Chum Salmon with Sharpe's of Aberdeen

[cushman]

I have been poking around looking for a decent picture that shows off some old tackle in action and came across this:



Chum salmon male on the Oregon coast, November 2013. The rod is a Bruce and Walker Hexaraph "Bruce" 14ft for 10wt, and the reel used was a Sharpe's of Aberdeen The Gordon 4" reel. It was a good day there and that rig has been really fun to fish with.

Here's another closer up with a female chum with the reel face:



Hope you enjoy the pics!

[RAM]

Nice tackle and nice fish too. Excuse my salmonid ignorance but exactly what are Pacific "Chum" salmon?

Thanks! Bad Bob

[Robin Sayler]

Great shots!

[cushman]

Nice tackle and nice fish too. Excuse my salmonid ignorance but exactly what are Pacific "Chum" salmon?

Thanks! Bad Bob

Great shots!

Thanks! Chum are one of the five species of Pacific salmon that are in North American waters. They are oncorhynchus keta, keta I believe is a word from Siberia meaning "dog". They're also referred to as dog salmon because of the pretty big fangs they develop during spawning. They spawn low I need the river systems and change colors pretty quickly after entering fresh water. They can get pretty big, but are technically the middle of the five in size, with chinook and silvers being larger (as I recall). Their historic range is from Hokkaido and Kamchatka all the way around the North Pacific down to Northern California.

Really fun on the fly rod, hit flies readily, but the rule of thumb as I learned it is nothing less than a 10wt, so that old Bruce and Walker Hexagraph is really great.

[RAM]

Thanks Brother Cushman!

Bad Bob