Waste not want not! Feast of Coho Salmon!

This map is from the California Fish and Game webpage, if you live in the peppered area and are not currently fishing for Coho, Silver Salmon, stop everything and go fishing!

 For the past month my husband and I have been enjoying fishing for fresh coho salmon, silvers.  While he lands the majority and I land the minority, the coho fishing this year is fantastic, we each average five fish a day on the line and land possibly two.  Every weekend we're out fishing, camping out of the back of the pick-up.  While this may not be the most romantic way to spend out time, I can't complain.  My husband is more enthusiastic than I am about me hooking and landing fish.  Combine that with seeing elk, bald eagles, king fishers, beavers and deer - I feel blessed and humbled.  Our friends love it to, since we would rather share the bounty of fish than freeze them.

This bright Coho, silver, was caught in fresh water.

Coho, silver salmon, is quite possibly the best tasting salmon, in our opinion.  Leaner than its cousin the Chinook, or King Salmon, this variety of salmon is a favorite for most palettes.  Often we catch them so fresh the sea lice are still attached, bright and silver with meat dark orange red, we even bake the fillet skeleton!  We generally only smoke the less then bright salmon, and turn away the dark ones. The catch this year is plentiful and the average size seems larger, too.

The no name river we catch all the Coho out of run into this other body of water.

Recommendations, eat fresh bright salmon - FRESH, and smoke the rest.  Try not to waste any of it.  Recently, a new tradition, we have started to bake the left overs after we are done filleting.  We simply put the trimmings,skeleton, including the head - there is nothing like Coho cheeks, on a stainless cookie sheet with a dab of butter, fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt for 10 minutes.  We pick the bone clean, every-time, delicious.