Spawning grounds are usually in the lower tributaries along the coast, rarely more than 100 miles inland. Rivers such as the Yukon are the exception. Eggs are deposited in the gravel from December to February with the fry emerging in the spring. In the third or fourth year the chum reaches maturity, weighing from 8 to 18 pounds, another example of the remarkably rapid growth made possible by a salt water environment. On the spawning grounds chums are easily distinguished from other salmon by the distinct dark vertical bars along the sides of the fish.
Color ranges through blacks and grays to a drab reddish hue in the advanced stages of spawning.
Males develop such a sharply hooked nose that their large dog-like teeth become totally exposed. Females have the barred coloration along the sides but do not have the other characteristics. Pink Pink salmon, also known as humpback or humpies to fishermen, live only two years and have a relatively simple life cycle. Adults leave the ocean in the late summer and early fall and usually spawn in streams not fed by lakes, a short distance from the sea. In the winter following spawning, the tiny one-inch fry drift directly downstream to the sea as soon as they emerge from the gravel.