Chum salmon are colorful as they make their way into fresh water, and a little fearsome with the hooked snout and large teeth of the males.
Chums often arrive with pinks and silvers but are rarely sought by anglers despite their strength and willingness to take lures.
Description
Seagoing chums have metallic greenish-blue backs with fine black speckles. Chums have fewer but larger gill rakers than do other salmon.
Canned chums, also known as dog or calico salmon, are often canned and sold outside Alaska as "silver brights."
Alaska record
32 pounds, caught in 1985 of Caamano Point by Fredrick Thynes.
Tips for fishing
Anglers often catch chums while fishing for other species with spinners, flies and other lures. Chums are often smoked rather than eaten fresh.
Best time to fish
Southcentral Alaska
- Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla areas -- July, August
- Susitna, Talkeetna and rivers flowing into western Cook Inlet -- July, August
- Resurrection Bay -- June, July
- Prince William Sound -- June, July
- Prince William Sound streams / Copper River basin / Upper Susitna basin -- August, September
Inside Passage
- Inside Passage offshore, north of Stikine River -- July
- Inside Passage offshore, south of Stikine River -- July, August
- Inside Passage streams, north of Stikine River -- July
- Inside Passage streams, south of Stikine River -- August
Western, Interior and Northern Alaska
- Bristol Bay and Kodiak offshore -- June, July
- Bristol Bay streams and Kodiak -- July
- Fairbanks and Tanana River drainage -- July, November
- Arctic Alaska and Yukon-Kuskokwim drainage-- July, November
Sources of information include the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
