Best Salmon for Eating

[wolverine]

First tide URB's
Ocean caught kings north of Vancouver Island before they start sprinting back to their home river. Crap kings (tulies) caught from Westport to barrier dam on the Cowlitz are worse eating than river pinks or chums.
Silvers are good as long as they are still actively feeding. Not just the reactive feeding reflex, but really on the hunt. I'm talking about open ocean fish. Once silvers decide to head into the straights their hormones change and it screws up their "taste". Inside silvers all go to friemds or to the smoker.
Pinks and chrome bright chum caught off the north end of Whidby Island are ok if seasoned properly and bbq'd.
I personally won't eat river caught salmon (other than first tide URB's). Way too many hormonal changes for me. Maybe I'm spoiled, but I like premium quality salmon. I actually prefer "white meat" fish to salmon, but thats for another thread.
I have to agree with Bodo on farmed fish. I prefer prime wild ocean caught salmon (depending on home river), but I'd eat prime farmed fish over river, estuary, or Puget Sound caught salmon. I've done taste tests twice comparing farmed to non farmed salmon. Fed bbq'd, baked, and broiled to a lot of people that claimed that they could tell the difference. Almost all couldn't tell the difference. Left a bunch of them PO'd and scratching their heads as to why they couldn't tell them apart. Of course to keep things even we didn't give them an easy out by feeding them a 40 lb wild king. The farming industry has made some mistakes but the commies pump their PR and marketing people with lots of cash to negative market against farmed fish. Lots of Father Murphy cash handshakes with pols also keeps the pot stirred.

[curado]

mine are
coho
king
sockeye
pinks smoked
chums yuck they stink too much.
atlantic wont eat it because it is a knock of of silvers and kings.

[Rich McVey]

Any thoughs on where to find the best prices?

[G-Man]

The Costco in Issaquah seems to have "fresh" seafood sales every weekend. I've bought their prawns, scallops and king crab legs and have no complaints. They have whole salmon and cod available as well, but I've never bought any.

[racfish]

I only buy Chinook for myself and Family.and 2nd is Sockeye.All the rest are smoked.You all know my two favorites for fresh bought salmon.Its not cheap its expensive for pin boned white Chinooks. Around $20.00-30 a lb. to me I'm willing to pay more for great piece of fish.My two favs are Mutual and Uwajimayas.

[G-Man]

Racfish,

I had all but forgotten about white meated kings! Only had it once after a successful trip to the Bella Coola River in the 80's. I do remember I really liked it!

[swedefish4life1]

White Kings Rock in taste and flavor!:chef: :bounce:

The Best tasting Salmon are the ones you earn and catch each of them:chef:

[gian]

can I get a designer fish that tastes like frosted flakes? that would be grrrrrrrrrreat!!!

[wolverine]

White kings from saltwater are great eats! Darn tough sonofaguns on the end of the line. It used to be that commie fishermen ate all the whities that they caught as they had no market value. Now most whities get a premium over the reds.
In the fall the Vedder and Harrison (tribs of the Fraser) get a huge run of whities. Fierce fighters but they are utter yuck to eat. This race of whities are like pinks & chums in that they race up river, spawn, hatch, and when the fry come up from the gravel they immediately leave the river for saltwater. Oh and did I mention that they stink? Every time I take a newbie up they always want to keep a whitie as they are really big. They stink so bad that a cooler never gets rid of the smell. There isn't enough marinade, soy sauce, bbq sauce, garlic, onion, etc around to make them taste good. Your taste buds may vary but if I bury a whitie under my roses for fertilizer every cat, possum, raccoon, and coyote around is trying to dig up the stinky things.

[Bodofish]

Frasier and the Skagit are the two systems in this area for Whites. They used to be on the top of the list to eat because they were free. In a blind taste test there's sure to be a lot of embarassment. I've personally been involved in three put on by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and the results were never published. Guess why?


You can't tell one king from another nor can you tell a one sockeye from another. Maybe salt to river but species from area to area and wild to pen, I know not. Sorry guys been proven too many times to me.

[racfish]

There are a few more Bodo.We would get whites and Calicos off the Columbia during Chinook season.They are white because of the lack of Beta Carretine in their diets or their metabolism.They dont have the ability to process their food in the same way as Reds.The other reason that I heard was Diet.Fish that eat more shrimps and crustaceans tend to be redder in their meat where as cold water kings feed mainly on Anchovies Herring and Smelt.I wouldnt swear to any of this but this is what I got from family members in the fish industry.

[Bodofish]

There are a few more Bodo.We would get whites and Calicos off the Columbia during Chinook season.They are white because of the lack of Beta Carretine in their diets or their metabolism.They dont have the ability to process their food in the same way as Reds.The other reason that I heard was Diet.Fish that eat more shrimps and crustaceans tend to be redder in their meat where as cold water kings feed mainly on Anchovies Herring and Smelt.I wouldnt swear to any of this but this is what I got from family members in the fish industry.

Right on track Racfish!!! As I was told by a biologist with ASMI the meat color in the kings is determined by a diet preference and the Whites don't eat shrimp. I guess the red in the shells must be the Beta, god knows they don't eat carrots. :bom:
Nothing I'd like better than to have a slab off about a 30# White for dinner. Guess I'll settle for one of the remaining pieces of last years expedition to Neah . Down to just a couple pieces. =( All vac packed of course.