35 lb Coho caught in Lake Ontario

Interesting fishing report out of Oswego this week, this 35 lb Coho, was submitted as a new record, but the fish was actually a hybrid Coho-Chinook:

Tony Buffa, a veteran Lake Ontario charter boat captain who operates out of Oswego Marina, was understandably excited Sunday. He thought he might have a world record on his hands.

It was 7 a.m. Sunday and one of his clients, Johnnie Rudisil, 30, of Bethel, Conn., had just reeled in a 35-pound, 1-ounce coho salmon. Rudisil was fishing on Buffa's boat with his grandfather, Tony Mallozzi, also of Connecticut.

The world-record coho weighed 33 pounds, 7 ounces and was caught by Stephen Sheets Jr. on Lake Ontario, fishing out of Oswego County, on July 13, 1998.

Buffa was not taking any chances. He had the fish weighed on a scale used for tournaments at Larry’s Salmon Shop in Oswego. The fish was put on ice overnight and Rudisil drove it to the regional DEC office in Cortland on Monday for analysis.

The DEC’s conclusion?

“Potentially, he (Buffa) was right,” said Dan Bishop, regional supervisor for natural resources at the Cortland office. “But we checked it out, and it does not appear to be the case.”

The reason, Bishop said, was that the fish was actually a hybrid — a cross between a coho and its larger cousin, a chinook (king) salmon. That was determined, Bishop said, by cutting a small slice in the fish’s belly and pulling out its pyloric caeca — finger-shaped pouches located where the intestine and the stomach meet.

Bishop said the number of pyloric caeca ranges from 53 to 80 in cohos and 124 to 209 in chinooks. The fish Rudisil brought to the DEC office had a pyloric caeca count in the 94-100 range.

“We counted it three times,” Bishop said. “It’s clearly right in between a coho and a chinook.”

In addition, the fish's caudal fin had typical characteristics of a chinook and an anal fin typical of a coho, said David Lemon, the DEC's Regional fisheries manager.

The world record for a coho-chinook hybrid is 35 pounds, 8 ounces, pulled out of the Salmon River on Oct. 21, 2001, by Brooks Gerli, according to a spokesman from the International Game Fish Association.

I didn't realize that coho and chinnies would mix. I wonder if it fought like a coho, or more like a king?

Wow!..great fish even so.

For sure it looks like a hybrid......seen a few before. Tail definite giveaway at first glance. Body also more Chinook shape than coho. Imagine it fought like a typical cross, .meaning a sizzling run and then some heavy bulldogging.....ho knows, I didn't catch it.

Maybe if we get lucky they'll cross with Atlantics as well..we can call them Antics!

The diffferent strains of bows in the lake all fight in their own unique way......

I keep saying we have a world class fishery down here in Niagara...

salmon/rainbows/lakers/walleye/perch/musky/bass/sturgeon..........you name it it's all within 40 minutes on either lake/river

Wow! Awesome fish, I didn't know coho and chinnies can cross breed..
Personally I find the coho numbers down in the rivers, haven't hooked into one in a few years, I probably just miss them..

Years ago Glen Osbourne, the skipper of the Salmon Smoker out of Bronte caught a "coho " of considerable size I think around the 28 LB. mark. He won a large prize until the MNR did an autopsie and found that it had as many rays as a chinook and there for was not a pure coho. I think that was back around 1980.

You didn't know coho and chinnies can cross breed? Well, when a handsome coho guy bump into a pretty Chinnies girl, you never know what would happen next:-)

James, thanks for the "birds & the bees" lesson, I missed that talk with my dad..

Bob, did the fellow get to keep the prize after the MNR determined the coho was genetically enhanced?

This cross breeding of Chinooks and Cohos, is it unique to the Great Lakes, or does it go on on the West coast as well?
Does anyone know?

Yes, apparently has occured on the West Coast, in the Klamath River Basin in California:

Bartley et al. (1990) and Bartley (1990) have reported hybridization between coho and fall-run chinook salmon in the Klamath River basin. Hybrid individuals were detected by electrophoretic techniques. In one case coho and chinook salmon adults were apparently inadvertently crossed by fish culturists at the Irongate hatchery and the offspring released. In another case hybridization was likely a result of artificial blockage and crowding of large numbers of adult salmon in a tributary just below Lewiston Dam and hatchery in the Trinity River (Bartley et al. 1990). Two hybrid salmon were recovered in the ocean fishery, so at least some hybrids survive and grow to large size (Bartley et al. 1990). Their ability to mature and produce viable offspring remains unknown.

No he did not but he did receive a prize of sorts, do quite remember what