Keeping Kings

Bring the cooler and plenty of ice. When you catch one - cut the gills and bleed them out then put on ice. When you fillet them remove the belly fat. (Easily done by inserting knife all the way through the body cavity behind gills and above fins and slice all the way down toward the tail past the vent and the lower fin to eliminate those bones) and this "releases" the fillet!
 
When you cook them - grill over charcoal (with hickory and/or applewood chips-moistened) with salt, pepper, real butter, garlic powder and dill weed (if you like them) - I use a basket to avoid tearing up the fillets when turning! Simple - easy and not bad eating!
 
Another simple but good receipe is to get two pots of boilling water (rolling) - chunk up fillet into cubes or bite-sized pieces - boil in first pot for three minutes - remove to second pot and boil for six minutes - serve with melted butter (real) - very similar to lobster, but maybe a little easier and better!

So when did Mudshark start tasting similar to lobster ? And maybe even better ?
Right..............

Freshwaterdrum,  do yourself a favor, enjoy the fun of catching them, but don't eat them. Lake run october Salmon are nasty. Hell, they even tell you not to eat them in your license book.

Maybe some people don't know this, but the salmon die within a few weeks of entering the river. If someone wants to keep them, more power to 'em. They all just end up dead on the bottom anyway.

It says in the "book" to eat only one meal per month of chinooks.

If you keep the fresher fish, they really aren't that bad at all.

ORIGINAL: freshwaterdrumR

I'm comming up to fish for kings in 2 weeks, is it worth it to bring a cooler and keep one or 2 to eat, or do they taste like sh@t when they have been in the stream for a while?

 
They taste like sh@t ....... or at least like the body of water they are in unless you get one that just ran in from the lake.
 
Catch one in the summer before they stop feeding and start dying and it is a whole different story......summer kings are tasty but once they have turned brown they get nasty.
 
But........you can prepare them in ways that cover the taste and then they are edible.
 
Sorry for the negative opinion but you asked.....and i have been eating fresh yellowfin tuna for days now so the thought of a decaying king doesn't do much for me!!

Thanks for the replies.

I usually keep a few steelhead every year for a buddy that loves them, and thought maybe id bring him back a big @ss king.

I gave up the thought of eating one, the first time I caught a stream one. It's tail squished in my hand like Jello! Eat them out of the lake when they are still actively alive, not dying trying to spawn.

Beware......http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1654136