What are the best fish you've eaten?
In no particular order, I remember, fondly, eating these fish I've caught:
walleye (warm water)
Pacific salmon (cold water)

And these fish I haven't caught:
barramundi (I tried and failed to catch but have had in lots of restaurants)
sturgeon (a friend caught and prepared it)
coral trout (restaurant only)

Walleye in the Canoe Country.

The setting is part of it for me, if you have paddled and caught the fish in the BWCA or Quetico and cooked it at your campsite these fish have a flavor beyond any other fish.

I'm not much of a fish eater but,

My favorite, Lake Perch from Lake Michigan, not the jumbos though.

Also like walleye, small/smallmouth bass, smelt, yellow bass, small coho(2-4lbs) baked, white sucker from Grace Lake.

Dave

Fishguts- you better try one of them Nordski's you're going to target on your next trip to the Q- you'll be pleasantly surprised. MY favorite is fresh stream trout grilled till just charred over Maple coals.

Also, this is not for the Bdub, but try at home,mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cheesy Walleye Casserole

~ 2 lbs. skinless walleye fillets, cut into 3-4 inch pieces
~ 2 packages(10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
~ 1 medium onion, chopped
~ 2 tbsp. butter, melted
~ 1 can (10 oz.)can cream of shrimp soup
~ 1/2 cup milk
~ 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
~ 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
~ 1/8 tsp. curry powder
~ dash of pepper
~ 1/4 cup fresh-grated parmesan cheese
~ 1/2 cup saltine cracker crumbs

Spread the spinach in a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Place the fish on top.

Saute the onion in butter until tender. Stir in the soup, milk, Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, curry powder, and pepper.

Cook over low heat, stirring until the cheese is melted. Spoon this over the fish.

Top with the cracker crumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Serve & Enjoy!

I like walleyes for their texture and mild flavor. They basically taste like whatever you fry them in. Similar situation with panfish.

It's hard to beat baked lake trout, though, as long as it's not one of those big, fatty ones. The smaller ones with the salmon-colored flesh are delicious.

Brook trout are also excellent.

Dang! I'm starting to drool!

Perch (lake perch not ocean)- deep fried or pan fried
Walleye- pan fried(preferably "shore lunch" style)
Pike- boiled and dipped in melted butter

I think I'm gonna go eat now!

My menu will always have Pike listed before Walleye in and out of the BWCA.

As for freshwater species, I'm a fan of the Sunfish family. Bluegill, LM and SM Bass, especially bass 12" - 15". I too prefer the taste of smaller Pike over Walleye.

For salt water, you can't beat a hunk of rare Yellow(Ahi)Tuna lightly seared and seasoned.

This is one of the Spanish Mackrel I caught in FL. It was yummy too.

Stay hungry my friends.

To be fair you must eat the fish in absence of spices, breading and ext.

I would go with Coho Salmon as my favorite fish to eat. No need to put anything on it at all. Just cut it open and start eating. Red meat Lake Trout is not far behind though.

Walleye would be towards the bottom of the list as they have an absence of taste hence everyone dolling them up with a variety of spices,butter,breading,ext.

Saltwater Mahi Mahi
Freshwater Walleye or if in a restuarant Blackened Catfish

quote Chilly: "To be fair you must eat the fish in absence of spices, breading and ext. ..."

That would be fair if I were a bear. Until that happens, northern pike wins (slightly) over walleye for me. In the old days when they were bigger, perch were hard to beat for flavor and very simple to clean. Of course, all of this is idiosyncratic preference and depends on the cook too, but I have never understood the appeal of trout.

Walleye or northern on the trail.
I had a little piece of halibut at Ivan's in Brainerd about ten years ago that I still think about.

1st would be fresh stream trout from the high mountains in early season, baked over fresh coals, 2nd would be smoked bullheads.

Eyes and perch are always a good meal. But if you know how to fillet them properly, can't beat the amount of meat you can get off of a Norton.

quote griswold: "My menu will always have Pike listed before Walleye in and out of the BWCA."

I agree, Pike is the best tasting fish.
That's coated with plain liquid mustard, Bearden Farms breading, and fried in hot bacon grease or oil.
Boiled Pike, you have got to be kidding me!!!!

My first fish I caught in Boundry Waters, fished for 3 days didnt have clue what we were doing, finally caught a 32" Northern, best tasting fish ever after 3 days eating noodles!

My Favorite is Pan fried brook trout, pan fried crappies, Walleyes, and small lake trout over an open fire umm ummm good !!!

sunfish,crappies,pike,walleye,perch in that order

I haven't found a fish I didn't like (cooked correctly). However, walleye is the most overrated, and like pike way more.

If I had to pick a favorite it would be Lake Whitefish by far, cooked and seasoned almost anyway (probably not breaded and fried). By far the best if going for unseasoned (they are amazing boiled, though I'd add salt and butter).

