chrome hen, white meat?

[driftphish]

whats up with that? one of my steelies today was a mint bright hatchery hen with great tight skeins but the meat was pale.

any experiences with this? She's still on ice with the other fish. will she taste awful?

[Keta]

I caught one of these on the Siletz a few weeks ago and it was good eating. My wife and kids wouldn't let me smoke any of it.

[Swamp Critter]

I have caught a few "white meat" chinook off Vancouver Island that were very tasty. Don't know about the steelhead.... I wouldn't be worried about it.

[fishchaser]

I've had alot of Chinook that way. Hens put all their protein into the eggs, so they will always be paler than a buck.

[dawhunt]

I caught a chrome bright steelie a few yrs back in fact way back when I first started fishing for them.When i got home and cleaned her the meat was white or very pale ??,I was told that it was a returner a fish that has spawned and was going back out. she looked really healthy not snakey or anything like that. Guess after she spawned she got her color back and fattend up and was heading out ??
I've got other returner's since then but they've always looked like spawners heading back out.I always check the gills now,esp. since were still getting summer fish over here now more then ever before or at least that i remember. :whazzup: ,didn't mean to make this so long , sorry :shrug:
Bob :rolleyes:

[driftphish]

what are you looking for when checking gills?

this fish's eggs were in perfect shape.

[David Johnson]

driftphish,

You got a coastal steelhead. Some of these fish do have pale meat, they just don't have the fat and oil reserves of a fish heading inland.

Probably will be fine like Keta said. I had a nice hen a while back that was chrome but cut farely light, she was tased fine.

Now if you got a down steamer then the meat probably wont be too good but it sounds like you caught one with good eggs.

These steelhead like this are in better shape than a dark chinook that has light meat.

And those chinook in SE Alaska and in Canada that have the white meat have it because of a genetic trait. The meat in those fish will be white as halibut, not the pale, cream or light pink of the spawned or close to spawning fish we have down here.

[ 01-28-2003, 07:00 PM: Message edited by: David Johnson ]

[Trick]

I caught several steelhead on the Wallowa one day and kept one small 5-6lb clipped hen that had a light pink stripe. Every other fish I caught were really dark and released. This fish wasn't coastal chrome but it was a jewel compared to 99% of the fish I saw caught. I bonked it, tagged it and cleaned it. It had nice tight skeins and meat color that almost made me gag.

The meat was not a pale pink, it was more like ling white....yuk! :sick:

Some locals snapped up the fish when I offered it to them. I never kept another fish on the eastside.....it ruined me! :depressed:

[David Johnson]

Trick, how far had those fish swam to get there, hundreds of miles and few months? She probably used up all her color and fat to get there.

[driftphish]

thanks for the replies guys.

this fish was taken from one of the first drifts of eagle creek. nearly a stones throw away from the clack.

[David Johnson]

I've seen fish in that shape from the Clack, Sandy and Eagle Cr, more common on the coast.

I've had nice bright hens from Eagle Cr and the Sandy (and coast) spill their eggs as soon as they get bonked :depressed:

It used to happen a lot more than it does now.

[dawhunt]

If she still had a tight skein of eggs like you said she,should be fine.I've never seen a white meated steelhead like you described.when I look at the gills on a summer fish I look for the color.A good fish will still have nice red gills a spawner will have pale gills and more often then not parasites that you will be able to see.In other words sick looking gills.I don't keep any summer fish this time of year, just because.I don't know about the rivers over in Ore. but we're still getting late summer's,I mean a lot of them ??
plus the returners are going back out.Lots of them.I think our summer fish have turned into winter fish and the winter fish are going to come in Mar. and April when the summer fish are supposed to ????,I'm so confused :whazzup: :shrug:
Bob

[ 01-29-2003, 06:42 AM: Message edited by: dawhunt ]

[Keta]

The Siletz fish that I caught had perfect eggs. The meat looked like "white king" meat. This was the first time I've seen this.

[AtWorkALot]

I had one cut the same way from the North Fork Nehalem in December. Chromer, good eggs, and sea-lice. It was kind of a turn-off so I smoked it, came out great.