THE FACTS:

Names: King, spring, tyee, blackmouth (immature form), smiley

Range: Pacific Rim – Hokkaido, Japan to central California

Size: 10 pound to 50 pound

World Record: 97.25 pounds

Fishing Methods: Mooching, jigging, trolling

What to expect in Sitka:

Season: Chinook salmon (kings) fishing begins in late April or early May. The run builds through
the middle of May and remains at a very high level throughout June. Expect a brief drop in
abundance on July 1 with the commercial trolling opener, then the numbers kick back up by
mid-month. Strong numbers of kings generally stick around until at least mid-August.

Size: The maximum known size of a chinook salmon is 126 pounds measuring 4 feet 10 inches
long. The biggest sport caught fish we’ve heard of from Sitka waters was 82 pounds. The world
record king was caught on the Kenai River and weighed 97 pounds. The Angling Unlimited
record is 65 pounds. In the past 20 years king salmon sizes have been decreasing throughout
the North Pacific. The reasons why aren’t definite. Our kings remain abundant with most mainly
in the 12 to 20 pound range. Kings up to 50 pounds remain a possibility but have become
increasingly hard to come by.

Techniques: Angling Unlimited has a “hands-on” fishing approach. You hold the rod, you feel
the bite, and you hook the fish. Our method is mooching which includes motor mooching, drift
mooching, and anchor mooching. You can also jig for kings. Sometimes we catchi kings with
artificial baits like Berkley Gulp rigged on circle hooks. Rigged with either plug-cut herring or
Berkley Gulp, circle hooks allow for catch and release king fishing with very low levels of
hooking mortality.

Gear: Mooching is delightfully uncomplicated from a tackle perspective. We begin with top of
the line G.Loomis rods ranging from 8’6” to 10’6” in length – your pick. We pair your rod with a
Shimano Tekota 500 LC, which features a line counter so you know the depth of your gear all
the time. We spool the reel with bright green 20 or 25 pound test and use a sliding sinker. We
tie our leaders with 30 to 50 pound line and use the world’s sharpest hooks from Gamagatsu.
We also use circle hooks from Daiichi and Owner when catch and release is the priority. For
bait, we use a plug-cut herring.

Want to learn more about King Salmon? Here you go!

Kings range naturally around the Pacific Rim from California to Hokkaido. They have been
transplanted all over the world including the Great Lakes, Chile, and New Zealand.  Chinook
tend to migrate near to the shore and cover long distances north and south. Many of the
chinook caught in Alaska originate in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Hot ocean
fishing for kings can occur as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Nome.

Chinook are the biggest of the Pacific salmon, historically reaching a maximum weight of nearly
130 pounds and a length of 5 feet. Over the past 20 years the average size of chinook
throughout their range has declined for reasons uncertain. The life span of a king can be
anywhere from 3 to 7 years. The longer-lived fish tend to be larger.

Prior to damming, the Columbia had an annual return of 12 million kings migrating in from late
January through the end of November.  The fall chinook spawned primarily in the main river,
while the spring and summer chinook spread into the tributaries to drop their eggs.
Unfortunately, the fall chinook lost much of their spawning ground to the dams and the runs
have become largely dependent on hatchery production.  The amount of genetic variation in
kings seems nearly endless.  Aside from moving into rivers at all times of the year, they also
spawn anytime from July through December.  Some young chinook can hit the salt chuck with
the yolk sac nearly intact while others live in fresh water for two years.  Returning adults spend
from one to six years in the ocean.

Chinook vary in size from river to river. The Kenai is known for its giant kings, as is the Skeena
in British Columbia. Washington’s Elwha River was once home to a race of pound kings that
reached weights of 100 pounds, but two dams blocked migration to and from the spawning
grounds.

Juvenile king salmon dine a wide variety of zooplankton and small fish when they enter salt
water. As they grow, their diet remains focused on euphausids (krill) and shrimp, but they also
dine heavily on herring, anchovy, sand lance (needlefish), eulachon (candlefish), and any
number of other small fish. Kings grow rapidly at sea and store large amounts of fat (oil) in the
flesh in preparation for long upriver migrations. The high oil content makes them highly desired
on the table. Their incredible power and stamina make them highly prized as sport fish.