Strange Koke

The rain stopped and the sun finally came out on Nantahala Lake. Hit the water for a few hours. Only caught one 16" "koke" but of the 35 to 40 kokes I have caught at Nantahala none looked quite like this one. As I played the fish and guided toward the boat and net I said to myself looks like a trout because of the spots on the head and upper body of the fish. When I boated the fish it looked like the top half was a trout and the bottom half a koke! The spots were very evident while the fish was still alive but faded a lot when the fish expired. I took some photos when I got home. Mark, you guy's out west do kokes breeed with trout? Are spots common on a strain of koke? I have a number of other photos taken both inside and outside my house. Any thoughts on this fish? Thanks!

Spots are common on kokes and all salmon for that matter. That's a nice healthy fish right there. Good job!

Hey Ron nice koke.Ashley's record fish had spots.In fact the biologist who certified it wasn't sure about the spots ,but it had all the other characteristics(long gill rakers, #of fin rays ,etc.) Of several fish ID books I looked at spots were mentioned to occur in a couple of the descriptions. I don't think trout and kokes can cross breed. I've caught some lake rainbows without spots that were mint silver. Tony Robinson ,who held the first NC koke record,turned in a silvery 3.27 lb nantahala fish that appeared to be a koke in the picture he took.When the fish was examined it was proven to be a very silvery rainbow,so my record was safe until Ashley broke it.

Thanks for the reply guys. Now I know I can expect some variation in the color of the kokes as the fish I caught in the past were black or dark blue on top. By the way it sure tasted like a koke!

One other thing that might ring with you is the shape of the spots. The spots on this salmon appear more angular than round dots like I'd expect to see on a trout.

Thanks Super D

The koke I caught looked very similar to that fish while it was still alive! The spots faded quite a bit after several hours in the box. I should carry a camera with me but it would only be a matter of time before it would end up on the bottom of the lake!