Best Bead Size & Colour for Chinook in Green & Dropping Water

Getting the bead right for Chinook starts with reading clarity and flow, not guessing. The biggest of them all — the King salmon. When the river is running green & dropping, the usual rules about matching a natural egg shift, because visibility itself has changed. Prime window: a large, visible egg. Red and orange match king roe. For chinook specifically, that means leaning on orange-roe, red, chartreuse in the 16–19mm range rather than a one-size-fits-all pick. Quick ID if you're new to the species: black mouth with black gums; spots on both tail lobes; biggest fish. That points to a 19mm bead as the starting point today — dial the colour in from the shop links below. Conditions on any given river can change fast, so it's worth checking back here before your next trip rather than assuming today's call still holds. This page covers chinook specifically in this water condition — use the interactive Bead Match tool linked below to compare all four conditions side by side, or to switch species entirely.