Scarred Chinook

[chris.heatley1]

What do you think caused these battle scars?

 

[chris.heatley1]

It hit my spoon pretty hard and peeled off a fair bit of line. Few jumps and a couple of runs to bottom. Definitely a lot of energy for the condition it's in.

 

[mikeyman]

Seal for sure

 

[bigdogeh]

I'd bet seal also...

 

[chris.heatley1]

They sure have nasty teeth!

 

[barrie]

We had lots of those in Bamfield last week. Nasty.

 

[profisher]

Won't be a seal...either a sealion or killer whale

 

[FisherTim]

If fish are able to withstand all that, how can they only have a 30%(or whatever low number it is) C&R survival rate?

 

[ericl]

At that stage of healing, they haven't survived yet, if you define survival as spawning, which is what matters.

 

[Franko Manini]

Salmon Shark!

http://www.sharkinfo.ch/SI2_02e/lditropis.html

 

[blowin' insider]

I've been catching a few off renfrew too. Salmon shark eh... sounds plausible enough

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Andrew P]

We came across a freshly dead salmon shark while surfing at Carmanah Beach a few years ago. They look just like a mini great white. Luckily we found it after surfing or it would have been pretty unnerving as it was about 5 feet long. Anyways, the teeth were like pointy knives so I have doubts that the marks on this salmon were caused by a salmon shark. Hard to say though. That said, I can certainly confirm they are in our waters from that encounter!

Salmon Shark!

http://www.sharkinfo.ch/SI2_02e/lditropis.html

 

[bigdogeh]

any chance those marks could have come from an eagles talons? I've seen eagles try to grab salmon that were too big for them.... sometimes ending up going for a swim.

 

[profisher]

The survival rate on a wound like that is high because there is no major bleeding...a deep cut or gash to your knee won't likely kill you but a slit throat will. Bleeding from the kills is their slit throat.

 

[chris.heatley1]

I agree with profisher. If I'm targeting a plentiful species I'll C&R any with clean mouth hooks, but even a slipped finger can start a deadly gill bleed. Any bleeding gills I keep.
I can't understate how much energy that fish had, put up a great fight. When I got it home I had a real close look at it, all of the organs looked healthy. I was surprised, kept expecting some sign of disease or weakness

 

[tincan]

FisherTim, wondering where you got the 30% survival rate for C&R fish? For pacific salmon that number is much, much higher and even well into the 95% range if and when the fish is played, handled and released properly. The occassional fish will have gill/throat damage that will lead to a most likely death and as many have mentioned on the forum those are the ones we should all try to put in the box. Below is a link to a recent study but there are several that google will turn up that all support a very high survival rate, especially when best practices are followed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26199324

If fish are able to withstand all that, how can they only have a 30%(or whatever low number it is) C&R survival rate?