"Silverbright" kind of reminds me of "prawns". Marketing is shameless and very effective. Tell someone something long enough and it will become fact.....kind of like brands of tackle and fishing methods, etc,,,,, Commercial fish marketers are not only telling the public that chums are to be confused with silver salmon (yes, that's what they are doing) They are also telling the public, even liberal eco minded people, that it is GOOD to eat wild salmon!! Trout Unlimited is doing it too! They want people to be confused about the 'terminology'. Wild, native, hatchery, farm raised, silverbright, Keta, Chum, prawns, shrimp, etc,,, These 'green' eco minded people would be our best allies for stopping non-selective salmon harvests. If they knew that a local stream's native endangered Coho run is likely to get swept up in a November lower Columbia commercial season and then sold to them at Wild Oats, they would be outraged!
INSTEAD...... They think they are doing the right thing and they pay premium price for the stuff. It is up to us to change this. That's for another thread. ( I just said Wild Oats for example. I am not claiming they sell endangered Coho. I have seen it marketed at urban Grocery stores here and in Seattle and don't have the specifics.... well, one comes to mind. Ballard Market in Seattle had a big sign a few years back touting their wild Columbia River Coho salmon on special in late November, yes they all had adipose fins. As far as others, I have no proof or.... well, you know what I'm saying. I just don't want to accuse someone of something specific and have no proof.)
Done with the hi-jack. Chums taste different in different systems, just like most salmon. Sometimes they have that "plankton" taste and other times they are very mild and excellent when batter fried, blackened, smoked, etc,.... I like to skin mine and remove the grey meat regardless of method. I have tried to eat chrome hen chinook with full eggs from the coast and some are worse than most chums I have eaten from Hood Canal. Not all, but many. Chums are not worth eating if they are not firm and fresh. They also need to be eaten within a few days of being caught and I have had no luck freezing them or Humpies..... Yuck!
flash frozen at sea might be different, but I don't know. Fresh Nushagak chums are pretty tasty! You can keep Hood canal and Puget Sound bucks that have a little color and they are still good to eat. Hens need to be chromers and even then they need to be 'tight'. Gee, kind of like every other kind of Salmon and steelhead. Humpies? Fresh and chrome, they are good too! I can't believe the slime those fish can produce. Kind of like shad.
Ed