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Sockeye Salmon on the Fly

5K views 25 replies 22 participants last post by  quilbilly 
#1 ·
Sockeye is something else. People describe it as the best tasting salmon but the sockeye I have eaten tastes completely distinct to Pink Coho and Chinook. An almost shrimp taste. I have caught Cutthroat, Chinook, Coho, and Pink. 2021 I hope to add Steelhead and Chum to the list. I would very much also like to add Sockeye. I know on the Columbia and Skagit people plunk for them, but plunking has to be my least favorite form of fishing. Numb rods with heavy leads that don't let you feel the fish. I watched a video from a gentleman in BC spey casting for Reds and landing a couple on camera.



Is it possible to land Sockeye on the fly? I realize this is a fly fishing forum, but if anyone has suggestions for non plunking conventional gear methods that can be done from shore, I am more than open to hearing about it.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have fished for them once in AK. For the most part, it’s a meat fishery there too, so guides push you to floss them which is a fairly easy to do. Getting them to actually eat was really tough. I got two to do so (we thought, hard to tell for sure) and I was fishing over a conveyor belt of them the whole time. This is based on one 4 hour session so take from it what you will. As others have said, really hard fighters though.

When I lived in CO, I would occasionally catch Kokanee targeting lake run browns in the fall. Red and orange nymphs (regardless of pattern) seemed to catch the most. Those gnarly fish on their way to be spawned out do not fight anywhere near like their fresh, ocean going cousins though.
 
#7 ·
In my opinion, a king salmon beat sockeye hands down for consumption. They are fatter, more moist and better flavor. That opinion is based upon more than 30 years of selling frozen salmon internationally.

Unfortunately, sockeye will not strike flies while heading upstream. Most fish are foul hooked in the mouth during an act called “flossing”. If you cast across a pod of sockeye in a river, as the fish open and close their mouths, you’ll invariably run your line into the mouth and foul hook it.

I don’t consider this style of fishing particularly sporting.
 
#9 ·
In my opinion, a king salmon beat sockeye hands down for consumption. They are fatter, more moist and better flavor. That opinion is based upon more than 30 years of selling frozen salmon internationally.

Unfortunately, sockeye will not strike flies while heading upstream. Most fish are foul hooked in the mouth during an act called "flossing". If you cast across a pod of sockeye in a river, as the fish open and close their mouths, you'll invariably run your line into the mouth and foul hook it.

I don't consider this style of fishing particularly sporting.
I'll knock neither off my plate but I have to concur. Spring Chinook is the finest of all table fare. Coho, summer steelhead, and sockeye are all tied for second. I don't really eat winter steelhead that much and regard them as above chum which is not in high regard.
 
#8 ·
I think sockeye are in general a better tasting fish, unless you are talking about spring chinook. Also depends on freshness of the fish and how they are cooked. Hands down I’ll take a fresh caught Springer over a sockeye, but that’s it for my tastebuds hierarchy when it comes to trumping the red salmon. They fight like junkyard dogs on a 7 wt or below. I’ve caught them on hopper dropper rigs (on dropper) while dead drifting cutbanks on some Bristol Bay rivers hoping for rainbows to take a chubby. But yeah, the floss game is alive and well if you just want good meat. Can’t speak to ever fishing them in the Columbia, which would be a challenge I’m sure.
 
#12 ·
Taste is personal, and some people like sockeye above all other salmon and trout. A lot of salmon snobs, myself included, think that early run Chinook are even better than sockeye. These would be Columbia River spring Chinook, other spring Chinook, AK's famed Copper River Chinook, summer Chinook, and the early summer-fall Upriver Bright (URB) Columbia River Chinook, along with some others I probably haven't sampled.

Like Chinook, not all sockeye are created equal. The best ones are those with early timed migrations and or long migration distances before spawning, with the best of the best being Early Stuart sockeye from the Fraser River run. The summer Fraser sockeye are all excellent table fare because they have early river entry timing and make long migrations prior to spawning. This means they have the highest lipid content - Omerga 3 fatty acids that are as good for you as they taste.

Columbia River sockeye are good, but they run kind of small. Closer to home are Lake Washington and Baker River sockeye (same genetic population). They don't make long migrations, but they do have early fresh water entry timing and don't spawn until months later. They are excellent table fare. Unfortunately I don't know any place where it is productive to fly fish for sockeye from these populations.
 
#13 ·
The length of the river traveled by salmon to spawn, genetically predisposes fish to store higher fat content.

Yukon River king salmon travel over miles to spawning habitat in Canada. They are so fat (~25% fat content) grilling them causes fires in your Weber.

The remnant run of upriver Chinook that hit the Columbia in February are also extremely fat. But sadly, they are becoming a fading memory.

Taste is personal and as my wife tells me, all my taste is in my mouth.
 
#20 ·
I'm firmly in the springer camp myself, when it comes to eating salmon. Next to that, winter blackmouth, resident coho, and then ocean coho. I haven't eaten a ton of sockeye in my life but I've eaten it here and there. Definitely wouldn't ever turn up my nose at it, but I've never been blown away by it either.
 
#22 ·
I've been told that most sockeye caught in freshwater are flossed. Saltwater fish are still feeding and readily take. But once in freshwater this shuts down. Some likely do bite as an agressive response but watching the techniques of the gear chuckers using long leaders and bouncing betties they know what they're doing. I don't want to start any argument but 35 years of fisheries enforcement has sort of made me somewhat opinionated.
 
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