Chinook (spring) salmon in Canada

Identification and biology

The chinook is the largest of the Pacific salmon: the federal COSEWIC status report records fish of more than 55 kilograms, gives spring salmon and king salmon as its other English names, and lists tyee among its First Nations names. At sea it is silver with a dark back and small black spots on the back and on both lobes of the tail. The surer test is the black gums at the base of the teeth in the lower jaw, because coho can carry spots on both lobes too. Chinook mature between one and seven years of age, most by about five, and like the other Pacific salmon they spawn once and die. The big rivers of BC, the Fraser, the Skeena and the rivers of Vancouver Island, each have their own runs and their own timing. Chinook were also introduced to the Great Lakes, and Ontario’s stocking record lists chinook released into Lake Ontario, Lake Huron and tributaries such as the Credit River in 2025.

Where they live through the year

On the BC coast there are two kinds of chinook fishing. Resident or feeder chinook, often called winter springs, stay in the Strait of Georgia and the waters off Victoria through the winter, feeding on herring and sand lance. Migrating chinook pass along the coast from late spring to late summer on their way to the rivers, following the bait along the kelp lines, points and tide rips, and are the fish of Sooke, Nootka Sound, Barkley Sound and Campbell River in July and August. In the Great Lakes, chinook spend the summer deep and offshore, following cold water, and move toward the river mouths in late summer before running up the tributaries in September and October.

The mistakes that cost fish

Fishing the wrong depth: chinook are often deeper than people think, especially in bright weather, and a downrigger set ten metres too shallow catches nothing. Ignoring the tide: on the BC coast the change of the tide concentrates bait along the rips, and the hour around it is usually the best. Keeping a fish without checking the notice: chinook openings, size limits and closures on the coast are set area by area and changed in season by DFO, on its Fishery Notice System. In fresh water, keeping any salmon needs the non-tidal salmon stamp, and each adult chinook, over 50 cm in most waters, must be recorded on the licence at once. Handling a fish to be released out of the water: a chinook that has to go back should stay in the water, supported, while the hook comes out.

Reading the report for chinook

On the coastal pages, the tide panel, a modelled curve labelled as one, gives the timing of the changes; the wind row decides whether the open water is fishable at all. The water temperature estimate shows the season rather than the day, and on the river pages the gauge shows the rises that move fish upstream in the fall. Pressure matters less than for lake fish, but a stable spell is easier fishing than the day a front comes through.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

The plan the daily report picks for chinook (spring) salmon in each band; the water temperature on each page is a seasonal estimate for its type of water and says so.

The legal season is a separate question

Activity says when the fish bite; the agency says when you may keep one. These are the closures that name chinook (spring) salmon, computed for 2026 from each rule as written and read on the date shown. A province with no row publishes no closure for this species, which is not the same as open all year.

Month by month

Activity for the Canadian year, 1 slow to 5 peak; January is midwinter, with most lakes under ice. Current month highlighted.

Waters we cover for chinook (spring) salmon

28 Canada waters carry chinook (spring) salmon on their species card, each with a daily report.

Common questions