Q: During a recent trip to Japan, I caught this salmon, which weighed about 6 pounds, off the beach at Niiga. It struck a Megabass lure. I'm wondering if this salmon is a masu or some other species.

Nam Pham
Montreal City, Canada

A: That's a tough one, Nam. A wide range of Pacific salmonids occurs in Japanese waters, with masu, chum, chinook, sockeye, coho and pink salmon all being recorded from that part of the world. When in their oceanic-coloration phase, species of Pacific salmon can be difficult to distinguish, but in this case based mainly on the apparent lack of spots on the tail and back, I reckon it's either a chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) or a sockeye salmon (O. nerka). My bet is the sea-run sockeye, as its eye appears to have a slightly gold tinge, and this together with the apparent absence of spots suggests a sockeye. Unfortunately, the lure is obscuring important details, as the sockeye has a white gum line with small teeth, while the chum, coho and chinook have larger teeth. You could test your memory of details of the fish and refer to this excellent Web page on identification of pacific salmon at www.wdfw.wa.gov/fish/identification/pac_salmon.htm. — Ben Diggles