Chinook salmon

Identification and life cycle

Oncorhynchus tshawytscha is the largest Pacific salmon. NOAA Fisheries gives a maximum of 4.9 feet and 129 pounds, though typical mature fish are about 3 feet and 30 pounds, and WDFW notes most are under 50 pounds. At sea they are blue-green above and silver on the sides, with black spots on the back and on both lobes of the tail (ADF&G); black gums are a quick field mark, as Michigan DNR notes. Chinook hatch in rivers, spend one to five years at sea and return to their home stream to spawn and die. Most mature at three or four, but ADF&G notes a mature seven-year-old may pass 50 pounds.

Ocean feeders, river fasters

At sea chinook eat herring, pilchard, sand lance, squid and crustaceans and grow fast (ADF&G). They stop feeding on the spawning migration, so river fishing means drawing a strike from a fish that is not hungry. WDFW describes spring and summer runs that travel far upriver, some hundreds of miles, and fall runs that spawn closer to the ocean; ADF&G notes that Yukon River fish bound for Canada cover more than 2,000 river miles in about 60 days.

Saltwater methods

WDFW calls downrigger trolling probably the most popular way to catch salmon in salt water: an 8- to 10-foot rod rated for 12- to 30-pound line, 20- to 30-pound main line, and a flasher or dodger with a hoochie, spoon or cut-plug herring. Mooching, drifting a spinning plug-cut herring under a banana-shaped weight, is the older Puget Sound method. For chinook, WDFW suggests trolling slowly, under 2 mph, near kelp and bottom structure. Early and late in the day chinook cruise near shore in 20 to 120 feet of water; in open water they follow the bait and go deeper as the sun climbs, with 40 to 80 feet a good starting depth.

River methods

In rivers WDFW describes drift fishing roe or sand shrimp on 20- to 25-pound line for chinook; plunking, where an anchored lure waits in a travel lane; and, on the Columbia, a wobbling plug wrapped with a sardine fillet fished on heavy line. Float-fished salmon eggs work in eddies and tidewater, and in tidal lower rivers anglers troll cut-plug herring or spinners behind a dropper weight. Look for fish where the easiest route upstream meets cover: inside bends on big rivers, and tailouts above riffles on small ones.

Great Lakes kings

Chinook were planted in the Great Lakes from the 1870s, but Michigan DNR dates the modern fishery to the state's 1967 plantings, made when alewives were abundant; chinook became the dominant salmon there, and USGS, citing 2011 Michigan figures, reports that seven of every eight Lake Huron chinook came from natural reproduction. Michigan's best fishing is on Lake Michigan, where anglers use downriggers and lead-core or copper line to reach fish that are often 100 feet or more down once the sun is up, and the runs reach rivers such as the Manistee, Pere Marquette and St. Joseph by mid-August. Stocking has been cut in recent years over concern for alewife numbers.

Management and listings

Ocean salmon fishing off Washington, Oregon and California is managed under the Pacific Coast Salmon Plan: a regional fishery management council recommends each year's seasons and NOAA Fisheries implements them, while Alaska manages salmon in federal waters by delegation. As of 2025, NOAA lists two chinook populations as endangered and seven as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Seasons, quotas and gear rules can change in-season, so check the state agency on the day you fish.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

The legal season is a separate question

Month by month

Best waters for chinook salmon

53 waters we report on where this species is one of the main fish, each with a daily report.

Common questions