Saugatuck 05/17 Afternoon

[GLF]

DIRTY DOG took me fishing out of Saugatuck today. It was a spur of the moment trip, and we both left work after 1/2 day. We ended up 7 for 8, all coho. 30 - 65 fow seemed to be the ticket.

We shut down in 70 fow and started setting lines. We trolled out to 110 fow before we had a hit. This was a coho that came on a Double Orange crush.

We turned the boat South and continued on. I grabbed the next rod. It was a full core off a bird. This cohooo came on a Michigan Blue Berry. Sorry, no picture

The next coho...and what a fish it was, came on a slider on a rigger set at 41 feet. We let this one go to be caught another day.

I think this coho is smaller than Six Shooters!

The next coho came on the other full core on another bird. I am not sure of what the name of this color is.

The next rod that went off was a wire diver set on #3 with 248 loc. I have never seen this bait before, but it works

The next coho came on another rigger, and I do not remember the depth nor color. Sorry...no picture either

I grabbed the next rigger that popped and brought in another coho. This was set at 62 feet, and I believe the color is Hawg Wild.

While I was resetting the rigger, the other wire diver beside me popped. This was on a #3 setting with 248 loc also. Terry grabbed it and brought in this coho. I am not sure of the name of this bait either

OK....I might know the names of the spin doctors.

Thanks for the trip DIRTY DOG!

[CaptLevi]

Are you sure of the species? They look a bit like younger kings to me.

[GLF]

Are you sure of the species? They look a bit like younger kings to me.

The inside of their mouths was white.

[caznik]

They sure look like kings to me to. The tail has alot of spots on them.

Nice job guys,

Rich

[Adjusted3]

Sorry guys,

Spots on the tail, Kings. Nice catch though. I blew up a couple of photos and I am most certain they were Kings. Question? what color was the meat? Pink/orange and then they are ho's, white or cream and they were Kings.

Again nice catch

Mark

[Spawnwalker]

I agree, I was saying the same thing looking at the pics. they're kings.

[steeliefreak]

I was going to say the same thing, looks like spots on the tops and bottoms of the tails. Nice catch though.

[GLF]

Well....you guys would know better than I. I am just getting back into salmon fishing after a long stint of trash(bass) fishing

The meat was pink. I did notice when I was cleaning them that the meat on one was a darker color of pink than the rest. Maybe that one was a coho and we ended up with 5 kings and 1 coho

And to think we pulled lines because we thought we had our limit of one species

Looks like I need to learn to identify my fish better. I will see if I can find a good fish identification chart to post on the site.

Was still a great day on the water

[Spawnwalker]

You still did the right thing. Kings and coho are both salmon. You needed trout.

[Sixshooter]

You still did the right thing. Kings and coho are both salmon. You needed trout.

Don't mean to walk on your toes. But this is a 100% INACCURATE statement.

Kings and Cohos ARE NOTE THE SAME.

If you read the DNR rules and regulations you may have 5 fish in any combination and no more than 3 of any one SPECIES. They then go on to list the species identifications. Chinooks, Chohos, Pinks, ect.

I'll go see if I can find the exact working in the online guide.

3 kings and 2 cohos is absolutely legal. and vise versa 3 cohos and 2 kings.

Great Lakes Trout and Salmon Regulations (Note 1)

The regulations in this table apply to fishing on the Great Lakes for the following species: Atlantic

salmon, Brook trout (Note 2), Brown trout, Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, Lake trout (Note 4),

Pink salmon, Rainbow trout (steelhead), and Splake (Note 4).For regulations that pertain to

fishing for trout and salmon on inland waters, please refer to the Inland Trout & Salmon Guide.

10"

(Note 2, 4)

(also see Table 1)

Great Lakes, L. St. Clair, St. Marys R., St. Clair R.,

and Detroit R.: 5 in any combination, but no more

than 3 of any one species (UP TO 5 pink salmon

allowed). EXCEPTION: St. Marys R.: 5 additional pink

salmon allowed from last Sat. in April - Sept. 30.

Open all year:

L. Superior, L. Michigan,

L. Erie, L. Huron,

L. St. Clair, St. Marys R.,

St. Clair R., Detroit R.

