RSSHoping to feed a chinook craving
For the Yakima Herald-Republic
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YAKIMA -- I've been having a real hankering lately. Actually, more than a hankering: a desire. It could even be called a craving. About this time every year I start yearning for some fresh-caught spring chinook salmon. And it is my hope that within the next few weeks, I can quell that craving.
Some people might think that fish is fish, and salmon is salmon. But if you never have eaten a piece of fresh-out-of-the-river, right-off-the-grill spring salmon, you don't know what you're missing.
Of course, there are all kinds of salmon, and luckily I have been able to eat some other types of salmon over the winter to help tide this spring salmon hunger. And while almost all salmon is good, nothing stacks up to spring chinook, if you ask me.
I know some people who would argue the subject, however. There are folks who prefer a sockeye salmon to spring chinook any day. Many of those folks are in Alaska. For some reason the Alaskans will walk right by a chance to catch a beautiful, big chinook salmon in order to catch a few smaller sockeyes, or reds as they call them.
I have eaten sockeye. And it is good. In fact, I would probably rate it the second best of all the salmon, but it still doesn't match the flavor of a fresh-caught springer.
Every year there is a big hubbub about Copper River salmon. These are the spring salmon version of the chinook that return to the Copper River in Alaska. Yes, Copper River salmon is good. But it isn't cheap. And it isn't, in my mind, nearly as good as our spring chinook.
I have no proof, and I don't think there are any laws being broken or anything, but I have a sneaking suspicion that not everything labeled "Copper River salmon" is actually from the Copper River. I think a lot of chinook salmon that makes its way from Alaska to the stores and restaurants of the Lower 48 is from many other rivers; but it ends up with the "Copper River" moniker because the name is so highly regarded.
Other salmon is good as well. I personally like coho salmon, just about as well as any other salmon. (Except for spring chinook, of course.)
And Atlantic salmon is all right. Unfortunately, I can't say whether the Atlantic salmon I've eaten has been wild or farm-raised. Much of the Atlantic salmon in the stores and in the restaurants has been raised in holding ponds somewhere, which just can't be as good as wild, ocean-reared salmon.
Pink salmon and chum salmon are at the bottom of the fresh-salmon-eating ladder. When fixed the right way -- I prefer smoked -- these fish are quite edible if caught in good condition, but neither can hold a candle to some of their bigger cousins.
So why is spring chinook salmon so good? Probably because of the genetics
involved as to when the fish return to fresh water. As their name implies, spring chinook salmon enter the Columbia and other West Coast rivers in late winter and throughout the spring. Because they need to live in fresh water, with some having to make it several hundred miles upriver to their spawning grounds, for such a long period of time before spawning in the fall, they have large reserves of fat.
Salmon stop feeding when they hit fresh water, so the fat storage helps carry them through the months without food. It is these fat reserves that lead to the great, buttery taste that is inherent in spring chinook salmon.
To me, there is even a slight difference in the flavor between those spring chinook destined for rivers closer to the ocean and those traveling further upriver.
While all spring chinook salmon is excellent eating, probably the very best of the best that I have tasted have come from the Wenatchee and the Yakima Rivers.
Grilled over briquettes with a little lemon and butter and seasoning salt, it just can't be beat. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Luckily, this year it looks like there will be a good chance to enjoy some of this great-tasting fish. The spring salmon run is off to a trickling start, but within the next few weeks there should be plenty of salmon to fish for in mid-Columbia tributaries like Wind River and Drano Lake.
And if the biologists' predictions hold up, we may even get to fish for chinook again this spring in the Yakima River.
Catching this great fish is fun, but eating it is almost as enjoyable. I really am longing for a piece of fresh-caught spring chinook. I can hardly wait.
* Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.
