Identification (and Demystification) of Salmon vs. Trout

[fishoholic]

Ok folks. I've been getting a little frustrated with trying to figure out the difference between a rainbow trout and a freshwater salmon. If you've fished at Pine-flat, Shaver, Millerton, etc you know what I'm talking about. So here's my quick research.

I first went to the DFG website and took a gander and found that the distinguishing characteristics between a Salmon and a Rainbow can be seen by looking in the mouth.......yes, the mouth.

Trout have white gums at the base of the bottom teeth and a white tongue.
Chinook Salmon have black at the base of the bottom teeth and usually have a black colored mouth in general.
Coho Salmon have a grey band at the base of the bottom teeth and may have a moderate amount of dark coloration in the mouth. They also have black spots on the upper lobe of the tail fin (unlike the previous species).

Kokanee was not included in the DFG identificaition section. But from what I could gather they have a greenish-blue back with very faint speckling, silver sides including the belly (unlike trout).

The problem with identification and communication lies with the numerous names given to these salmon species.

For example:
Chinook aka: King Salmon, Black Mouth Salmon, Spring Salmon, Tyee (if over 30 lbs in Canada) etc.
Coho aka: Silver Salmon
Kokanee aka: Red Salmon, Blueback Salmon, Sockeye Salmon. Kokanee is just a land-locked form of Sockeye Salmon. They are an anadromous (anadromous= lives mostly in the sea, yet breeds in freshwater)
species that look silver in the ocean and change to a red in freshwater. They're the really red looking salmon that you see on TV that migrate from the ocean to freshwater where they become bright red (like a bad sunburn), lay eggs and die.

So when you reel in that next "trout", take a look in the mouth and a quick scan of the body to determine if you've really caught a trout or a juvenile salmon.

Anyone else have any info. on this subject?

[orchardhills]

Thanks for the research!

[BeachBear]

That's pretty cool. You give a trout a dental exam to figure it out. I was curious how the salmon was ID'd.

[Wahoo!]

Very cool! Thanks for putting this info together for us!

[Beresford13861]

thats a nice little article i will keep that in mind!