Im curious what exact salmon species is everyone's favourite eat?
1)Pink
2)Coho
3)Sockeye / Red Spring
4)White Spring
5)Chum
Never tried steelhead, Im curious to see which species it tastes most like,
or just rainbow trout?
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Gotta say that sockeye is the king, with red spring next. I would never
kill a pink,or a chum, and white spring is like munchin' on your own
ass. Killed a hatchery steel last year and that meat was excellent....better
than any rainbow I've ever had. I could eat sockeye every day.
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Sockeye without a doubt. Red spring and coho are also very yummy. I had
a steelhead smoked last year for the first time, it was alright, but nothing
special. Can't stand pink, it tastes bland, I had smoked chum once (it
was from a chromer from the chuck), and it was pretty good, but I've
never had it from the river, nor do I want to.
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My brother brought baked up some white meated semi chrome chum like we would
have baked up red spring and everyone who tried it (I never had the
oppurtunity to) said it was unbelieveable. I've had atlantic, its
awesome, Red chinook is awesome as well, haven't tried Sockeye yet.
Had smoked chum, right now I don't think I've acquired a real taste
for it. Chum jerky is pretty good though. Another friend of mine had some
pink meat semi chrome chum and said it was awesome and gave coho a run for
its money.
One thing I have noticed is that Chums have a variety of meat colours, some
are white meated, some are pink meated (richer meat) and a select
few have meat that is a tinge of both. Chum is under rated by most from
what I've been subjected to, as long as you aren't fishing the spawning
beds.
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I took a fresh chum from the Stave this year and smoked it on my barbeque
(cedar plank style). It was excellent. Obviously Sockeye is going
to be the best tasting fish, but the other species all offer good eating
if some care is taken in preparation. After Sockeye, pinks and chums are
the most numerous and therefore most able to sustain high harvest levels
and should not be overlooked as a food fish. Pinks taken in the chuck in
Indian Arm or in the estuaries of rivers like the Seymour offer great flyfishing
opportunities as they school near the shoreline, as well as good eating
if smoked with a good brine.
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I agree with sandman, when it comes to smoking pinks. If they are caught
before they significantly turn colours, they're flesh is choice. I now
target them after tasting them for the first time.
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All salmon can be excellent if done appropriately. Except for fish in the
river--I would never eat a chum in the river, but caught in around Greensey
and Deepwater bay they are excellent cooked anyway. Pink are best eaten
as fresh as possible--never freeze a pink.
My personal opions:
1. sockeye--the best
2.Spring-I love red and white is good when it is not in the river. It smells
when it is in the River and Vedder fish seem to smell especially bad.
3.Coho -can be just as good as spring--but not usually, River fish can be
rubbery if they are not really fresh.
4. Pinks and Chum--never from a river. Both are excellent in the chuck.
Although some pink exceptions occur with very fresh fish--but they have
to be very fresh.They turn so fast.
Bert
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Chum are alright if you just plain eat them, as many of you have said, smoked
there great. White Spring taste horrible. Sockeye would have to be the best
followed by Coho.
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Sockeye is indeed the most flavorfull fish next to the red spring. Coho
are about med. when it comes to flavor with pinks and chum lagging far behind.
White Springs are a bit less flavorfull than their red counterparts. Taste
is only one factor though, texture to some is also important.
Coho is generally a bit more delicate than sockeye (smoother) and
poaches very well, while sockeye are great canned, smoked and barbequed.
Another factor to consider is how far the fish has to travel as well. I
rarely kill a white spring in the vedder but I'll take a white caught
in the fraser (headed for the interior rivers) any time because
the fish that have longer to travel generally have a higher fat content
when they first enter fresh water.
As for Chums, I rank them on the bottom of my list even though I have tried
a few that were ocean mint bright (no hint of bars whatsoever).
They are just too bland for my liking. Some say they smoke well but maybe
its the only way to get them to taste half decent (I'll take a smoked
red spring over a smoked chum any day). Speaking of smoking, have you
wondered where the bbq salmon
tips that you see in Safeway and Save-on come from? Well, think chehalis
hatchery and think chum!!! yes, the beat up dogs that reach the hatchery
are loaded up in big plastic crates and shipped out to be processed into
the lovely flurorescent red bbq tips you see in your local supermarket.
