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[shawn_john]

i was wondering about knowing the difference between a red and white spring how you can tell the difference between them so i know what one is good to eat.

[Fish Assassin]

Personally I don't think you can tell the difference until you bonk it, although some people claim they can by their smell and their looking into their gills. As for eating, I think it's a personal preference. Some like the red while others white. It is definitely more palatable to see a red piece of salmon on a plate rather than a white.

[Gooey]

#1 - I don't think the fraser is a good place for catch and release...you hook a springs and spend 20 minutes bringing it in and there is a good chance that you directly impact that fish's chance of spawning if you release it...if you reel in a white spring, IMHO, you should keep it.

#2 - inspecting a live fish to tell wether its white or red can cause it stress.  I doubt many people will be able to controll a fish in the water to do the needed check so that means its up on the beach in the dirt and out of the water.   Kinda goes back to point one that your are taxing a fish and reducing its chance of survival upon release. 

#3 - Genetically speaking, a white spring lacks an enzyme to absorb beta carotene (as I recall) from krill & shrimp in its diet.  Does that enzyme flavour the fish...who knows...but what I can gaurantee you is that their food supply is virtually identical to a red so a different food supply isnt a concern (in terms of a lesser tasting fish).

I think a lot of people are jaded against white springs because of all the slimy boots they have caught in the vedder...they turn fast there and aren't that table worthy.  In the east coast fish brokers market white springs as Ivory springs and I believe it fetches more than reds!   Keep in mind these fraser fish are in PRIME shape and I am sure either one would be wonderful on the BBQ.  In fact I gave my neighbour 2 chunks of red and 2 chunks of white from a fraser trip my dad and I took and she cooked them side by side, she said they both tasted delicious. 

[mrking]

I can tell the difference between the 2 Just by looking at it

How

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

White springs usually have more spots along their back as opposed to reds.  One red i caught had only a few along it's back. This way however should not be the only way to tell as many reds have lots of dots too.  This is just something to look for.  From what i hear though, the whites from the fraser taste really good and many prfer them to the reds. 

[*Lil Fisherman*]

#1- sometimes a white spring will be more gray under their belly than a red spring;however like the roe kid said that its just something to look for becuase its not always that way. Yes, you can tell the difference by looking around the gills. What you have to do is put your finger in the middle of the belly(on the outside ofcoarse) and run your finger all the way up to the gills where the belly turns into a small slit conecting the head. Once there, just very lighty lift the gill plate and look at the inside of the small slit.

#2- If you like an oily fish, than the white spring is good for you! Although both kinds are very good, it sometimes depends how you plan on cooking it. If your looking for a fish to smoke, the white would turn out best as its oils make the fish taste a lot better. But once again, like other people have stated,there is no good or bad kind of spring to eat. They both taste just about the same except for the white spring is more oily.

[Steelrr]

Talked to a guy that was working at the Vedder hatchery and asked him the same question. In a nutshell, he said the white spring has a slightly different genetic make up that makes the meat white. Aside from that ,they are the same. Same spawning cycle, same feed,and in my opinion, in a blind taste test... identical. I've seen lots of springs that were marbled red and white,so that kills the enzyme theory. Still good eating. I also agree that if you hook it and land it, you should kill it regardless of it's color, and go home so you don't encounter anymore that day, unless you are still looking for your sockeye.

[Coho Cody]

I can usually tell the difference between a red and a white. First, as the roe kid said, reds usually have less spots compared to the amount of spots on a white. Second, reds usually have a blunter nose, compared to the whites pointy looking mouth. And third, if the springs bottom jaw is longer than the front, and itd nose blunt, its likely a red. Sometimes looking under the fishes gills can be deceiving, so I think there really is no point of looking in its gills.

Thats just how i tell the difference .

Oh and I'd take reds over whites any day

[*Lil Fisherman*]

UhOh! This looks like its the start of a racial battle

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

I think cody would take anything he catches

[TrophyHunter]

I thought it was possible to tell the difference until this year... the last two springs I have caught and kept are both whites... they both fought much harder than a red pring and they were both super super chrome... in fact they are the two nicest fish I have seen caught on the Fraser this year... for some reason the fish seem much fresher than the red's... until I gutted these fish none of us had any idea whether it was a white or a red.... so like I said I really don;t think it is possible to tell the difference, they didn't smell any different like the whites on the Vedder do....

[Coho Cody]

I hate whites .

[frenchy]

Steelrr:
Marbled fish are not incompatible at all with an enzyme allowing or not the beta carotene fixation. If one fish is heterozygous (ie possesses one gene coding for white and the other for red), depending on how the two genes are expressed, this may lead to a marbled fish.

I recently caught a white and a red and they are both delicious. 

[Gooey]

Indeed Steelerr, where do you get your information, I took genetics up to 3rd yr uni...a heterozygou gene could definitely explain a marbled fish but in this case it doesnt quite fit as the phenotype for a co-dominant allele should be 50% and there aren't 50% marbled fish!

PLUS a senior fisheries pesonnel who is a family friend told my that it is a genetic factor...just like my wife is lactose intolerant (her stomach lacks the enzyme to process dairy products), white springs lack the gene that is at the route of the enzyme responsible for processing beta carotene.

But then again, maybe I am wrong...so where did you get you info from?!?

If you are interested in the genetics behind it, I could provide a more detailed answer!

[frenchy]

I do not think it is as simple as a classic codominant gene (like the A and B alleles of the ABO blood system). If it was the case, I would expect the heterozygous fish to be "pink", not marbled, each muscular fiber being able to fix some amount of beta carotene, but not as much as a red homozygous. In this case it would be more something like in some muscular fibers the white gene is expressed and in some other fibers the red gene is expressed. If someone knows a bit more how it works, I am definitively interested.

Gooey, I think you forgot a bit your genetic courses (just kidding). It is not because a gene is codominant that you expect 50% of heterozygous phenotype. It is only true if the frequency of the 2 alleles is 0.5. If the frequency of the red allele is 0.3 (p) and the frequency of the white allele 0.7 (q), you expect 9% (p²) of reds, 42% (2pq) of marbled and 49% (q²) of withes.

How do these marbled fishes looked like? Are there entire pieces whites and other reds or are there white and red muscular fibers mixed?