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Chum Salmon
Oncorhynchus keta |
RON PITTARD GRAPHIC
TEXT BY DENNIS BITTON
Chum salmon are bad-looking dudes. They're battered and
tattered when most fishermen see them, because they
start "breaking down" as soon as they're in fresh water.
They spawn just a few miles inland wherever they are
found, but if you can get at them near tidewater, they
are a noble fly rod quarry.
Recognizing a fresh or saltwater chum is not difficult.
They are the only pacific salmon that don't have spots
on their backs. They have black edges on all their fins
except the dorsal fin.
In the ocean, a chum salmon will have an overall silver
color, and faintly green back. Once in freshwater, a
chum salmon's appearance changes dramatically. They look
like a garish Christmas wrap, with green and red
vertical stripes, and pronounced canine teeth that
earned them the nickname "dog salmon." (It is also said
that the term dog salmon refers to the native-Alaskan
practice of feeding the poor table fare to the sled
teams.)
A 20-pound chum is a trophy on a fly rod, most specimens
will be 8-12 pounds. At every size, they fight with the
aggressive strength that belies their sometimes tattered
appearance. At certain destinations, they will attack a
dry fly (pink, skated dry flies work the best) and
sunken wet flies will work almost anywhere.
Chum salmon--either in the salt, or fresh from the
ocean--are tough adversaries on a fly rod.
In Alaska, chum salmon enter the river as early as July,
but further south, they are usually fall spawners.
die-hard chum anglers often must endure wet, cold
weather, and remote locales. Some streams don't see
chums until November or even December. That's one of
those "separate the sheep from the goats" things that
Nature throws in for the chum's protected future.
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