Kokanee salmon(landlocked sockeye)
Oncorhynchus nerka
Kokanee salmon 2
Kokanee or landlocked sockeye is The only species of pacific salmon to exist in Colorado. Common in many deep mountain reservoirs as they live at depths from 10-100 suspended in deep water and spend most of their lives in the main reservoir. They do make a spawning migration to the shallows in the fall usually to the edges of lakes or in inlet streams where they can swim many miles upstream until they spawn. Most populations are sustained through stocking by the CPW and efforts that make the salmon spawn more efficiently. But there are a few populations that are self sustaining. Look for them in the fall as they are easy to spot with their bright red bodies. Some known spots for seeing them include the south platte river above eleven mile reservoir and gunnison river/east river near crested butte and gunnison. They are silvery fish in the lake can be distinguished by their big eyes and deeply forked tail as well as have black noses and tip of their mouth. Can vary in size usually dependent on lake and what size Kokanee it supports up to 25 inches is where most Kokanee max out but the state record is 28 inches.
Sources and Credits
- (c) gcmorath, all rights reserved, uploaded by gcmorath
- Adapted by gcmorath from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncorhynchus_nerka