In the BW I stick mostly to SM Bass 10"-14" (thin them out a little...)

total list of fish I've eaten (freshwater):

-lake whitefish
-rock bass
-black bullhead
-yellow bullhead
-freshwater drum
-white sucker
-common carp
-northern pike
-channel catfish
-pumpkinseed sunfish
-bluegill sunfish
-smallmouth bass
-largemouth bass
-white bass
-silver redhorse
-golden redhorse
-shorthead redhorse
-rainbow trout
-yellow perch
-black crappie
-brown trout
-lake trout
-sauger
-walleye

Perch,Crappie,Walleye,Smally, pike...all good on my plate.

Smoked carp.


Walleye or northern fried over the grate in the BWCA.

Gary

quote The Great Outdoors: "

quote griswold: "My menu will always have Pike listed before Walleye in and out of the BWCA."

I agree, Pike is the best tasting fish.
That's coated with plain liquid mustard, Bearden Farms breading, and fried in hot bacon grease or oil.
Boiled Pike, you have got to be kidding me!!!!"

Don't get me wrong. I love pan fried pike as well, but boiled pike is a nice change of pace after a week of eating everything fried in oil. I always try to do a least one pike boil before the end of each fishing trip. I've kind of acquired a taste for it over the years. But that's just me. I think I'll give your recipe a try on my next trip, it sounds great!

walleye
crappie
stream trout
not necissarily in that order

Panfish, walleye, lake trout, pike. In that order.

Pretty tough to beat pan fried walleye surrounded by natures wonders.

Cajun (Blackened) Catfish

Northern Pike for me, then Eel Pout, then Perch, Crappie, then walleye/sauger, Lakers and sunnies.

I'm with the group that thinks Walleye is overrated a bit. For me it goes:

Crappie
Perch
Sunnies
Walleye/Northern are tied

I like Crappies, sunnies, grilled salmon, Canoe country walleyes.

Best freshwater fish is easily been rainbow trout, I have many good memories of trout meals in both Minnesota and South Dakota. I've had some great winter/spring crappie.

As for the BWCA, it's hard to pick a species. If it's prepared well, anything is good. Cajun breaded fried northern is good. However, we had lake trout just twice, did the gut it and pan fry it whole in butter, I remember it being so moist and flavorful.

quote The Great Outdoors
Boiled Pike, you have got to be kidding me!!!!"

I would have said the same thing about boiling any kind of fish up until last winter when a friend boiled a northern that was deboned and cut in bite size pieces in Sprite, and them dipped it in butter(I like adding a little salt to the butter). He says it tastes like lobster I think it tasted like northern boiled in Sprite, but it is now my preferred method for cooking northern. I tried to eat a eelpout like that but it ended up in the trash, yuk. I'll stick to pan frying or smoking most anything else.
I agree with andySG about the (Yellowfin)Ahi Tuna seared with a little wasabi on the side, that's my favorite.

1 Salmon:
Rare, steamed on wet cedar (steamed not grilled - soak the cedar for a few hours, put the salmon on the cedar and then wrap the entire thing in tin foil - cook on the grill) I use cedar fencing cut to size - much cheaper than buying the planks in cooking stores.

2 Walleye:
Deep fried with Panko breading

3 No.1 Ahi Tuna (raw/sashimi)
Usually as sushi, I prefer rolls but like nigiri style as well.

Tough to pin down the "best", but fresh definitely adds to the flavor.

Living in Portland OR, I got some of my best fish meals there. Fresh halibut is hard to beat, as well as columbia river sturgeon. Best I will go with is fresh Copper River salmon, very unique flavor.

Any fish meal u catch yourself, clean up and cook is hard to beat, so I guess I have lots of best fish meals.

Walleye and Norton, for freshwater fried with cajon seasoning. Fried Grouper breaded with cereal flakes and a bowl of tarter is the absolute best.

Favorite is small brook trout, field dressed then pan-fried with salt and pepper.

Second would be a fish fry at Lakefront Brewery in Milw. after a brewery tour. :)

Blackened swordfish or halibut.

There really is nothing better than your favorite species frying up for a shore lunch.

After that, Cobia or any other really heavy white fish.

Panfish through the ice. About an hour after catching a few, I fire up the propane stove in the shack, filet em up, and pan fry in some oil and cajun breading. Nothing better!

Smoked Lake Michigan trout is tough to beat too.

1) Catfish - deep fried with a side of hushpuppies
2) Stream Trout - stuffed with butter, unions, garlic, salt and pepper; wrapped in foil and grilled until the skin falls off
3) Walley/Smallie/Pike - pan fried in a BWCA campsite

All with a cold beer.

