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Thread: School me on salmon

  1. #11
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    Mar 2011
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Pinks aren’t bad, just had one I caught yesterday for dinner, chum are good if they’re still silver, some people seem to enjoy them in full spawning colours lol, sockeye, coho and springs are my favourite, but red springs taste better than whites for me.

  2. #12
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    Re: School me on salmon

    In short, there are 5 different species of salmon in BC
    ; Chinook (Spring), Coho (Silvers), Chum (Dogs), Sockeye (Reds) and Pinks (Humpies). Steelhead are a whole other kettle that I won't go into. To me each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

    Chinook: nothing beats fighting a big chinook on the ocean. They taste great, usually pretty mild and freeze well.

    Coho: My favorite one to keep out of rivers, the flashiest of them all with huge jumps and runs. Tastes great and keeps well.

    Chum: My personal favorite to catch in a river. They are fearless, go on crazy runs, never know what they are going to do, are super agressive and to me are the prettiest of the salmon in spawning colours. Love green and purple tiger stripes. But that being said they colour up the fastest and lost table fare status quickly. But a fresh chum is delicious. Very very mild and takes a variety of sauces well. And smoking, hands down the best candy i have ever tried always comes from chum.

    Sockeye: The Money fish. The oiliest of the salmon. Have the steingest flavour. Cooks very well but that about it. Not really any fun to catch. Don't hit anything in fresh water (hence flossing) and just sort of get reeled in in the ocean. But no denying they taste the best if you like a salmon flavour. Plus due to oil take to canning very well.

    Pink: I think fresh Pink tastes great. I miss the huge runs and going down to richmond after work, hooking one and taking it home for supper that night. That being saud I have yet to find a satisfactory way of preserving them. Catch and eat same day or let it go.

    In the video you saw, it is probably simply a case of pinks up that fat are not saleable. End of story.
    I don't shoot innocent animals... Just the ones that look guilty!

  3. #13
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    Re: School me on salmon

    When people say springs its not actually correct. It's a Chinook. It's only a spring if you caught it in, well, spring.

    There are white and red chinook. Mostly distinguished by the color of the meat. One is red the other light pink. As they enter the spawning phase the white chinook will look more green whereas the red will turn a blacker or red in color.

    The order, for table fare, is generally sockeye, coho, chinook, pink, chum. However, as mentioned, pinks and Chun are wonderful when smoked.

    They all should be left alone if they are entering their spawning colors. They wont taste well. Easy to look up the colors of their spawning stage on Google.

    When they are fresh, care should be taken to ID properly before retaining the wrong kind of fish. While some can be IDd based on spots (pinks have large oval spots on tail) or mouth (chinook have black gums coho white) it is easy to make a mistake and people do all the time. People have mistaken wild coho for chinook, and steelhead for coho .... its worth learning your fish ID. Take some time. Learn it well.

    Having said that, it's still almost impossible to tell ocean fresh sockeye and ocean fresh chum. At least it is for me. They are very, very identical until the chum start to show faint bars on their sides.

  4. #14
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Quote Originally Posted by Wild one View Post
    Chum get coloured up and start the spawning transformation fastest of the salmon once they enter the river so quality goes down hill soft/fishy. If you are lucky enough to catch a chum that is basically silver they are great smoked way better then pinks. I have only caught maybe 5 chum I deemed forth smoking though

    personally not a big salmon eater anymore but prefer coho if I am going to
    As stated ^^^^^
    They look awful very quickly while a spring or sockeye can come up and still look "almost like it was in the ocean" still.
    With that, pretty sure their insides go to crap as well.

    As for BBQ, I personally think CoHo are the best. (more moist)
    Sockeye is good but can easily be overcooked and "dry".

  5. #15
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Quote Originally Posted by sparkes3 View Post
    Coho on the bbq is awesome

    YUP ! Fresh Ocean Caught COHO is Great ! Very RED meat RJ

  6. #16
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Those of you that say chum is crap have never eaten "poor man's lobster".
    Growing old is unavoidable. Growing up is highly overrated....

  7. #17
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Quote Originally Posted by goatdancer View Post
    Those of you that say chum is crap have never eaten "poor man's lobster".
    I have and the recipe works way better for burbot. Not a recipe I would try to fix chum though

  8. #18
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    Re: School me on salmon

    Quote Originally Posted by goatdancer View Post
    Those of you that say chum is crap have never eaten "poor man's lobster".
    Its VERY good cooked with the Females ! RJ
    Last edited by REMINGTON JIM; 08-12-2019 at 10:53 AM.

