The skin is light brown, and mature fish usually weigh between 12 and 18 pounds.
Salmon fry for the more valuable chinook and sockeye species return as mature fish in three to five years.
Overfishing is a problem where anglers fail to identify and return mature female fish into the lake or stream.
This is not recommended for the beginner, as introducing mature fish to each other can, and usually does, end in disaster.
In mature fish, the top of the eye and the head behind the eye are bright emerald.
Ideally, only hold onto the small or medium-sized ones so the more mature fish can spawn again and replenish the population.
Fewer and fewer mature fish are making the annual run up the Hudson to spawn, she said.
Most competitors must buy mature fish from farmers.
Fish never stop growing entirely, though growth rate in mature fish is reduced.
In the Hawaiian language, āholehole refers to the young stage, and āhole the mature fish.