Chinless Chinook

[Jammer]

Caught this king with a deformed lower jaw yesterday, and thought I'd share a pic and ask some opinions:

That is the tongue hanging down between the two distinct sides of the lower jaw.

Do you think this is a birth defect or a healed over injury? I wonder if maybe this guy was caught as a shaker and the hooks took the whole front lower jaw with them...

Other than the obvious deformity, he was healthy and strong. Hit a spinny/fly combo out 333 on the wire and ripped out to 460 in a hurry. Weighed between 20 and 21, and swam away with no issues after a quick revive and release.

JAM

[Mortigan]

Wait - I've seen that before. Oh no...

[daker1979]

Betcha Steve caught it.................he likes the kinky stuff

[Jammer]

Hey Guy,

Yep! Hee hee! Sure enough. How did you know??!

Jammer

[RUNNIN REBEL]

That is the deformity that happens when shaker kings are twisted/torn from lures and mouth tearing occurs. It is a necessary evil that happens no matter how much care is taken.

Jerry

Rebel Charters

[Mortigan]

Are you sure it didn't lose a fight with Kurt's laker?

[Missdemeanor]

Jammer......tell me that wasn't an insane King Bite yesterday....what a fishery we have....

[ Post made via Android ]

[on the lam]

Another example!

[ Post made via Android ]

[BSmaster]

Kinda reminds me of that Simpsons episode.

Series 2 | Episode 4 | Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish

Bart and Lisa catch a three-eyed fish in a polluted stream near the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, bringing scads of negative publicity to Mr. Burns.

In order to fight the bad press, Burns decides to run for Governor, enlisting a team of spin doctors.

But all the spin doctors in the world can't fix Mr. Burns' major blunder when, on live TV, Marge serves him a three-eyed fish for dinner and he finally coughs up his true feelings about pollution.

(I looked up the details)

[1fish2fish]

There's a lot of that going around!! Here's another one caught in the lake in front of Port Bay two years ago.

Jim

[Mortigan]

See - proof that alien fish have landed and are taking over...

[Jammer]

Hey Matt. Definitely an insane bite. Just Skamaniac and me on the boat and we had a quad going... Two wires and two riggers all ripping and bouncing. Jeez what a great predicament!!!

JAM

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Thanks for posting the pic. We have seen a higher incidence of these "healed up" Kings. This shows that as long as they are not overplayed and not gushing blood, its always worth carefully returning the first year "skipper" Kings. Today, we had a 4yr old mature that had a huge healed up gap in the tail. Probably netted resulting in splitting the tail, and then returned to the water.

The knowledge of the fleets on both shores continues to grow, so we can expect to see more and more of this as anglers "go through" the available population of Salmon each year. Add resiliency to the list of desireable traits this incredible species has.

[orangediablo]

picked up this guy this weekend, kinda looks like a pirate. Other side of his jaw was fine.

YYAAARRRRR MMAATTEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

[on the lam]

picked up this guy this weekend, kinda looks like a pirate. Other side of his jaw was fine.

The other little kings definately made fun of him in the hatchery... lmao He is hard on the eyes

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

LMAO, Pete! It must be bad enough being preyed upon by normal Chinooks, but imagine the rage exhibited towards alewives and our tackle by these "homely" Kings with self esteem issues!!!

[fishhunter22]

i caught a king 10lbs in port ontario with very little/small lower jaw last year in the fall. healthy but had a short lower jaw. what causes these kings to have this condition?

[choo-choo]

Here is another "cutie" I caught and released last fall on the salmon river