anyone tell from the one crappy iPhone shot I got before the fish jumped ship? I saw a couple shore anglers catch cohos so they're still coming through. It was a great experience getting out and getting a feel for how things work. A, um, trans-scupper micturition fieldtest was succesfully conducted which was certainly one of the highlights. I'm sure someone on shore has already put it on youtube.

Congrats on your first time out in the salt! To be frank, that looks a lot like a trout. But it could be a fry nook maybe?


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I wanna play!

I'd guess it's a young Coho judging by the color, lack of spots and the obvious scale loss when handled.

BTW: Congrats on the salt baptism!

-Spot-

Had the same thing happen to me a few years ago off Chambers Creek. Little dude was bright metallic blue and had managed to get itself impaled properly on a 5/0 jig hook! I'm with Spot, thinking Coho too.

I'm gonna guess coho too, by the eye!

I'll go with the general consensus that it's a coho.

Yeah, same here WR, and right in front of Chambers creek too.  The juvenile salmon are suicidal.

Lower gumline looks black to me = Chinook!

-Allen

I'm happy with either coho or chinook. Thanks guys!

Wait, i think we're missing something, or being nice and overlooking it.

'shrinker, are you telling us you huli'd. or that you had to relieve yourself via scupper hole??

Lower gumline looks black to me = Chinook!

-Allen

I'm going nook as well

Wait, i think we're missing something, or being nice and overlooking it.

'shrinker, are you telling us you huli'd. or that you had to relieve yourself via scupper hole??

I was just trying to get all fancy-sounding about how I pissed through the scupper hole for the first time and didn't fall in.

Lower gumline looks black to me = Chinook!

-Allen

I'm going nook as well

The gumline was darker. There were a lot of scales that came off. The photo doesn't capture it well, but the top of the back had more of a rainbow trout coloration to it.

There were a lot of scales that came off.

Yeah, best to just grab the hook and flip these little guys off without handling them.

-Allen

Lower gumline looks black to me = Chinook!

-Allen

I'm not sold.  I get a lot of Coho that have black mouths but a thin line of white at the base of the teeth.  The scale slough and green back scream coho. 

Brian!?

-Spot-