Minimum Size Seasons by water type Daily/ Possession Limit (Notes 2, 3)

Note 1 - All Trout and Salmon: For waters that have regulations that differ from those shown above,

refer to Exceptions to General Regulations by County (p. 14-17).

Note 2 - Brook Trout: For L. Superior, the minimum size limit for brook trout is 20 inches and

possession limit is one fish. Within 4.5 miles of Isle Royale (Isle Royale National Park waters), catch

and release only; no possession.

Note 3 - Drowned River Mouth Lakes: On the following inland waters trout and salmon regulations

are as follows: 5 trout and salmon in any combination; no more than 3 of any one species; no more

than 2 lake trout or splake; minimum size limit is 10 inches, open all year except the lake trout

season is open May 1 - Labor Day. Allegan: Kalamazoo and Silver Lks. Benzie: Betsie L.

Manistee: Arcadia, Manistee, and Portage Lks. Mason: Pere Marquette L. Muskegon: Duck,

Mona, Muskegon, and White Lks. Oceana: Pentwater, Silver, and Stony Lks. Ottawa: Macatawa and

Pigeon Lks.

Note 4 - Lake Trout and Splake Regulations: Lake trout and splake regulations for the Great Lakes

are listed by Lake Trout Management Unit (see Table 1). To help identify Management Unit

boundaries, a few major ports are listed for each. The map on the next page provides a graphic to

further define the boundaries. For a complete description of Management Unit boundaries, ask for

FO-200 at any DNR Operations Service Center (p. 24) or check online www.michigan.gov/dnr.

Or you can find the link here: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/great-lakes-trout-salmon_151607_7.pdf

[Sixshooter]

And after all of that I forgot to congradulate you on a nice box of Kings.

You do have to be careful Mike on your King to Coho identifications. There are four basic ways to determine ID that most people use.

1. Coho's generally have a FORKed tail. (exception Kings will often give the appearance of a forked tail especially younger ones.)

2. coho's will have white gums (again exception for younger kings will also show some signs of white gums)

3. Spots on the tails. A king will have spots over the WHOLE entire tail...where Cohos will have VERY Few if any at all and if they have some it is usually only the upper half of the tail.

Then the sure fire way is to count the number of rays on the anal fin. I forget the technicals on that part though. Something like 13 to 15 for a coho and 15 to 17 for a king...but that might be reversed. I would have to look it up.

[Spawnwalker]

Sixshooter, How do you figure that I made a 100% inaccurate statement. Kings and coho ARE both of the salmon species. Yes they are different types of fish but they are the same species.

[Butch]

Nice fish, GLF and DD. Thanks for the specs on where/what/how, and the pics.

I had to chuckle to myself when I saw this report and pics last night, because I knew this would be an active thread:D . It was late, and I decided I would hold my response for today...

[GLF]

Nice fish, GLF and DD. Thanks for the specs on where/what/how, and the pics.

I had to chuckle to myself when I saw this report and pics last night, because I knew this would be an active thread:D . It was late, and I decided I would hold my response for today...

I was thinking some of them may have been kings...but the mouth was white on the inside. I knew you could count the number of ray fins, but I did not remember the numbers and which fish had which.

Oh well, and nothing to loose any sleep about.

Did I mention fresh fish on the grill tonight? They both taste like salmon to me

[Sixshooter]

Sixshooter, How do you figure that I made a 100% inaccurate statement. Kings and coho ARE both of the salmon species. Yes they are different types of fish but they are the same species.

Well I suppose we can get technical until we get blue in the face.

However, the way you worded your response was that he had to quit fishing because they had 6 fish in the box and you made it sound as if it didn't matter if they were Kings or Coho's.

And if you did NOT mean it that way then I appoligize.

But I'm sure somebody that is new to the site or to great lakes fishing were to read how it was worded they would have come to the same conclusion I did when I read your post thinking that Kings and Coho's are the same fish.

And the Salmon is more of a genre....the species is the classification of each type of salmon. Kokanee, Chum, Chinook, Coho, Pink, Atlantic, Sockeye...ect.

SO in the sense that if they had a mixture of Coho's and Kings they did NOT have to stop fishing after they boxed 6 fish. They are only allowed three of one species which I think you are broadening out to mean that salmon is a species...but it really isn't it is more generalization of a group.

