Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Sockeye Prices

We shopped Fairbanks Costco this week and I happened to check out the seafood display.

Holy S.... Fresh Copper River Reds @ $24.99/lb A four pounder [headed and gutted] was $100.

I'm not a great salmon fan to start with but damn.

I can see the dip netters on the Copper and Kenai in the very near future.

Being the first of the season CR reds always get a premium price, but still.

Sounds like the reds are in Seward already. Time to get you some!

I'll wait until they hit the Kasilof and set my PU gill net along about the 20-24 of June.. Wind permitting. usually one tide , or even a half tide if I hit it right, and I'm done.

I prefer the Kenai reds and dip netting, so I'll save a few slots in case I want to go one day. That gets tricker because of the comm openings.

Yes Copper River Reds bring a premium but if they dropped the price 75%, I'm still not a buyer.

I agree, Vern. I remember hearing about Seattle restaurants pricing being astronomical.

I don't eat resturant fish anymore.

Just had fish and chips yesterday... cod it was and damn good.

Where?

If you prefer kenai over copper that means you've never ate the copper.

I didn't see him mention Copper Reds, that and not sure why a fella would drive 10 hrs to get them when he's got all the reds he needs right down the road. That Copper marketing is pretty good though.

They both smell like beaver.........

Not meant as an insult but those of us that are used to fresh salmon typically know what fish we prefer. If you think that a Copper river red is better than reds from other big rivers I would say that marketing and advertising has clouded your view. I don’t think that 3 reds from different watersheds, served the same way, could be matched to their specific river through taste. Copper river fish get marketed hard and they’re handled better for the southern market but they aren’t “better” than reds from other rivers.imho

Were it not for timing and hype Copper River reds would be just another sockeye. But there are systems out west with much smaller average reds.

What does a guy from Fargo ND know about Salmon? Try doing some side by side blind taste tests for yourself and see if you still think that or if you've just bought into the marketing hype.

Kenai reds are the best in the world.

Prove me wrong.


LOL!

I haven’t gone dip netting in 6 years, my ass is going this year. I’ll take some Kenai reds, but Copper reds are great!

I'm not picky. I'll take a fresh red or silver from saltwater any day and enjoy it. Throw in a young white King from the salt and you've made my day. Ate more from Bristol Bay and Kodiak, but as long as they are fresh and still in the salt, I'll not turn one down.

I've eaten a chitload of Copper reds. It's been a couple decades since I dipped Copper reds, and don't remember them as being anything that special. Excellent, but not that $$$ special, but that's not the comparison I meant. Too long ago to make a taste comparison, and too far away. Fishing the Copper would mean at least one additional day of the fish being on ice, before processed and frozen.

The point was, anyway, I ain't buying no salmon, when a day's PU fishing 30 miles away fills the freezer, and I know how they have been caught, handled, processed, and in the freezer within a day of being caught. ( I have crewed on both commercial beach sites and drift boat).

Mine, caught locally, are filleted and cooler-iced right there on the beach, except sometimes with an evening net pull - those may get iced and transported home whole for tending to.

One preference for dipping salmon is they are bonked and bled immediately rather than possibly dying in the net. If taken out of the net alive, they are bonked and bled right there in the canoe. Off- beach net tending on the mud flat from a canoe can get interesting.... which is one factor in picking my tides/days.... I pick them late in the season opening when the fish are actually coming in, dependant on wind and the ability to let the net go dry before the daily opening is evening-closed, if I must. There are dipping openers coming up (Kasilof and Kenai) , so I don't HAVE to use the gill net. It's just easier and quicker ( not necessarily safer..... ) Bonked and bled fish definately have an edge in texture and taste over net-corpses.

Kasilof reds are smaller than Kenai reds and not as chunky, as a rule of thumb. On occasion, some years they are very thin. We think the Kenai reds have an edge on the taste as well. Interesting, since the two rivers are only a few miles apart.

Only thing makes them special is they are first on the market and they only get them big bucks for a few days or so.