Larry,

Sometimes, no, and yes.

I am a salmon snob. I like my salmon perfect, or even better. I can taste the difference in salmon that has been frozen 2 weeks, and I don't keep frozen fish more than 2 months, max - UNLESS it was flash frozen and vacuum packed. Actually, I try not to eat much frozen fish.

Copper River is both a high quality product and some marketing hype. The label usually applies to the Cook Inlet catch, where the Copper River is the major tributary, I'm told. Kings caught around Sitka in the early season, wherever they're bound for, are of equivalent quality in my opinion. The consistency of quality is impressive to me. I would think that any early season king bound for a major Alaskan River system would be of comparable quality, but I cannot say so from experience.

Those who think all kings are the same are certainly entitled to their opinions, but it seems likely to me that they're treating all their salmon uniformly badly or haven't developed their sense of taste very much. Poor treatment and cooking can turn the best piece of salmon into junk. And the best care cannot make a lot of fall tule salmon worth eating. I try to avoid them because the quality is so inconsistent. Some are excellent, but most are not. Yet, they are mixed in with the up river brights, which from my limited experience are consistently good. Consequently, I try to avoid the coastal troll chinook catch because of the high chance of getting a tule that is lacking in flavor. They are not all the same.

Copper River sockeye are of high quality, but so are those from Bristol Bay, the Kenai, the Fraser, Lake Washington, and Quinault. I haven't been able to detect any difference among these stocks of sockeye - altho there may be a slight difference between the early and late Fraser runs, due to variation in lipid (fat) content.

I had never had Columbia River springer until last year. I haven't sampled many yet, but it was every bit as good as any Copper River or other SE Alaska king. I had to tend the BBQ every second as the fat melted off the fillets onto the coals. The CR springers are a connesoir's fish. If the fishery was consistent, and the hatchery fish could be targeted without harming the ESA springers, and the commercial fleet cared for the catch (bleeding fish when landed, etc.), a marketing appelation could be created for CR springers, I believe.

Your question is primarily subjective, so this is intended only to help you gage my opinion. I do like coho salmon, but wouldn't freeze it for more than 2 or 3 weeks. I'll eat a fresh pink, and have BBQd a fresh salt-water caught chum once - it was good (not to be confused with excellent, perfect, or to-die-for). I only buy king and sockeye, eat silvers when I catch them, and try to eat steelhead as fast as I can, since I won't freeze it more than 2 months. Halibut freezes well, and I'll eat it fresh or frozen. Ling cod and rockfish don't freeze well enough even for short periods for me to ever try it again, altho they are excellent when fresh. Yeah, and I'm very picky about cooking fish. I'd rather under-cook by 2 minutes than to over-cook by 1 minute any time. I realize tastes and opinions vary, and I'm just trying to help you understand mine.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.