Thats all...

[Sixshooter]

If anybody is interested I have done a quick look up.

If you do a search for "Genus Salmon" You will get a lot of information I'm talking about.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/salmon/

Above is a neat article from CBC news site. It explains well that Kings, Cohos and such are the species. Salmon is the Genus....

If you think WAY back....to grade school they attempted to teach us about the animal kingdom and the way it is classified. There are 10 levels of classifications, they get more specific as they go down the list. Species is the LAST classification on the list. Genus is the next one up from Species and so on....

Now that is my science lesson for today...Don't ask me why I remember this stuff......If only I could remember more important things like my liscense plate number.....

[Butch]

GLF, I didn't mean anything personal, glad you are having fresh salmon tonight. I just knew that there are a lot of knowledgable fishermen on this site, and they know that mis-IDed fish can mean less in the box, or a ticket.

When I look in their mouths, the black part(gray for cohos) is often most noticeable to me on the lower gums. In the pics you posted, even though the angle isn't intended to show the inner mouth, it looks to me like maybe I can see black gums in the 1st, 3rd and 4th pics. Or maybe not, you were there and I wasn't. Also, in my experience, cohos often roll or spin in the line when you bring them in.

Obviously, some individual fish are harder to ID than others. For example, I caught a fish yesterday that looked very coho-ish, with no spots visible on the tail. However, at 5# it was bigger than the other cohos I've caught and seen lately(pretty uniformly 2-3#) so I checked the mouth and it was all black inside the lower jaw. I considered that definitive of a chinook, but some chinooks have less black in their mouths too. And I've heard rumors of CO's that weren't good at telling them apart either.

In any case, enjoy your dinner.

And to Sixshooter and Spawnwalker, if you guys really want to squabble, here's some ammo. Atlantic "salmon" are more closely related to brown trout, and aren't in the same genus with pacific salmon, while (since about 1981) rainbow "trout" are in the same genus with pacific salmon:p .

[Spawnwalker]

Thank's for the lesson Six, I guess I need to go back to school. My bad.

[Adjusted3]

No,

Mike you were right the first time. If you have a hard time telling the difference between Ho's and Kings, he did need some trout. HE HEEE !!!

Last year, I came to the weighin in Manistee with 4 kings and a Coho. I was informed that the fish that I thought was a coho was actually an Atlantic. Shoot, I have never prior caught an Atlantic. I can now say I have. Go ahead try to pick that Atlantic out of the box.........when you have never laid eyes on one.....

I must say the best statement in this thread was by GLF himself "I am just getting back into salmon fishing after a long stint of TRASH(bass) fishing" Don't worry GLF, We all will get you converted correctly!

Mark

[Sixshooter]

No,

Mike you were right the first time. If you have a hard time telling the difference between Ho's and Kings, he did need some trout. HE HEEE !!!

Okay now THIS i do have to agree with.

For some reason great lakes trout and salmon are the only fish they get this confusing with.

If you look at panfish they are 25 in any combination. Doesn't matter species...Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, green ears, long ears, yaddi yaddi yaddi. Anyway...

I need to go fishing.

[GLF]

I must have really been out of it yesterday...I took my oldest fishing with us. We set 9 lines for the 3 of us. Legally...we could have taken 9 What was I thinking

If I would have known mis ID'ing a fish would have drawn this much attention, I would have did it a long time ago

[caznik]

Its ok GLF,

I remember when I had a hard time tring to figure out what a King was to from a coho:FruitSalad:

Rich

[caznik]

I was thinking some of them may have been kings...but the mouth was white on the inside. I knew you could count the number of ray fins, but I did not remember the numbers and which fish had which.

Oh well, and nothing to loose any sleep about.

Did I mention fresh fish on the grill tonight? They both taste like salmon to me

Wait GLF,

I hope you didn't eat that fish in the third picture. That was a Asian Carp....

Later,

Rich

[GLF]

Wait GLF,

I hope you didn't eat that fish in the third picture. That was a Asian Carp....

Later,

Rich

Come on Rich....Thats no Asian Carp, I know a walleye when I see one

[CaptLevi]

WOW! I created a monster! Sorry..........I was only making an observation. Maybe I shoulda PM'd it!???!!