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:yeahthat:

The LCR Fall Chinook Tule stock is just that a stock. It is not a meat color, although, more often than not you end up with pale meat.
For the record, that big bronze king was NOT really a LCR tule... just looked enough like one to make the point. That fish was actually caught a little closer to home ;). Pretty funny how the first words out of LMWS's mouth when that thing first showed itself alongside the boat were, "Daddy, why is that fish so ugly... it looks like a diarrhea fish!" From the mouths of babes!

As for the meat shot when I cut the fish... it's the real deal. Boy, was I surprised!
 
Makes more sense now. I thought that was awfully bright red for Tule stock. For Alaskan and our our own coastal fall Chinook stocks we are intercepting them with a larger time to spawn window and you can end up with pleasant surprises.

Tule stock are going to start spawning about a month form now. Their bodies are working overtime right now using their energy reserves for the prduction of gametes.

A Tule with meat like that would be very unusual and worth many pictures.
 
Can someone please explain to me why tules are not acceptable table fare, but fall coast fish are ok to bonk?

Both enter freshwater very close to sexual maturity.
Both swil relatively short distances to their spawning grounds.
Both could cut nice and red, or pale.

Yet in October, everyone will be is their favorite bay bonking supposedly yummy fish. I have killed a few fish in Tilly that were great eating. I have killed a larger number that were mediocre.

The higher in the system you get, the more pronounced this gets.

I don't get it.
 
the point is people want to only keep the brightest fish, which will usually have the best quality meat. who wants to end up taking home a light meat fish that is of poor eating quality? if your just after eggs, tules are great, if you want good quality table fare, avoid tules and darker fish. sure we have all kept a tule that cut great, but i think its well known that is an exception to the rule. take the gamble if you want i wont.
 
My Ex wifes first Chinook was a MINT chrome 33 pound hen, on her first cast. Bobber down! (Caught on the coast in tidewater) It cut pure white meat. I caught a bronze/chrome buck the same day, with flaming red meat. Was her fish a tule? I will have to try and find the pic's and see what the adipose looked like. I do remember the fish was long and lanky, not short with shoulders..
 
Can someone please explain to me why tules are not acceptable table fare, but fall coast fish are ok to bonk?



I don't get it.
There are examples of pacific Chinook salmon that enter freshwater in an advanced state of sexual maturity and still retain color and fatty oil content that greatly surpasses the LCR fall Chinook Tule stock. Alaska and tributaries along the southern coast of Oregon are prime examples. For some reason the LCR Tule stock uses the highest amount of itā€™s energy reserves for gamete production before it enters the CR and it's meat really tends to pale out. This characteristic makes the stock somewhat unique.

But heck, there is still nutrient value in these fish. If you have pet fish food at home you may notice that first ingredient on the label is salmon. Surprise itā€™s me, MR. Tule!

Lewis and Clark apparently ate spawned out salmon their first winter here.

There is no shame in Tules as food. In abundant Tule years I think everyone would rather see the Tule surplus utilized to the highest degree possible.
 
Maybe the tules should hire another marketing company......after all, coast fish are nothing more than tules with some lipstick and mascara.....

My favorite coast fish are caught in tidewater somewhere around the spinner grounds all the way up to the egg dudes. Pre cooked fish!

My biggest fish of all time(that I killed) is chrome bright. Shines in the camera kinda bright. He made fine fertilizer for the rose garden. Not even a smoker could fix that train wreck.
 
I'm no expert but I am wondering if the meat color really has anything to do with quality? I've caught coho that had bright red meat and some that were more pale. What does it all mean? I also don't seem to see very many chinook with that flaming red/coho meat color either. They always seem more orange than red. I dunno, just thinking outloud.

Also, what's the purpose of the Tule run anyways?
 
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