A Pacific Salmon, Chinook Salmon are the largest species of the Salmonide (Salmon) family. Valued for their large size and relative scarcity King Salmon are a treat for fishermen. The Chinook Salmon is the state fish of Alaska. Other names for Chinook Salmon are most common King Salmon, as well as tyee salmon, chub salmon (not chum), Columba River salmon, Quinnat salmon, hook bill salmon, and blackmouth. In British Columbia they’re known as spring salmon.
A Pacific Salmon, Chinook Salmon are the largest species of the Salmonide (Salmon) family. Valued for their large size and relative scarcity King Salmon are a treat for fishermen. The Chinook Salmon is the state fish of Alaska. Other names for Chinook Salmon are most common King Salmon, as well as tyee salmon, chub salmon (not chum), Columba River salmon, Quinnat salmon, hook bill salmon, and blackmouth. In British Columbia they’re known as spring salmon.
Chinook Salmon range all along the northern Pacific through the Bering Sea. Chinook Salmon make the 1,864 mile (3,000 km) freshwater migration from the Bering Sea to spawn upstream of Whitehorse, Yukon, just north of Skagway.
They can reach sizes of up to 58 inches (1,500 mm) and 130 pounds (59 kg). Common size of Chinook caught commonly exceeds 30 pounds. The current sport-caught world record is 97.25 pounds (44 kg), caught by Les Anderson, May 1985 on the Kenai River, near Kenai, Alaska. . A 126-pound Chinook salmon taken in a fish trap near Petersburg, Alaska in 1949 is the largest on record. The commercial world record is 126 pounds (57 kg) caught near Rivers Inlet, British Columbia.
Adults are distinguished by the black irregular spotting on the back and dorsal fins and on both lobes of the caudal or tail fin. Chinook salmon also have a black pigment along the gum line, thus the name "blackmouth" in some areas.