“White king salmon”

[Not selected]

I’m not an avid salmon fisherman but I’m being assured that a fish I caught today is a white king. Just don’t know if these guys are pulling a fast one on me. Looked in good shape but the meat is white!

[Dan-o]

not being a smart alek...

What else could it be?

I've never caught one, but they are supposed to be great.

[huntnphool]

 White kings are legit

[bigdub257]

They are great! I've caught several over the years. Many people consider them to be a bit of a prize and prefer them over the red meat.

[h20hunter]

Cool...only ever caught one.

Pics please!

[CP]

They used to be pretty common on Possession Bar.  They probably still are; I seem to remember they came through in June. 

[Bareback]

The Chilliwack in BC is the big producer of them for guys catching them in the straight. A friend of mine gives me all of the white kings he catches since they smoke up unbelievable. I’m partial toward them on the BBQ, they seem to have a mushier flesh than red meat kings and their oil seems a bit different. They are few and far between so catching one is a treat.

[Timberstalker]

Didn’t they used to call them tulips?

[Mtnwalker]

Didn’t they used to call them tulips?

Different thing. Though I do think a lot of fish are misidentified as white kings also.

[WapitiTalk1]

Interesting. Got a pic? 

[WAcoueshunter]

We got one in 10 a few weeks ago. It cooked up about the same as the others.

[WapitiTalk1]

Hmm, thanks 

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[metlhead]

River or salt? Females bleach out real quick hitting a river.

[CastleRocker]

Doesn't look like the Kuskokwim River white Kings.  They were all the way white...like Halibut, Rockfish, etc.  That looks like it could be a Tule.

[ASHQUACK]

Same fish in pics

[ASHQUACK]

White king

[ASHQUACK]

White king

[Stein]

I had the opposite today, an orange pink.  It was not quite as deep orange as a coho, but closer in color to that than a pink.  All the other ones were typical pink color.

I've always wondered if salmon are out in the salt doing salmon things and in the heat of the hunt get turned around and mixed up with a school of different salmon and end up rolling with them and eating whatever they do. 

Then again I looked up Ivory King and it sounds like a recessive gene that prevents carotenoids from becoming part of their meat.  The article said only about 5% of nooks have that genetic trait.  It must not be evenly distributed, I've killed a bunch of chinook on the Columbia and have never seen one.  I've had pale ones but nothing like those pics.

[Fidelk]

I prefer the white kings. Seems like a bit more oil in the flesh. I like to fillet with skin on and cook over charcoal. They can be all white or have pink portions.....think they call that "blush". I've been told that the color of the flesh is fixed when they leave fresh water on their way to the salt......if they eat krill the meat will have the orange/red color.....if they eat crab larvae the meat will always be white.

[Skillet]

Like Stein says, it's a genetic thing. Nothing to do with what they choose to eat, but how they digest what they ate.  I've caught a lot of white kings over the years, and when I was fishing Washington in May and June I'd say a conservative 10% of those fish were whites. Real white ones, we call them snowballs..  The fish with both white and red flesh are "marbles", and bring a lower price.  Seems like most folks who eat a lot of king salmon (commercial trollers) end up preferring white kings. I'm not there yet, but I never turn an ivory king down.

Interestingly, out of all the coho I've caught, I've only caught 2 white ones. One was a female, and she had very light colored eggs as well.  I've caught one snow white chum, too, so it can happen in the other species.  But kings show white pretty commonly in some runs. Pretty interesting stuff.

[LDennis24]

Found this on the net doing a search.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=738

[RB]

Have caught a few over the years in Alaska and Washington off the coast, as everyone has stated they smoke really well.

[plugger]

Used to get them at port Angeles and pillar point, 1 or 2 a year. Interestingly, every king I got in the salt over 30lbs in those areas was a white.

[buckcanyonlodge]

I've caught them in the Columbia . as they are saying...GREAT smoked or BBQ.

[HntnFsh]

Doesn't look like the Kuskokwim River white Kings.  They were all the way white...like Halibut, Rockfish, etc.  That looks like it could be a Tule.

Pretty sure its not a Tule. Too evenly colored.

[pianoman9701]

When I was in the food business, great chefs prized whites even though they market for less money. Enjoy that fish!

[h20hunter]

I knew I had a pic...

[KP-Skagit]

This was a strange one from this weekend. Nice and bright buck, little football of a fish, 12 pounds but barely over the min size. Mottled coloration.

[WSU]

A lot of the sw was springers have that mix. I haven’t found them to be better or worse than the others from the same trib.  I’ve caught a few white kings in the salt and am not sure i have a preference.

[KP-Skagit]

I cooked him up and found there was less of a "salmon taste" than other kings. It was also very rich, I typically eat a big ole piece of salmon and only had about half as much as normal and felt stuffed.

