Salmon: Fresh or Salt Water

[waverider365]

Which is better in both fishing and eating, fresh water salmon or salt water salmon? Is there a difference in taste to you? Also is there a difference in bait that needs to be used for each?

 

[td_porter]

I have fished Lake Michigan for salmon with my family over the past 25 years on many occasions. I can only give ya info about this, as this is the only salmon i've fished for and ate. i can tell you it's a blast reeling in these large fish, as the large ones won't come to the boat quietly without running 100 yards behind the boat. I've spent more than 30 minutes reeling in a feisty salmon a couple of times. I first began fishing on my dad's boat long ago and lately been going out with my brother over the past several years. We determine how deep & far from shore the fish are located...we usually stop in at a local bait shop to get some info from the locals. We head out to approximate location that we decided on and troll for them, normally 1 to 5 miles out in the lake. We use an assortment of different types of setups, such as downriggers, lead-core lined rods and the planner board setups, that way we cover several depths. We usually have brightly colored spoons and/or squids for bait (guys at the bait shop give us a color or pattern that the fish have been hitting on.) The great thing about this style of fishing is you set your lines, then relax with a beer and enjoy the sunset or until the fish bite. I've mostly gone out for evening trips & usually starts out slow...but when the sun sets the fishing normally dramatically picks up (we call it the power hour.) We have two salmon species here...the chinook (some call it king) and the coho. I've seen 30+ lb chinooks being cleaned at the boat launch before, but most range from 5 to 15 lbs. The cohos are a bit smaller and we don't catch them nearly as often, they are usually 3 to 10 lbs. Both are great cooked over a charcoal grill with cajun, old bay or blackening spice.

 

[Dougdad]

Salmon

Fresh and salt water salmon of the king/ chinook are the same fish. The chinook as we Michiganders call them are locked in the fresh wafter of the great lakes. As far as eating they are much that same, it is best to remove the dark lateral line running down the side, and the belly fat as that is where the strong flavor comes from in all troutand salmon species. I recomend marinating in ranch dressing after a good salt water soak in the fridge. I to like mine grilled Mr Porter, we put the whole fish minus the head, tail and innards of course, in allum. foil, with vegies, beer and spices and steam it for a few hours. emmm good!!! To me it all tastes the same, salmon is salmon (strong fishy) if you ask me. that is why we marinate in ranch, it helps get rid of that fishyness. Tackle and bait is about the same, but you better have some extra hefty rods for the big salt water kings, the get quite a bit bigger. I have seen them pushing 70 lbs from the Paciffic.

 

[Joe S.]

Best to catch salmon as they are migrating from the ocean into a river to spawn when they are "bright". Once they start to spawn, they begin to emaciate.

 

[BCBabe]

Living in British Columbia, I can tell you that there is a difference in the flavor of the meat of the different species of salmon. The 'king' is considered to be the sockeye, but it's certainly not the biggest you can catch here.... chum and pinks can easily reach the 80 lb mark.

'Freshwater' salmon isn't a term I'm familiar with, however. I know what a Dolly Varden and a Steelhead trout is, and they are fresh water salmonoids that can give a fly-fisherman a really good work-out (and they're awesome eating).