 Lenhth:28-40 inches
Weight: 10-25 pounds
Life Span: 3-6 years
Lightly spotted on their blue-green back, chinook salmon live from five to seven
years, and weigh up to 120 lb. (55 kg). Also known as springs or kings, they are
the most prized game salmon for sport fishers. Chinook is the largest species,
with richly flavoured, firm flesh ranging from ivory white to deep red in
colour.
Chinook salmon are the largest, but least abundant of the
North Pacific salmon. Because of their low abundance they are of minor
importance in the salmon fishery. The name 'Chinook' came from the native
peoples of the Columbia River (Washington and Oregon) and thus is a proper name
and always capitalized.
Young Chinook spend one to two years in fresh
water. Like coho, it is the populations in the southern part of their range
that migrate to the ocean after one year and it is the populations in the
northern part of their range that migrate to the ocean after two years. Many
Chinook migrate over two thousand miles downstream as babies and then upstream
as adults. It is believed that there are now only five to ten percent of the
Chinook salmon left that were here only 150 years ago.
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