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[Easywater]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2004/1024/taste.html
http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2005_2nd/Jun05_WhiteKing.html
http://www.primeseafood.com/salmon.html

[penn]

There's always a way to spin anything . That would make for good guiding on the Veddar .

[vancook]

I would not pay top dollar for a white chinook lol. As a local food industry member, white chinook salmon is not desirable by alot of colleagues. I've caught a few, released quite a few more, kept the odd doe and have the meat smoked by a friend of mine.

[rymack]

I am also in the food service industry. I can tell you that white springs are by far my favorite salmon to grill or pan roast due to the higher fat content that they have. I do understand that most peoples impression of white springs have come from the Vedder springs they have retained. They are a abnormal in they have a heavy algae taste and smell. I think it is specific to Vedder and Harrison fish only. All the white springs i have used have been excellent.

The first to use white spring and market them as "Ivory" was Wolfgang Puck.  The only downside to using whites in a food service environment is educating your customers. Once they try it however they love it!

[rymack]

Just a FYI white springs in Vancouver are cheaper than reds.

[vancook]

Just a FYI white springs in Vancouver are cheaper than reds.

most definately. had to call out a fishmonger once claiming his marble spring was a true red spring

[chromer]

I've caught silver bullet whites opening week of the Fraser (old opening- May). That had ZERO odour to them- even the reds stink. I think they were definately a different strain than the Harrison and Harrison transplanted brood stock.......but I still gave them away to friends.
I just prefer the taste of the red ones better. I know there are some very early running whites( March) -Lillooet river, that are highly prized, I'm not sure I ever tried one of those.

One of my old Dad's buddies used to come up from California and had to go to Albion fisheries every time he came up to buy a white Spring, he siad they were the best.

I've caught Tyee whites up in QCIs and really wanted them to be great table fair and tried them but.....I gave those away as well, the reds just taste better to me. The chef at the Lodge one night said it was all in my imagination and the other chef said you mean a stinky? so we had a blind taste test and I picked the red and the white with my eyes closed....the one chef was impressed the other just winked

I guess everyone has different taste and a fish that some may release is a prize to another

[FlyFishin Magician]

Agreed chromer.  I retained a whitey from the Fraser this year and it had almost no "spring" odour to it.  The meat was excellent quality - although different than reds, or other salmon.  I can see why some people like it.  Much different from the whites from the Vedder which are notorious for being strong in odour with varying degrees of undesirable flavour.

[clarki]

I ate a white this year that we caught off  Thrasher Rock in Georgia Staight in June. It was absolutley delicious.  Normally I take salmon leftovers to work the next day to re-heat. I'm not enthusiastic about re-heated red fleshed salmon (i.e. sockeye) and kind of pick at it but this white I devoured. I was as good re-heated as it was the night before.

[alwaysfishn]

I think the Fraser whites have a higher oil content due to feeding on herring which are a white fleshed fish with high oil content, while the reds feed primarily on shrimp and such which give them the red flesh color. If that is fact then some springs likely become marble springs as a result of changing their diet at some point, likely along the migration path. I have caught marbles in the rivers but never while fishing in the ocean.

Diet does effect the flesh color of salmon, as farmed salmon flesh is white until they mix a carotene colorant in their food prior to sending them to market. It is not unique to salmon either as I find trout that live in lakes with a lot of fresh water shrimp have much redder flesh than trout that live in lakes that do not have a lot of shrimp.... Flamingos also get their pink coloration from the diet of shrimp and such.  When hunting moose I have noticed that moose that live around marshes have much browner hair than the moose that live in higher elevations which have dark gray hair.

[Dogbreath]

I think the Fraser whites have a higher oil content due to feeding on herring which are a white fleshed fish with high oil content, while the reds feed primarily on shrimp and such which give them the red flesh color. If that is fact then some springs likely become marble springs as a result of changing their diet at some point, likely along the migration path. I have caught marbles in the rivers but never while fishing in the ocean..

Not even close.

[Fish Assassin]

Diet has nothing to do with it. It's genetic

[troutbreath]

Eat a bunch of carrots for a few weeks and tell me diet has nothing to do with it. So whatever those white springs are eating makes them:
a- stink
b- make the meat look off white

I can smell them swimming by like driving by a feed lot.

[Justin]

I second that notion they stink. 

[Every Day]

Everyone is half right.

Flesh colour can be determined by what the fish eat in the ocean (or elsewhere), however with springs this is not the case.

White and red springs live in the same water and eat the same fish/invertebrates, etc. Red flesh happens because of the ability to absorb carotenoids into the flesh. White springs do not have this ability to deposit the carotenoids, and therefore the flesh stays a white colour. Marbles occur because the fish can deposit the carotenoids into certain areas of flesh but not others, hence why marbles appear blotchy and uneven (normally) in their distribution of white and red meat (sometimes only back half of fish, sometimes along spinal cord, etc).