Chinook

In the ocean, the chinook salmon is a robust, deep-bodied fish with bluish-green coloration on the back which fades to a silvery color on the sides and white on the belly. This is when we target them while fishing Queen Charlottes.

Like all species of Pacific salmon, chinook salmon are anadromous. They hatch in fresh water, spend part of their life in the ocean, then spawn in fresh water.

All chinooks die after spawning. Chinook salmon may become sexually mature from their second through seventh year, and as a result, fish in any spawning run may vary greatly in size. For example, a mature three-year-old will probably weigh less than four pounds, while a mature seven-year-old may exceed 50 pounds. Females tend to be older than males at maturity. 

You will come across the odd fish like this while fishing Queen Charlottes, but fish over 60 pounds are rare and treasured.



Chinook salmon often make extensive freshwater spawning migrations and can travel more than 2,000 river miles during a 60-day period to reach their home streams.

You will notice quite quickly while salmon fishing Queen Charlottes that the rivers here are very short coastal streams, and have small runs of chinook. 

Chinook salmon do not feed during the freshwater spawning migration, so their condition deteriorates gradually during the spawning run as they use stored body materials for energy and for the development of reproductive products. This is why fishing Queen Charlottes is so special: The fish are at the peak of their lives when caught.



Each female deposits from 3,000 to 14,000 eggs in several gravel nests, or redds, which she excavates in relatively deep, moving water.

In BC, the eggs usually hatch in late winter or early spring, depending on time of spawning and water temperature.  

Most juvenile chinook salmon remain in fresh water until the following spring when they migrate to the ocean in their second year of life. These seaward migrants are called smolts. Smolts are become a huge factor when fishing Queen Charlottes in the spring targeting cutthroat trout.