Rainbow or king?

Tough to tell from the angle of the picture but if I had to put a Penny on it, Id say rainbow.

 

It looks like a juvenile king salmon to me. Both are similar but little kings tend to have parr markings that are more like bars (like this fish) and their spots are nearly all above the lateral line whereas rainbow juveniles have spotting lower on the body and more oval shaped parr markings. Additionally the mouth is larger which is true of king babies. Catch herds of each while living in Alaska......

Brian

 

I'm going to shot for a bow. I see a purple stripe in the fish which tends to be more of a bow than a King

 

Next time count the anal fin rays. Chinooks have many more anal fin rays than rainbows.

Chinook 14 to 19 anal fin rays.

Rainbow 8 to 12.

 

Hello this is my first post. I am from the Great Lakes region. The fish in question is a Coho Parr. It will smolt and enter the lake next spring. Coho are planted in the fall and spring time. Chinook are only planted in the spring, and smolt at a much smaller size then Coho and Steelhead.

 

Good information. Since the poster mentioned chinook I didn't think about coho.

 

Same

 

Steelhead/rainbow parr are very vividly colored, there is no mistaking them. Chinooks parr at this current time would just be starting to hatch and extremely tiny, next spring they will be 2-4" and migrate out to the Great Lakes. They do not spend a year in the rivers like Coho, and some other anadromous salmoniods do. The fish in your photos was born last fall.

 

Google image of a Steelhead Parr. Now when spring comes and they begin the smolting phase they will become more silver.

 

All good information there Multi..., however, steelhead/salmon are hatched, not born!

 

NOOOOOOOOO?!

 

Haha very true. Miscommunication on my end. =P

 

How may of you knew that many hatched fish species aren't either sex for a period of time, and that you can create all males or all females by adding testosterone or estrogen into the feed?