The fresher the better - especially if you are catching and then eating on or near the surroundings where the fish was caught.

Fresh Halibut in Homer Alaska
Walleye shorelunch in Canada
Lake trout over a fire in the BW
Crappies in the fish house
Rainbow Trout grilled after a morning turkey hunt


Those are some of the memorable ones for me. I like pretty much all fish though. I am not too picky.

I agree, after eating the junk you get from the outfitter, any fish in Quetico is fantastic (typically walleye). Cajun catfish that my wife makes is #2.

Yeah, Halibut (broiled)
Ahi Tuna (just barely seared in a pan)
Mahi Mahi (broiled or grilled)
Perch or Walleye (fried or broiled)
Catfish or Redfish (blackened)
Salmon (grilled)
B.W.C.A. Pike Tacos!

I love fish. My favorite eating fish would include:

Halibut
Sea Bass
Red Snapper
Mahi Mahi
Yellowfin Tuna
Black Cod
Salmon
Whitefish
Rainbow Trout
Walleye
Panfish

...and if all we have caught is Smallmouth Bass...i love them too.

Welcome aboard MRK.

i am surprised at how many ppl like pike :) last year we had pike and walleye pretty much every night for seven days straight. One of the days towards the end of the trip when we were out of breading, we had cut three pike up and had the filets sittin in a pot of water which was apparently a lil too close to the fire, and so they slowly boiled lol... i will have to say that boiled pike is not ideal :) also, a few years ago, we had caught pike, bass and walleye. To do some taste testing we cooked them each in crisco or something i believe with no breading or anything. I was surprised at how good the bass tasted compared to the pike and walleye. It definately had more flavor, which i suppose could equate to fishy flavor if its something you froze and ate later. Fresh tho, the bass wasnt that bad. Really I am happy eating whatever in the BWCA :) I never was a fish eater until our many trips to the BWCA, but that sure has changed things for me.

I agree that Canadian/BWCA smallmouth bass is pretty good on its own. I think it tastes better than "regular" bass. Is it just me or do others think the same?

quote jeroldharter: "I agree that Canadian/BWCA smallmouth bass is pretty good on its own. I think it tastes better than "regular" bass. Is it just me or do others think the same?"

I totally agree - BW smb are much better tasting than lmb caught further south (I am pretty sure it is the colder cleaner water). I also do not eat crappie caught from June to mid September - once the water warms up they tend to be less firm and fishier tasting.

My favorite fish to eat are the ones that we catch.

But for me, nothing beats fresh Ahi Tuna dipped in Shoyu with wasabi. That has become one of my weaknesses.

From the bw.
1)eelpout
2)whitefish
3)brooks
4)lakers
5)eyes

From the ocean everything sushi. Raw fish is much better than cooked to me, in texture and flavor.

I've had all the regulars i/e walleye, northern, lake/ brook trout smallies sunnies, all are good. I'm a big fan of salmon. I've eaten a lot of saltwater fish too. Some of my favorites are mahi mahi, Rare tuna, picu picu... However I've had eel pout before a few different ways and it was foul. When I saw foul I mean I'd rather eat bugs again. My favorite way to make pike is to pickle it in a hot brine and eat it on crackers. The acids in the vinegar dissolve all the bones and kill any bacteria or parasites there may be. Hopefully.

Drbad,thats because it wasnt prepared right. You just use the back white meat,no belly. If you do it right its the richest best tasting fish. Some people would even say like lobster.

If you send me a recipe I'd be willing to try it again but I think the chances of me catching a pout before January are slim...

Anyone had any experience with paddlefish? I am referring to the white meat.

Wild Alaskan Salmon. Remove the skin before cooking. Spread 1 tsp of pesto (out of a jar is fine) on each 4-6 oz. filet. Put a little sea salt and fresh ground black pepper on it. Bake it at 375ºF for 11 - 14 minutes or until fish flakes (don't overcook it). You can't beat it, unless of course you cook it on a cedar plank on a covered grill. Don't buy farm raised fish of any kind. It is far inferior and tastes terrible compared to any wild caught fish. Try them side by side and you'll see what I'm talking about. Same goes for sea salt. Try it side by side with regular table salt. I'm fairly certain you'll toss out all of your table salt.

I would normally say walleye, but as you can imagine it's a little tough to find down in TX. I purchased some a couple of years ago @ 15.95 per pound and it was garbage! When up north it's walleye every chance I get.

HALIBUT STEAKS about an inch thick breaded with Town House crackers fryed in butter. MMM MMM GOOD.

Then Wallies,Panfish and Northern. Gotta remember everything tastes better in the BW.

My fav in order.
Pike
Wild Alaskan Salmon
Tuna
Grilled Wild Alaskan Halibut
Crappie
Walleye
Perch

I know this may sound a little crazy, but as much as I LOVE to fish, I have NO desire to eat any that I catch! It's all catch and release for me!

