The scientific name for chum salmon is Oncorhynchus keta. The chum salmon is an anadromous fish species and belongs to the salmon family. It is a Pacific Salmon, and it is also known as the keta salmon and the dog salmon.
The Pacific salmon, species recovery program, was begun by Congress in the year 2000 to support the fish species.
Types of fish that can be found
The chum salmon has large canine spawning teeth that are seen in the males in the natal run spawning stream. The size of the chum salmon is only next to its cousin the Chinook salmon.
In their ocean phase, the chum salmon looks similar to the sockeye and the coho salmon. When the chum salmon, however, enters the freshwater then it goes through a change and both the sexes start to have black tigers and bold red stripes. The young chum salmon will form a school in the, however, and they stay close to the shore to guard against any predators.
Type of fishing that can be done at the location
Fishing for the chum salmon can be done with an 8 or 9 wt rod and that which leans towards the 9 wt rod. The fish species breaks more rods and reels than any other fish species.
The float fishing jig is the best way to catch the chum salmon. This method does not need many tricks, and you just need to manage some tips to maximize the catch ratio. Casting lures and spinner is not the favored method to catch chum salmon because the trick needs more strikes. Fly fishing and spey fishing is also a fun way to battle this fierce chum salmon. The fly rod acts as a tool to catch the fish. The baits and lures are also the techniques used to capture the chum salmon.
The size of the chum salmon can be anywhere between 8-15 lbs that are roughly 3.6 to 6.8 kgs. It can also weight 20 kgs or 45 lbs. The length of the salmon can range up to 3.6 feet that are 1.1 m.
The range of the chum salmon in the North Pacific is from Japan, Korea, Bearing Sea, and Okhotck, Arctic Alaska and in the south to San Diego California. The chum salmon is also found in Iran in Asia.
The habitat of the chum salmon is of one type. It is the sea-run, and this fish species only inhabits the freshwater during a short stage when it is in the juvenile stage after it hatches in their natal stream. The chum salmon spend their adult life in the ocean and then migrate to the marine environment to the freshwater to the natal stream to reproduce. Chum salmons are semelparous, and they spawn just once in life before they die.
The chum salmon after it hatches in its natal stream begins to feed on insects and other freshwater invertebrates. It then migrates to the marine habitats and the estuaries where it feeds on mollusks, copepods and the tunicates.