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Duane
I had a craving and tried the Safeway *bbq tips* last weekend and
was really dissapointed. Lousy texture and so so flavour but they looked
great in the counter. Can't comment what they would be like (chum)
if they came bright from the chuck and were home smoked, but would love
to try it.
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I recently caught a semi dark/chrome chum and marinated then bbq'd that
same day. It was amazing as I didn't like salmon before. I even had
it cold and I was told that it tastes so much better hot.
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Best Smoked...............Red Spring
Best Canned................Red Spring
Best Barbequed............Red Spring
Best Fryed..................Red Spring
Best Baked..................Red Spring
Best any other way......Red Spring
Followed by Coho, then Sockeye, the others aren't even worth mentioning.
Steelhead is OK.
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ALL RIVER FISH ARE TRASH!Except maybe a silver winter run steely or maybe
some alpine lake panfrys!
Everything in the salt chuck is great except for the dogs,they aint good
for much,maybe for the crab pot and hally bait but thats about it.
The best by far is WEST COAST red springs feeding on sandlance and squid,you
just cant beat that thick layer of fat on those football shaped fish!
I even find a difference in the inside fish ie,Campbell crick all the way
down to Georgia Strait,they just dont taste as good.
The second best fish in the north Pacific is Yellow eye's,batter them
bad boys up and deep fry em,hard to beat with a couple dozen cold Pils!
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Hey Oncorhynchus, not all of us target salmon that are half dead on the
spawning beds. Red Springs, Coho, and Sockeye, when first entering the Fraser
are in absolute prime shape as they have just stopped eating and have a
nice layer of fat to keep them strong on the upcoming journey.
Your right about the Alpine Lake panfrys. Especially the red-meat Kamploops
strain. They are delicious fryed over a campfire.
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Can't say about river fish cause I've always released them, but
all fish I've caught in the chuck were great. This does include chum
and pinks. True sockeye do seem to taste better. About the idea that chum
out of the chuck don't taste good. Would that be because people really
don't like them or because they were/are reffered to as Dog salmon,
which came from first nations when the caught them out of the rivers. Again,
I don't know what they taste like in freshwater, but in the chuck I
think they're great.
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I don't have anything against Chum Salmon, but I catch enough Pacific
Red(Red Spring, Coho, Sockeye), that I don't bother to keep
the others.
Its like having your freezer full of beef tenderloin and then buying a chuck
steak for dinner. You wouldn't do something like that. Same goes for
salmon.
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Robert, are you sure you're getting your analogies straight ? There
are those who would regard sockeye (for example)as the "beef
tenderloin", but chum (for example) as the "pot roast".
You seem to be saying that you would turn your nose up at "pot roast",
because you can afford to have a freezer-full of "tenderloin". Is
that what you mean to say ? Just wondering ...
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That's exactly what I'm saying. Why eat second class salmon if you
can catch enough first class salmon.
However, if I could afford to fill my freezer with beef tenderloin(which
of course I can't), I would still go out for a pizza or burger once
in a while. But if I was wealthy and I was going to eat beef, it would be
the beef tenderloin. That's why with salmon, I only eat the nice red
fleshed fish, because I was able to catch enough this year to last until
next season.
I wish I could afford to buy beef tenderloin once a month, much less every
time I eat beef.
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Any of you Islanders caught any sea-run browns(sea trout)? I've
always preferred them to any other salmonid tastewise.
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just made some smoked, canned red spring from the fraser. This stuff is
deadly good!!!
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Fresh Sea Run Cutts are the premier eating fish. They taste better than
fresh prawns. Yellow eye ranks a close second after all they are full of
those keratins.
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Yah,
Theres nothing better than a Cogburn Creek wild steelhead to fill the belly,
with a little wild Kanaka Creek steelhead tartar.....mmmmmm.Sweet.
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