I wouldn't choose one over the other. I managed to put another one in the freezer so will do a side by side.

[Okanagan]

The Chilliwack/Veddar River just over the border has a run of white fleshed Chinook salmon.  When I lived there I caught several, plus one white king about 20 lbs. at Hein Bank about 25 years ago, and one from I think it was Pillar Point.

The ones from salt water in WA were superb eating, grilled like we do more normal salmon. 

The white salmon in the Chilliwack are not so good on the table in most people’s opinion, including mine.  They are greasy fat, fatter than most salmon I’ve handled, and simply don’t taste as good to me when grilled etc.  They are excellent smoked however.

When friends told me they are only good for smoking, not for regular table fare, I had to make my own test.  I caught a bright fresh one about 22 lbs. and tried chunks of it grilled, skillet baked, etc.  OK eating but not really good by salmon standards.

The last couple of years that I lived there I began to catch kings with a pale pink cast to the meat, not as white as the true white ones but as pale as a washed out pink salmon.  I  don’t know but suspect that the run of white fish is getting genetics mixed up with regular salmon orange fish.

[Special T]

The Chilliwack/Veddar River just over the border has a run of white fleshed Chinook salmon.  When I lived there I caught several, plus one white king about 20 lbs. at Hein Bank about 25 years ago, and one from I think it was Pillar Point.

The ones from salt water in WA were superb eating, grilled like we do more normal salmon. 

The white salmon in the Chilliwack are not so good on the table in most people’s opinion, including mine.  They are greasy fat, fatter than most salmon I’ve handled, and simply don’t taste as good to me when grilled etc.  They are excellent smoked however.

When friends told me they are only good for smoking, not for regular table fare, I had to make my own test.  I caught a bright fresh one about 22 lbs. and tried chunks of it grilled, skillet baked, etc.  OK eating but not really good by salmon standards.

The last couple of years that I lived there I began to catch kings with a pale pink cast to the meat, not as white as the true white ones but as pale as a washed out pink salmon.  I  don’t know but suspect that the run of white fish is getting genetics mixed up with regular salmon orange fish.

Some one please correct me if im wrong... i was told farmed salmon hD white flesh and were either dyed or feed shrim shells in the meal to bring out the pink flavor. Something to donwith salmon eating shrimp.

A related note, my mother has extreamnreactions to shell fish so eats no crab shrimp etc. She started feeling ill after eating salmon so quit... 

[Stein]

There is a difference between pale salmon and white salmon.  Farmed salmon are pale because they don't eat the same thing wild do so they put stuff in the feed - either shrimp industry by product or dye.

White salmon have the same diet as normal wild salmon because they are normal wild salmon, just with a genetic marker difference.

[OutHouse]

I saw a white king up in Kuyoqot BC. The meat was very white like cod etc. To the best of my recollection, there was no pink whatsoever. The guides say they catch them from time to time but they are basically the same as other salmon meat. I really wanna get back to BC to catch some chromers

[7mmfan]

I saw several in my days guiding out of Sitka. They weren't a rarity, but they weren't common either. one factor that was quite common with them was their size. In the near shore fishery up there if you caught a fish over 30# There was probably a 30% chance it was a white king. It was 50/50 on fish over 40#. I believe all the fish over 50# I was involved in were red.

We caught a lot of marbled kings up there as well. There is no way to identify them prior to gutting or fileting them, and they are all spectacular eating. My opinion on white kings is that they are just as good as red kings or marbled kings they just look different and their uniqueness is what draws people. There may be a fat content difference as well but it isn't highly noticeable on fresh ocean kings. Maybe it's more noticeable once they hit the river.

[dilleytech]

Where was this fish caught? It has that two tone tuley meat look to me and a lack of fat. I have tried eating tuley myself and agree it’s hard to each as much.

[WAcoueshunter]

Where was this fish caught? It has that two tone tuley meat look to me and a lack of fat. I have tried eating tuley myself and agree it’s hard to each as much.

The white fish I posted is from the Sound. Here it is, on the left.

[Alchase]

We would catch a couple on almost every trip to Sekiu for kings back in the 70s and 80s.
My Mom who was a gourmet cook, insisted all our Kings be cut into steaks.
All white Kings would be fileted and used for specials occasions. 

[dilleytech]

Where was this fish caught? It has that two tone tuley meat look to me and a lack of fat. I have tried eating tuley myself and agree it’s hard to each as much.

The white fish I posted is from the Sound. Here it is, on the left.

I was referring to the OP. A white king will have all white meat and the usual line of fat. The OP fish looks to be a two tone fillet with no fat.

[metlhead]

All the kings I used to catch in Capital lake were white meated. Grab em by the gills and just shake the meat right off🤤