Recipe's For Bad Tasting Kings?

On our trip last fall(late october) we brought back a few kings and after a couple of attempts at baking/grilling/frying, they still taste like well, fish(only terribly bad fish, unedible). Was wondering if there was a step before cooking that would take away the taste(marinating, if so, in what?). We are heading back up first of October but didn't want to bring back anymore if we couldn't eat the meat. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Hey Sage. yeah that's what someone told us but it seemed the only ones we/anyone was catching were dark colored(darkish green/black?) so we kept those. yeah really, i even tried just frying them on a skillet like i do trout and catfish fillets. i'll never do that again. i actually like a little bit of a fishy taste(lets me know i'm still eating fish) but my gosh, those were like catching a bluegill and sticking it in your mouth alive.

Judging by the taste I didn't think there was much that could be done. What about the browns/steelies? I'm a 99.9% C&R guy but I do enjoy the occasional fillet and a steelie/brown looks pretty tasty. Are they any different tasting than a regular stocker? I would assume they were since they spend most of thier lives in the lake? Good/Bad? input?

If you fillet it, make sure you slice off the gray/dark meat under the skin.  That will take some of the strong taste away and since it is fatty tissue, it will remove some of the contaminants in the meat also.  Even the jewel of Lake Erie, the walleye, tastes better if you remove this dark area.

Keep the trout fresh as mentioned above,and the smaller fish are better than the large ones.The larger trout tend to get a bit oily as they get older.In my opinion none of them are worth the trouble to try to keep fresh and get cleaned and transport home for food.I release everything.

Cool deal. Thanks jon, smolt, and pa. i'm going to try to prepare our last bit of salmon one day this week in a way you guys described. if nothing happens then i guess it's all CPR for me(which is the norm for me anyway). have a great season and tight lines guys!

i just like landing em on light tackle.. like to stay as light as possible when the crowds are gone.. put my gear and tackle to test some fighting trophy size fish! CR is the way to go! PA is right.

Fresh run Kings are ok. Like a female with the eggs still tight in the mid size class.
My wife loves Steelheads. Sometimes I like them, but not always.

I had a friend at work that raved about how good their canned salmon was. They actually had a group of people take all canning materials to their place of lodging and can their fish daily. They made a really big deal out of it and gave me a pint to try. It was canned in oil with some kind of other spices. As I opened the jar the smell was horrific and the entire thing went into the outside trash in a plastic bag never again to be repeated. It might work for oppossum , skunk or coon bait.
 
My first trip to B Dam, my son and I brought home about 30 pounds of fillets that I had smoked at a local shop. About 5 pounds went to the dogs and the rest into the trash. Never brought any back after that.

There isn't a salmonoid species in L. Ontario that I would consider eating anytime/anywhere.  They are horrible.  I used to live very close to Pulaski and certainly could have eaten trout/salmon everyday from the lake or the streams if I so chose.  They all taste like mud (some more than others) regardless of when or where they are caught.  Now Erie Steelheads, that is a different subject as they taste nothing like the Ontario fish.  I would wager that it is a combination of factors, from diet to pollutants (perhaps related).

That is the problem...  You need to dress them up heavily with other "dinner" foods to hide (not erase) the taste.  Give me a L. Erie Steelie or Walleye (or Oneida Walleye), a couple of lemons, some onions, and a little black pepper and I am a happy camper...  Try that with a L. Ontario fish and honestly try to tell me that it tastes good.  If you ever served L. Ontario fish in a restaurant (assuming that was a legal practice), you would go out of business within two months.

I'm generally not a huge fan of salmon to begin with no matter how fresh it is, but here's how my grandad always made it and I always liked it this way...

1. Start with hardwood (actual chunks of hickory or apple are best but charcoal and smoking chips work too)
2. Sit back with a couple beers and a good book while it burns down to coals, if using charcoal eliminate this step
3. Cut the fillets into 3-4 inch pieces and wrap a couple slices of good bacon around the fillets
4. Seal in tin foil packets and grill until bacon is done, few minutes on each side should be fine
5. When its all done, squeeze a slice of lemon over it

I use to bring fish home and tried all kinds of recipes from smoking to marinades, frying/grilling /baking.. I never tried erie fish  but did have fresh washington state steehead i caught that were unbelievebly good.. I ate fish from ontario small browns from the lake that were pretty good.. maybe even less fishy than the browns from inland catskill lakes I fish. The truth is most folks even people who like seafood /fish say these fish over 3 to 4 lbs tend to have a strong oily fishy taste  if not prepared right.. I tried native river browns and they are somewhat fishery than the least of the  fishy browns trout this being anual stocked hatchery browns. They as you know are the least fishy tasting and can be fried skin and all. We know nothing beats a native brook trout for the pan. Generally any trout that is less than 3 lbs  will be better for the table than the bigger older fish.. also contaminants are a concern in that these older fish have larger concentrations for concern. They are like baterrys charging.. the longer they swim and eat the polluted chain food.. the higher they are charged with higher levels  of pcb's metals etc. Because of the niagra escarpment dioxin leaking into this lake, these downstream waters in ontario are the least clean of the great lakes as I understand it. Dioxin, is one of manmades most deadliest chemicals to our environment.