Chinook Salmon Run

[Austin Greene]

UPDATE: Added the following two images. First, and my personal favorite is at the bottom of this post.
2. Male Chinook, I believe? One of the first images of my hour watching them jump. Took awhile for me realize the harsh shadows weren't working for me.

The Fall Run (Male Chinook) by TogaLive, on Flickr

3. Sacrifice. Beside me on the rocks were a few of the females scattered around, wedged into rocks. Some dying, some dead. Some released on of their eggs in a last ditch effort. In hindsight, I wish I had used the 17-40 for this shot. Couldn't decide on the foreground either. Oh well, didn't really go out expecting to take any photos :mrgreen:

Sacrifice by TogaLive, on Flickr




Well I visited a fishery near Sacramento today for a project in my course on Ichthyology. I got a little distracted and ended up climbing down to the water's edge and shooting some of the salmon (Fall Run Chinook) as they tried to jump up into a drainage pipe. The actual ladder was about 200 years further up river.

Anyways, it was quite the experience. Difficult shooting, and I had two or three of these 30+ lb fish rocket out of the water and come within a few inches of smacking me. Fun stuff!

Taken with a 70-200. I'll post another later, albeit not as good a shot, that was taken with a 17-40mm. That's just how close they were getting.

1.

The Fall Run by TogaLive, on Flickr

Taken on a Canon 6D, and a Canon 70-200 f/4L IS

 

[tirediron]

Cool!

 

[WesternGuy]

Neat shot.:thumbup:

WesternGuy

 

[SnappingShark]

Looks fishy to me. I don't like the foreground rocks

Otherwise, nice catch!

2 puns in one post! I'm hooked! d'oh!

 

[baturn]

Very nice! I do have to comment on the length of your river or the slowness of your salmon.

 

[Josh66]

Wow! "Nature" shots typically bore me, but this is pretty cool!

 

[Derrel]

A few things...the Sacramento is one of the better west coast producers of chinook salmon. The fish is a male, as we can see by the overhanging top jaw or "kype". Good action shot!

 

[Austin Greene]

A few things...the Sacramento is one of the better west coast producers of chinook salmon. The fish is a male, as we can see by the overhanging top jaw or "kype". Good action shot!

Thanks Derrel! We've been covering Salmonidae in my course and it's truly fascinating when you learn about California as a producer of salmon, and how much things have changed (for the worse) over the past 60 or so years.

Oh! And I added two more images to the topic, albeit lesser images in my eyes.

 

[Woodsman]

Wow, great shots, love the third one.

 

[SashaT]

Badass!!! I love the 3rd shot myself.


Those guys are fun as hell on the end of a rod as well.