SOCKEYE
oncorhynchus nerka · a.k.a. red salmon, blueback
- brick-red body
- moss-green head
- almost no spots
- male grows a humped back
THE RUN AT THE LOCKS
sockeye open the season. the first fish nose through the ballard locks fish ladder in mid-june, the run peaks from late june through mid-july, and by august it has passed. they ride the ladder from puget sound into the ship canal and swim the length of lake washington to spawn in the cedar river.
▶ will you see salmon today? check the forecastLIFE STORY
- at sea a sockeye is chrome-blue and silver. the scarlet body and green head arrive only at the end, on the swim home.
- the red comes from their food: plankton and krill rich in astaxanthin, the same pigment that colors their flesh.
- they barely chase bait — sockeye filter plankton, which is why they so rarely take a lure.
- most come home at four years old, to the gravel where they hatched.
- the name is an anglicization of suk-kegh — “red fish” in the halkomelem language of the coast salish.
THE NUMBERS
the fish ladder counted 17,881 sockeye in 2025. runs swing hard from year to year — in the strongest years of the past, six-figure runs of sockeye poured through toward the cedar river.
ASKED ABOUT SOCKEYE
why are sockeye salmon red?
their diet. sockeye eat plankton and krill loaded with astaxanthin, a red pigment that builds up in their flesh. at spawning time it floods into the skin — the body turns scarlet, the head moss-green.
why won't sockeye bite a lure?
they are plankton feeders. a lure imitates a baitfish, and sockeye mostly don't chase baitfish — so the ones anglers land owe more to timing and stubbornness than imitation.
when do sockeye run at the ballard locks?
mid-june into early august, peaking late june through mid-july. they are the first of the three runs each year.