What is the average size in the rivers

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viper0463
Hey all I'm curious, what is the average size of your fall run coho and Chinook? Around here the coho run small and average under 7 pounds the Chinook run around 12 average. I've. Cought coho over 10 and Chinook over 23 but not more than a few a year.
 
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eugene1
Every river is different on the coast. The genetic makeup of the fish tends to keep them out in the ocean for different times to fatten up, is the theory. 3, 4, 5, 6+ salt fish are gonna have different weights when they finally come home. Umpqua nooks are my favorite fishery and we've caught adults between 10?-36#. Average size, i don't catch enough to keep tally for the ave.

Check out info on the Sac river in CA, Chetco, Elk, Umpqua rivers in OR, river's inlet in B.C, and the Kenai in AK. Lots of special rivers with big ones. Turns out the big fish are out in the "killing grounds" longer and get caught in commercial nets more than smaller fish, so their kind of in trouble.

Best,
 
J
JeannaJigs
This year coho were averaging 10 and chinook 25-35 where I was fishing. Exceptionally poor year for coho but the chinook return was epic. Lots of large, large fish. Lost a few that had to be pushing 40
 
V
viper0463
JeannaJigs said:
This year coho were averaging 10 and chinook 25-35 where I was fishing. Exceptionally poor year for coho but the chinook return was epic. Lots of large, large fish. Lost a few that had to be pushing 40

40# holy crap! Our state record is 38 for Chinook and coho is 20lb 12oz. I would fall over if we had fish that size around here.
 
J
JeannaJigs
Well ours go to the ocean for 4-5-6 years instead of swimming around in lakes lol it makes a difference. They used to be much larger but with ocean conditions getting poorer and over harvest commercially they don't get as big as they did back when. 40+ is not terribly uncommon for fall fish though especially on certain rivers
 
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plumb2fish
Our local fall fishery get a couple nooks over 40lbs every year, and the coho usually average 10-12... The state record coho came from a lake connected to the ocean by a creek through the dunes...over 28lbs...a few yrs ago a guy caught a 78lb chinook on a fly rod...
Our spring chinook average about 12lbs....and the summer steelhead average 6-7, with 15 being a trophy. Winters average 8 with fish up to 25 caught in the Umpqua system.
 
Irishrover
Irishrover
The Umpqua has the record for chinook with an 83lbs fish caught in 1910. Now that's a big fish. I know of one 50lbs+ fish caught on the Clackamas river back in the 1980s. Those are not the norm however....We catch chinook in the pluss 20lbs range at the mouth of the Columbia and 30lbs+ in not uncommon at all. Silvers that we catch run anywhere from 6lbs to 15lbs with 15lbs being a large silver. It's like Jeanna mentioned the longer the fish stay out in the ocean the bigger it grows as long as it can escape the sea lions and seals!
 
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OnTheDrop
These guys got it pretty good up there on your average sizer ^^^

Good buddies dad that works at Willamette falls has said ( Not sure of where the info. came from. I Should get the details. ) But on an average there is around 5 fish nearing 50lbs a that come through the Willamette each year destined for one of its tribs & 10 that are in the 40 range. Okay, now I got to make some phone calls to get the deal behind it.



I can recount a time when I was around 15-16 on the Clackamas with my buddy in our 9ft Pontoons dilly daggin around making occasional casts. We were more out for the weather as it was pushing 100 degrees. Well, anyway what we saw in a 2-3 ft of water I will never forget. This salmon that came smack dab in the middle of us was easily half, if not longer than half of our toons. That is roughly 54-60" and the thickness was ridiculous. Was easily 50-60lber. Hell, maybe bigger.

Sorry for the hijack, just brought back some serious memories. lol
 
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eugene1
My computer connection is on the fritz and guys are trying to fix it now. Hope this goes through.

Nice info SteelmonKiller20! I love hearing about the size of them that come through from dudes who work there! So not even a hijack at all. Whatever the problem dams/locks/fish weirs do, they do help the science, since it provides a place to monitor numbers and sizes of fish moving up over the years. I do wish there was a public display of the fish pics or size that come up the Willamette falls though.

Pretty awesome that a few 50 pound fish and more 40's come through, but that seems like really big fish for the Willy as they don't get either caught or posted at least!

That fish that spooked you was probably even heavier than you thought on the Clack. Here's a pic of a Sac king carcass that was measured at about 53 inches. They said it would have been about 90# live weight before he spawned.
 
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OnTheDrop
Wow Eugene ^^ Well I guess I will never know how big it was but by far the biggest I've seen. It trampled the 35-40's I've seen on the Wilson. I do remember it having some color too it as well. Was not a chromer, but healthy. My buddy saw it too as we cussed and hollered for the next 20 minutes. I know it's hard to believe, but so true. I also heard of either last year or the year before of a 53lb Chinook up at Cazadero on the upper Clack. Going to look into that as well. It wasn't caught by an angler though.

I had the opportunity of watching the window at the falls a few years back and saw multiple 25-30# Chinook along with two-three Summers that cleared 20. This was all in a matter of ten minutes. Another memory i'll never forget.

It's crazy how many monsters are in our waters that we never see... Maybe the oldies are just truly smarter than the rest...haha
 

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