Mushy Kokes

Ranger61 · 06-02-2009, 03:22 PM

I've had some pretty fair success for kokes at Merwin this year. When I fillet them though, about half have the good firm dark red meat, but the rest have light-pink, soft meat. The fillets just about fall apart. Is this a male/female thing (my son did the cleaning so I don't know which were which) or something else? The fish were all pretty good sized and fought about the same. Anyone out there with a similar experience and/or answers?

ElkTalker · 06-02-2009, 03:34 PM

I don�t know your situation but kokanee are a soft fish and should be put on ice immediately after being caught, and keep on ice until the BBQ or the brine.

The only time I have seen mushy kokanee was when I was helping clean some kokanee that had spent the morning on a stringer being trolled around the lake.

ET

Ranger61 · 06-02-2009, 03:50 PM

Thanks ET, that may be it. I put them in my livewell with the plug out so they were getting a "Merwin shower." Next time into the cooler they go ASAP. I'll see if that works.

moknots · 06-02-2009, 04:26 PM

If you break or cut the gills and let them bleed out in a bucket of water (for a couple of minutes) and then transfer them to ice, you'll be even happier with them.

fish-on-bend · 06-02-2009, 04:32 PM

If some of the kokes were banged into the side of the boat

like moknots does when he doesn't use a net, that could be the reason for the mushy meat.

adobe wall · 06-02-2009, 04:36 PM

Yep, whack em, and ice 'em immediately.

You will get a percentage of fish out of Merwin that don't have the bright red meat, but they are still just as firm and taste the same if they are handled right.

regards, aw

dlm · 06-02-2009, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fish-on-bend

If some of the kokes were banged into the side of the boat

like moknots does when he doesn't use a net, that could be the reason for the mushy meat.

:laug h:

HighSlacker · 06-02-2009, 08:36 PM

We don't fillet, just gut them, remove the head, leave the tail on, lightly scale it to remove some of the slime, spray with a little non-stick and put it right on the grill, turning once when half done. The skin comes right off and you can pull all the bones right out as a unit. But the fish does need to be put on ice ASAP as stated above.

5-Cents · 06-03-2009, 07:31 AM

Ice, ice and more ice when fishing for any kind of fish - salmonoids get especially soft if you dont keep them on ice. For best results any retained fish should be bled out for a few minutes and then put on ice.

AWoods · 06-03-2009, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5-Cents

Ice, ice and more ice when fishing for any kind of fish - salmonoids get especially soft if you dont keep them on ice. For best results any retained fish should be bled out for a few minutes and then put on ice.

We fished Merwin Sunday and caught all our fish within two hours. They went straight into the ice. When I got home and filleted them I noticed exactly the same thing. About half were the typical dark red kokanee color, but the other half were slightly opaque and more orange in color. I was paranoid at first and thought that we might have bonked some juvenile bull trout, but on close examination of the heads & fins, they were definently not bull trout. Most of my kokanee fishing has been at East, Cresent, and Odell, so I thought this might be a Merwin thing. The good news was that we barbequed all of them right then, and after they were cooked I couldnt tell the difference. My question is, are all the kokes in Merwin landlocked sockeye, or do they have any other species of salmon intermixed (coho, chinook)?

FallRiverGuy · 06-03-2009, 10:14 AM

The meat from kokanee can vary widely in color. It is somewhat lake dependent. The fish in Odell can range in color from deep orange to pale. My guess the meat color is either a genetic trait or is dependent on what the fish is feeding on.

AWoods · 06-03-2009, 10:24 AM

I think I might have answered my own question. This is from the NW Tiger Muskie page.

Merwin (Lake) Reservoir (4,090 acres): This North Fork Lewis River impoundment located near the town of Ariel is shared by Clark and Cowlitz counties, with 2,400 acres in Clark County and 1,690 in Cowlitz. Land locked coho salmon and kokanee are the main target. Angling is best in early spring, with fish in the 10-inch class. Small northern ********* can be numerous and pesky. Tiger muskies were planted in 1995 to help control ********* populations.

moknots · 06-03-2009, 03:18 PM

[QUOTE=AWoods;My question is, are all the kokes in Merwin landlocked sockeye, or do they have any other species of salmon intermixed (coho, chinook)?[/QUOTE]

Good call, per your followup post, you suspected right on the money. The most reliable way to tell them apart is to lift up a gill cover. Kokes are plankton feeders, and their gill rakers (the white filaments on the inside curve of the gill arch, opposed to the red ones on the other side) are different than coho and chinook. Kokes are the ones with the longer, finer, and more numerous rakers. Like FRG, I normally see color variation among kokanee caught in the same part of the same lake on the same day, but what you are reporting sounds more like what I've heard others reporting from Green Peter, noting that the chinooks from that reservoir have paler and less tasty flesh than kokes from GP. My fish ladder has kokanee at the top, then chinook, then coho and steelhead, then throw them back

boatman · 06-03-2009, 04:46 PM

I clean them when they hit the boat. Next time clean one and put a uncleaned one,check which one you like the best. same with salmon.

Smalma · 06-03-2009, 05:07 PM

I too bleed and clean my fish immediately and then into the ice chest they go. Try all the fish that I'm going to eat the same way. There is no sense in not taking those steps to insure that you have the best fish possible.

Regarding the varying color of kokanee flesh. Just smoked another batch and notice quite a range in flesh color (and yes they all were kokanee) though they all had very high fat content. I seem to see more pale flesh kokanee in the spring and as we get into the summer I see more and more red meat fish. I suspect that it is a diet thing. On my local North Puget Sound lake I see a lot of chironomids in their stomachs but by this time of the year their stomachs are filled with zooplantkon. When the are feeding mostly on chironomids (and they do grow fast on them) we see that more typcial trout color flesh and when the switch to the zooplantkon we see the red flesh. Of course as always is the case not all the kokanee are doing the same thing.

Tight lines
Curt