Oncorhynchus

Coming soon.

Chum salmon typically do not travel far up the freshwater rivers to spawn. They are, however, one of the most abundant salmon in the Pacific Northwest, ranging from Oregon's Tillamook Bay to the Arctic Circle. Find a not-too-degraded stream or estuary some time in October (earlier at the higher latitudes) and you've got a good chance of seeing groups of these fish getting ready to spawn.

Pink Salmon spawn in the small coastal rivers and estuaries from Puget Sound to the Arctic Circle. They typically begin arriving some time in late summer and spawn in the fall.

In many of the waters of the Pacific Northwest, they only arrive in the odd years (2009, 2011, etc.), while in Alaska there are only even-year runs. A few rivers in Vancouver get runs every year.

Cohos can be found from Northern California to the Arctic Circle. Many runs have disappeared, or very nearly so, however. The dams on the Columbia destroyed many of the runs in that system and elsewhere, and urban development and logging have further degraded many of their spawning grounds.

The hatcheries, once viewed as the solution, have now been shown to exacerbate the problem. Hatchery fish and hatchery-wild hybrids are not as well adapted to particular waters, as their wild brethren are, and are seldom as fit.

Although many populations in the United States are now protected under the Endangered Species Act, it's still legal to catch them. Just let them go when you're done.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Cohos usually begin gathering in the estuaries in July or August, and begun running up the rivers in the fall when the water rises. If you're fishing the rivers, September through December is your best bet

Coming soon.

There's only one place to find these fish--in Oregon's Whitehorse Basin. It's not easy to get there and much, if not all, of Whitehorse Creek appears to be on private land. That doesn't mean you can't fish there if you talk to the right person, though. At least one blogger has reported doing so (though unfortunately his blog is no longer up).

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These fish are extinct. Period. Or maybe not quite. Hybridization with nonnative rainbows doomed the last pure Alvord cutthroats some time in the 1980s. But that doesn't mean you can't catch some fish that certainly look like Alvords and probably would claim to be so, if they could talk.

In 2008 a native trout blogger reported catching one in Guano Creek, in southeastern Oregon. That or some of the other nearby waters might be worth a try. It's a good enough excuse for a trip anyway.

Yellowfin Cutthroat were collected in the late 19th century from Twin Lakes in Colorado. Shortly thereafter, rainbows were introduced and the fish went extinct. According to Robert Behnke, a few were cultured before the species went extinct and apparently sent to Europe where a few might still exist today. It's as good an excuse for going to France as I've ever seen.