• Length: 11 to 26 inches with a maximum size of about 38 inches.
• Weight: 2 to 8 lbs (world record: 33 lbs - 4 oz.)
• Coloring: steel-blue to slightly green on back; bright silver on sides; white underside.

Cohos are slightly smaller than the chinook salmon reaching a maximum weight of 33 lbs. In Lake Michigan, cohos attain an average weight of five to six pounds but often top out at 10 pounds or more. In Lake Superior, where forage fish are less abundant, cohos average only two to four pounds.

Spawning: All salmon spawn in fresh water and eventually migrate to salt water (except of Great Lakes or landlocked salmon) until they mature and reach reproductive age at 3 - 5 years. They then return to the streams or rivers where they were hatched or released, to spawn and die. Adult female salmons lay between 3,000 and 4,000 eggs that hatch in 60 to 90 days.

Angling: Cohos are stocked in Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior.

Commonly called "silver salmon," this Pacific import has been stocked in lakes Michigan and Superior annually since 1966 and is now an integral part of the lake's "put-and-take" sport fishing industry.

Mature cohos gorge themselves on alewives, smelt, and other forage fish.

Though smaller, coho salmon are spawning successfully in most Lake Superior tributaries and thus have developed some limited but self-sustaining populations. There is some concern that this aggressive fish might disrupt the spawning of other valued species, such as brook, brown and rainbow trout.

Coho salmon ordinarily return in their third year to the streams where they were planted to spawn and die. They reproduce naturally in many streams on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, but their general population must be sustained with hatchery-reared fish. Continual stocking has helped to improve the lake's predator-prey balance and given satisfaction to thousands of sport fishermen as well.

They prefer water between 53 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit.

Although adult salmon are believed not to feed while they run upriver in fresh water to spawn, they will nonetheless attack a fly, spinner, plug, or other bailt possible out of bad temper. They are attracted to action lures, streamer flies, prawns, alewives and cut baits.

Click here for a comparison photo between lake trout, steelhead, brown trout and Coho

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