“White king salmon”

[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.