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  Field Identification of Coastal Juvenile Salmonids. Written by W.R. Pollard, G.F. Hartman, C. Groot and Phil Edgell. Illustrated by C. Groot with photography by Phil Edgell. Published by Harbour Publishing.
Stooping at a pool, we captured one of the small fish. It was tiny, smaller than the first joint on my little finger, silver and greenish brown with dark bars on its sides. We could match it easy enough - a Rolled Muddler with a silver body would do the trick. But what was it? Coho fry, came one guess. But it didn’t have the tell tale orange fins. Chinook? There were so few in the river it seemed unlikely. Whatever it was, it went back into the water to grow to a great size, and we went back to fishing. Later, at home, I dug out a little soft covered book produced by a group of fisheries scientists to help students, salmon enhancement groups and forestry workers identify the small fish they encounter in the field. Field Identification Of Coastal Juvenile Salmonids was not written for fly fishermen - but for anyone who fishes salmon streams on the Pacific Coast of North America, it provides an invaluable reference guide. It’s sharp color photographs of live salmon fry, and it’s careful, detailed illustrations make it relatively easy to separate the chum from the chinook, the pink from the sockeye.
The book is only 32 pages long, making it light enough to slip into a fishing vest. And it’s waterproof. The identification chart and the illustrations of colour and anatomy make it remarkably easy to use. Fly fishermen spend years learning all about the insects they encounter on their favorite streams. But few bother to learn about the biggest, most important “hatch” of the year on the Pacific Coast - the fry emergence, which puts billions of tiny fish into streams and lakes where trout wait to gorge on them. It’s hard to imagine a better place to start than by reading Field Identification of Coastal Juvenile Salmonids. And propped up next to your vice in the winter, it serves as an ideal guide for tying those fry imitations you’ll fish in the spring. A Rolled Muddler might seem like the perfect fly to fish during the emergence, but looking at this book you realize how dramatically different a pink salmon fry is from a chum and how a coho is different from a chinook. Maybe it’s time fly fishermen started tying fry patterns to really match what’s out there. (Net proceeds from the sale of the book are donated to the Pacific Salmon Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization that supports restoration projects. The book can be ordered by contacting Harbour Publishing at: harbour@sunshine.net or by calling (604) 883-2730.
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Making our way through a boulder garden along the edge of a Pacific salmon stream this spring, we kept our heads down, stepping from stone to stone. Here and there in the water crevices between the rocks we’d see tiny fish darting for cover. It seemed too early for salmon fry to be out, although we were expecting the emergence to begin soon, and had been fishing with streamers, hoping to catch bull trout, cutthroat and rainbows.
Using the reference guide, and going by memory, I realized that what I’d held in my palm on the river bank was most likely a cutthroat fry. I made a note to put the Field Identification booklet in my fishing bag for the next trip.