  9. #19
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    Re: School me on salmon

    There are 5 pacific salmon species in North America. They are all edible, but of course when they go back to the rivers they start to lose fat and eventually die.
    Coho stay freshest the longest in fresh water.
    Sockeye, chinook and coho are the best BBQ table fare, but in the hands of a good cook they all taste good.
    Chum are excellent smoked, springs and sockeye too.
    Pinks are kind of dry when smoked due to low fat content, but great on the bbq
    Coho are also not the best smokers due to low fat.
    But if you like dry smoked(jerky like) they are ok.
    I make salmon candy from sockeye and chum mostly.
    If caught in the ocean and prepared right, it's hard to tell the difference.
    In rivers, it takes experience to know when to keep the fish for eating.
    I think most of us have kept that one fish from the river that was too far gone to eat and learned from it.
    So you got to get yourself some before there is none left.
    1. Human over population
    2. Government burden and overreach

  10. #20
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    Re: School me on salmon

    I spent around 20 years living on or very near the ocean and ate a lot of fish. Lots. Tastes are subjective things but as you see here most consider pinks (humpies) and chum (dog salmon) on the bottom of the scale. I think part of that is psychological, they're the most numerous and easiest to catch in the rivers anyway. But they do start out a bit on the less than firm side compared to other salmon and they deteriorate quickly in the rivers and wherever they're caught after you bonk them if you don't get them on ice toot sweet.

    So again most of my fish was from ocean fishing and I was blessed that I ate a lot of fish that swam that day. That's a huge leg up. Anyways I'd guess I'd rate them
    1. sockeye
    2. chinook (spring)
    3. coho
    4. chum
    5. pink

    Pinks are good in the smoker and just fine cooked however you like fish, bbq, pan fried whatever provided they're fresh and not half dead from spawning. We're rating salmon here, so being last on the list still means its god damn good eats!

    Chum have a lot of oil, like a lot. IMO they're OK cooked fresh keeping in mind however you cook it that you want to get rid of quite a bit of fat. They absolutely shine in the smoker for this reason IMO, a lot of the fat oozes out kind of basting it the whole time its smoked. I remember helping a kid catch about a 15 pound chum on the beach in front of our house, all coloured up and spawn degraded (some of them spawn on the beach btw). Anyways he was so god damned proud when he asked me if I could smoke it for him I did. I was concerned it would be a big fail but nope, I tried some before I gave to him and it was quite tolerable.

    Coho are the athletes of the ocean. The base of the tail on a coho is way bigger pound for pound than any salmon this is why they can jump insane heights, twist turn and run better than any other. To me, a bit of a spoiled fish snob they have just a faint bitter taste. I don't know if that's the right description but they don't have the close your eyes melt in your mouth almost sweet taste of a spring or a sock. Coho are voracious feeders and eat mainly other fish so maybe this adds to the taste. Again this is all subjective. They're fantastic on the bbq, they do well with a little more seasoning imo, sweet and salty is my go to (soy sauce n a bit of brown sugar). They're just fine smoked but I think all and all they're best cooked fresh.

    Chinook. They gots da fat too. Not as much as a dog salmon but they don't get so bloody huge by being an ectomorph, they pack some fat. They're strong as hell almost as much as a coho lb. per lb. They taste is fantastic. Depending on the day I might boot sockeye out of number one spot and replace it with a fresh spring. Just fantastic on the bbq, pan fried, whatever. Smoked? Uh huh!

    Sockeye. When you drop a pink or a chum on the deck of the boat it sounds about like a loose chunk of deboned moose meat when it hits. When you drop a sockeye it sounds more like a block of wood when it hits. Super firm flesh. They taste like the sea, light on the fat but enough that its not dry. They eat zooplankton, little microscopic primitive critters suspended in the ocean, the start of the food chain pretty much. They keep really well (for fish) which probably earned them status back when. They're fantastic any way you want to eat them. Although some might say smoked is a waste as they're so good fresh. Not a bad problem to have...


    Just remember the most important thing of all (other than smoking) when cooking fish, especially salmon, do NOT over cook it. Super important. If its on the bbq check the deepest part with a fork and if its close to cooked through with just a touch almost raw in the middle - its done. The rest will cook as it rests. If it doesn't you won't notice it. Ever heard of Sushi? If it stays on another 10 minutes it will taste like something out of a can. Did I stress this enough?
    its gonna take a life time to hunt and fish all this

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