skookum9
there are landlocked chinook salmon planted in Merwin. WDFW and PacifiCorp have long range plans and have been experimenting with introducing chinook salmon into the upper N. Fork Lewis above the dams with the goal of recreating the chinook ocean spawning runs on the Upper Lewis. they have been hauling adult returned salmon around the dams and releasing up river. no experiments yet on gather and returning the smolt to below Merwin. going to be expensive but part of the grand plan to return all Wa. river systems to "native" fish run populations only. won't work with the damn dams.
doesn't work on the Columbia except for the billions of dollars spent on hauling fish, counting fish, measuring fish, radio tagging fish, chasing sea lions, buying off the native Americans with billions of $$$$ by the BPA
you ought to go see the smolt counting operation on the lower Columbia, at least $50 million invested in big boats, equipment buildings and the operation costs must be another $25 million a year.
most expensive fish in the world. the best Russian caviar doesn't cost as much.
the chinook in Merwin have a very bland flavor because the species is a predatory meat eater, not much minnow prey for them in Merwin except the kokes and the pikeminnows.
the few that there are do grow to 24" plus.
i've noticed that the flavor of Merwin kokes and kokes out of other cold winter snow melt lakes can be not as good in the spring before the algae and small plankton they eat starts growing with increased summer sun. Merwin and Yale are very late lakes to warm because of their drainage off two high mountains with heavy snow packs and ice glaciers. but this also produces the Aug. water temps of below 58d F that kokes need to be successful. most lowland lakes in the West are too warm anymore with all the development and summer drawdown to successfully reproduce and grow good kokes.
kokes can very bland and flat until the summer feed starts producing that rich Omega 3 fat that is marbled and layered in the meat. the fish fat is what creates their great flavor.
fresh right out of the water Alaskan sockeye have the same flavor difference compared to the jetted iced down 3 day old sockeye the stores rip off customers for $10 lb. here.
no comparison.
I keep my kokes on a 99 cent bag of crushed ice until home
I take my Omega 3 one Koke at a time. 5 Kokes a day keeps the fisherman happy.
Quick Limit alone
Originally Posted by skookum9
.....Kokonuts.....Richard
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