We actually have five kinds of salmon on the coast of BC - everyone has their own preferences:
The two that sport fisherman mainly target are:
Kings (Chinook) - (100 pounds max, 15-25 avg). The biggest salmon and arguably the best fighters. They don't jump much but they have great power and stamina (kind of like a bull redfish, but faster). They are a great eating fish.
Silvers (Coho) - (30 pounds max, 5-15 avg). They jump and run and are great on light tackle, but they don't have lots of stamina (kind of like a ladyfish but not as acrobatic). I think they're the third best eating salmon because they have the strongest taste, but others like it a lot. Deep orange-red colored meat.
The other three are:
Reds (Sockeye) - (20 pounds max, 5-15 avg). They taste great because their diet is mainly shrimp.
Chums - (30 pounds max, 10-20 avg). There are two reasons they're called "dog salmon" - one is their pronounced teeth, the other is that's who you feed them to. (However, they fight like bulldogs too.)
Pinks - (10 pounds max, 3 - 5 avg). They don't taste very good and they don't fight very good either. But they're still a salmon.
All salmon are a brilliant silver color in the ocean, and change dramatically when they hit freshwater to spawn. I could go on, but you get the picture - I've caught them all and love them all. :) Cheers.
