Red eye Chinook

Although we regularly catch red eye bass, an introduced fish now common throughout California’s lower tributaries, red eye Chinook are a different story. Whereas the bass species has a red eye coloration that makes for easy identification, in this case the red eye color is caused by an acute injury. We’ve captured similar fish in different rivers using different sampling techniques, so it’s not an uncommon injury and apparently not related to any one sampling technique.

Photo source: FISHBIO

• chinook
• fish injury