King of the Copper River - Copper River king salmon - includes related article on places to buy or eat King Salmon

Sunset, May, 1997 by Jena MacPherson

A trip to an impressive river in search of a noble fish - plus where to catch fresh Alaskan sockeyes and kings on Northwest menus

Some places are synonymous with the legends that define them. To music fans, Graceland means the king of rock and roll. To food fans, Alaska's Copper River means the king of kings - the Copper River king salmon.

Seafood marketer Jon Rowley has admired what he calls this "noble fish" for years. In 1983, working with a handful of Cordova, Alaska, fishermen headed by Tom Johnson, he helped develop the first quality-control program and logistic network to ship the delicious, autumn red, oil-rich fish (then sold primarily in cans) fresh to restaurants and markets in the Lower 48. Today Copper River king salmon appears on restaurant menus around the world.

Last May, I joined Rowley and Wayne Ludvigsen of Ray's Boathouse in Seattle, one of the first restaurants to feature the fish, on a pilgrimage to the Copper River for opening day. Our goal: to return to Ray's with the first catch of the season.

The small fishing village of Cordova is remote to begin with, but to reach the fishing grounds, we must board a floatplane for a 15-minute flight to the mouth of the river. Minutes after we are airborne, I get my first look at the Copper River and its massive, 60-mile-wide delta. The sight is astonishing. Glaciers hang on the slopes above the river, which flows like an ice-cube seam through the Chugach Mountains before finally spreading into the delta, a chalky wedge of water as chilly-looking as a slice of icicle pie. No bucolic scene this - the frozen Alaskan terrain is at once beautiful and rugged, mesmerizing and forbidding.

To see this awesome place is to understand why the Copper River king salmon is a thoroughbred among fish. To spawn, it must fight its way through thundering water and ice jams. Since a salmon does not feed once it enters freshwater, it must draw on its body fat for the energy it needs to reach the major spawning grounds 200 miles or so upstream. The Copper River king and the sockeye salmon, the other dominant fish in these waters, have abundant stores of natural oils, giving them the strength for this herculean task. This quality, of course, also contributes to the texture and flavor of the fish.

All too quickly, it seems, pilot Dave Erbey lands our floatplane next to a fishing tender (a boat that receives the catch from the fishing boats and shuttles it to port) on the choppy waters of the Copper River Flats, a shallow network of shifting channels amid small islands and sandbars of glacial silt at the river's mouth. We climb onto the pontoons of the floatplane, then quickly scramble onto the tender.

Tom Johnson, who still fishes the Copper River, is there unloading his catch. The first of the bountiful run - whoppers that look larger than their 25-pound average - fall like fat shards of silver from the brailer (a net used for transferring fish) into the storage chute of the tender. Back in Cordova, families are waiting anxiously. Will the run be good? But here on the delta, it's nothing but dancing eyes and grins all around.

It is well past midnight by the time we clamber off the boat and onto the floatplane. In Seattle it's been dark for hours, but in the Copper River delta, the sun still shines between the peaks of the snowy mountains. On the plane is a box full of Copper River kings that Ludvigsen will take back to Ray's - it will be on the restaurant's menu tomorrow.

We haven't spotted Elvis, but we have royalty on board.

Copper country

There are two simultaneous runs of wild salmon beginning this month on the Copper River - the premium king (also called chinook) and the smaller, less oily, brilliant red - fleshed sockeye. The 1996 harvest of kings totaled 56,000 (the second highest ever); sockeye came to 2.36 million. Normally king salmon is more sought after, and sometimes more expensive, than sockeye. Charles Ramseyer, the chef at Ray's Boathouse, advises that the best-tasting Copper River kings are available the first three weeks of the season, beginning around mid-May.

TO SEE IT

Cordova, population about 3,000, lies east of Anchorage on Prince William Sound. From Anchorage, it can be reached only by plane or ferry. Lodgings at the Reluctant Fisherman Inn (800/770-3272; $65 to $125) front the water overlooking the fishing fleet - about 800 gillnetters and purse seiners. The dining room here serves up a snappy Copper River salmon chili. As for the Copper River, it lies about 26 miles southeast of town. Cordova Air Service (907/424-3289), about a mile east of town, offers floatplane charters of the area.

TO BUY IT

Copper River king and sockeye salmon begin appearing in grocery stores and fish markets about the third week in May. Three fish shops at Seattle's Pike Place Market will cold-pack and air-ship fresh salmon anywhere in the United States: Jack's Fish Spot (206/467-0514), Pure Food Fish (800/392-3474), and Pike Place Fish (800/542-7732). In Portland, contact Newman's Fish Co. (503/284-4537).