The Outdoor Line Forum

I caught a Humpy on Tuesday that defies understanding. First of all it was fin clipped (really), secondly it contained neither eggs nor sperm sacks. Since when did the hatcheries start raising hermaphrodite humpies? We examined it very closely thinking it could be a Blackmouth, since it did have a blackish mouth, but it had the telltale oval spots on the tail as well as tiny scales and typical Humpy slime. Can anybody ’splain this one to me?

We wanna see a pic of the beast!

kurtmiller -
An interesting fish indeed.

First other than in Hood Canal I know of no pink hatchery programs and at the small size pinks migrate to sea (literally within days of hatching) it is doubtful that if it was a pink it was clipped at a hatchery. There is very slight potential that it was a natural occurring missing adipose - in several hundred salmonids I have seen exactly 1 fish that I thought had a naturally occuring missing adipose fin.

Second a hermaphrodite fish would have both eggs and milt sacks. A salmon lacking without developing gonads would be either an immature fish or some sort of tripolid. In either case there is no reason for such a humpy to return to Puget Sound - it would stay on its ocean feeding grounds. Assuming it was typical humpy size such a humpy would have to be either a fish that was going to mature at 3 years of age rather than the normal two years or a natural tripolid. The chances of such a fish being a late maturing humpy or natural tripolid is very low. The chances of such a fish returning to Puget Sound before reaching maturity is even lower. Add to that the rarity of a natural occuring missing adipose that chances of encountering such a fish is slow low that it makes my head hurt trying to calculate the odds of finding such a fish - The odds are so low that it is essentially impossible.

My best guess without seeing the fish or a picture is that it was likely a immature Chinook that was oddly marked. What was its teeth like?

Just an other illustration that when it comes to fish there are very few absolutes.

Tight lines
Curt

It could have been a Dolly Varden...we would see them in SE AK from time to time in the sein net...and sell em as humpies unless the tender noticed em in the mix.

If it was clipped and had no mature gonads, then it sounds like it was a blackmouth to me...there are other possibilities, but they're a lot more remote than it being a Chinook.

Fish on...

Todd