Salmon Fishing Tutorial - My wife and her friend

[Dominick]

Okay all you fishery experts, this is the first time I heard of Chum Salmon.  I Googled it and Wikipedia had a limited information article on Chum Salmon.  They commented that Chum Salmon has low market value but did not say why.  Is the flesh not good eating and that is why it is not a desirable fish?  I get Ted's comment about cat food but exactly how does it differ from Coho and King Salmon?  Dominick

[steelhead_killer]

Firmness, color and taste.  But, they are very willing biters and fight very hard. They seem to deteriorate more rapidly in freshwater than any others. 

[Reel 224]

Dominick: Caned Tuna and Salmon Is cat food to me. But Ive heard and saw Salmon swim up stream but never up the road a piece. 

Joe 

[Maxed Out]

When the commercial guys are fishing chums here locally, they might get .40 a pound the first day or 2, but after about a week, the price plummets to under .10 cents a pound and a week later it's below .5 cents per pound. It is common for them to sell a full pickup truck load of fresh caught chum for $20.... Yes, most of it does go for cat food. I personally know a few of the buyers, and the owners of the cold storage that sell directly to purina to make into cat chow.

[whalebreath]

Chum here is caught in the ocean so is decent quality-low fat as I said so the 'mouth feel' isn't the same as the oilier varieties.

What Chum are Best for is Roe for making Ikura a high value product that's wildly popular in local Sushi bars as shown.



Carcasses can then be used for animal feed/whatever and male fish are sent to the smokehouse it's been a very long time since I saw Chum in a can in fact canned Salmon products of all kinds have dropped off the map in terms of popularity.

[seaeagle2]

Here in the Puget Sound area, the tribal fishery frequently saves the eggs for the asian market and dumps the fish.  As far as salmon species, we were visiting our son and his fiance to dinner, she ordered salmon fettuccine. My wife goes "oh, don't order that, who knows what kind of Salmon it is", Katie's response, "I'm from Ohio, it's Salmon, you mean there's different kinds?"  At fishermans terminal in Seattle, they used to sell chum for a buck a pound, so I'd get some to smoke. Now they call it Keta or Silver bright and its 5 bucks a pound....

[Ron Jones]

I really enjoy smoked ocean caught chum. My home is up there where the natives dump fish. Its a different lifestyle and I don't have anything good to say about it. Pulling chum out of the bay in Chico, taking good care of them in the boat and getting them right on a smoker makes a really good snack fish. Especially if you make salmon mayonnaise salad out of it.

Dom,
Chum salmon is called by some "Dog" salmon, because it is what it is mostly used for when everyone is King crazy. My personal favorite is salt water silver, especially wild silver. I live in Quilcene and so in August I can get all the hatchery silvers I want. Great way to fill a freezer.
Ron