I agree with Jb in the Wild. I think its because of the fish.

Cod from the Norwegian Sea, caught at 3 in the morning from a small boat under the midnight sun, consumed immediately upon returning to shore, with boiled potatoes and aquavit.
A close second: Lake whitefish, handled properly.
Third: Halibut tacos at the Alaska State Fair.

My BWCA & Q fav fish
Northern as long as its prepared boneless
Lakers
Bass
Wallies with a good batter otherwise they are tasteless imo

Some Rare Ahi Tuna is by far my favorite
Followed by anything else caught fresh.
I'm intrigued by the fish taco idea in the Q. That would be a nice break from the fried
and battered fish. Just a lil bottle of some chipotle sauce to drizzle.

My most memorable was probably some really nice rainbow trouts I caught up there. Used the cajun shore lunch. I was really drunk but man it tasted soooooooo good.

Other than that I like pike and walleye like most people. I won't eat bass, suckers, blue gill, or perch. Or anything like them for that matter. Pretty much a walleye, trout, and pike guy.

Other than that I like tuna, salmon, basically any fish out of the ocean I would imagine. But it is so different than around here.

28" NP filet will feed 3 to 4..nothing better to me!

Best fish I can remember was Ono w/ butter caper sauce at Volcano House Rest at Nationational park in Hawaii. Not sure what an Ono is actually. But in general it's hard to beat a southern flounder. Orange Roughy used to be good, but I think they've been overfished. Walleye's up north of course. The pike we had was ok, but it seemed to have a stronger taste I found a little offputting. I'm not sure I really like fish if they are fishy or squishy (catfish)

It's gotta be a lake trout (only the ones with red/orange flesh, though) cooked over coals left over from a nice fire late into a May or September evening, ideally on the first or last trip of the year.

Wow, a 9 year old thread. Lots of these posters don’t even post here anymore. Ok I’ll play.

In the BWCA I would say
Brook Trout
Northern Pike
Walleye

Brook Trout

Yuck!;)

Nothing beats a y-boned out Northern. By far the best eating fish.

Definately fried walleye and crappie. But in the BW, it's hard to beat fresh lake trout over the cedar coals in early May. These were delicious!

huntfun2: "Definately fried walleye and crappie. But in the BW, it's hard to beat fresh lake trout over the cedar coals in early May. These were delicious! "

Now that looks good!

Ono is the Hawaiian name for a Wahoo

The Great Outdoors: "

quote griswold: "My menu will always have Pike listed before Walleye in and out of the BWCA."

I agree, Pike is the best tasting fish.
That's coated with plain liquid mustard, Bearden Farms breading, and fried in hot bacon grease or oil.
Boiled Pike, you have got to be kidding me!!!!"

I strongly agree with you ... Pike is the best tasting fish.
Nice thread too

For BW fish - my current order is

1. Lake trout
2. Crappie
3. Brook Trout
4. Walleye
5. Northern
6. SMB
7. LMB
8. Bluegill

5-8 I generally avoid due to all the black spot that seems to come with them. I know cooking kills it, but still not loving it.

I would love to conduct a fish eating contest. I bet I could trick alot of you in what you think you’re eating outside of trout. All based on the lake in which the fish reside, 100%.

Yellow perch: sweet and nutty

I'll be eating some this coming summer, as I found a lake with jumbo perch in it, the ones with the bulging foreheads. Yum to come!

Lawnchair107: "I would love to conduct a fish eating contest. I bet I could trick alot of you in what you think you’re eating outside of trout. All based on the lake in which the fish reside, 100%."

If deep fried in breading I couldn’t agree more. I prefer walleye in the BWCA as they are easier to clean but they are all delicious.

Top three would have to be baked lake trout, breaded walleye and breaded northern pike. My mouth is watering right now....

It's interesting how many people in this thread like pike over walleye. I used to hate pike because of all the bones, but once I learned the 5 fillet method it's been a game changer and is now one of my favorites. I don't think I've ever ate a smallie, for whatever reason they've always been released. I should give one a try sometime.

Pike, eyes, perch, sunnies, crappies, and a SE MN stream trout on the grill is tough to beat.

Of the fish I've caught - in order of taste...

1. Big thick musky steaks cooked over apple wood. (I'm going to get crucified for that one by the musky fisherman, I know...)
2. Brook Trout cooked over a bdub fire.
3. Lake trout from Mountain Lake.
4. In no particular order - striped bass, walleye, smallies, largemouth, crappie, bluegill, perch, northern - they all taste great and are heavily dependent upon spices and how you prepare them. Fried or grilled - delicious.
5. Catfish. Bottom dwellers just don't get me excited even when they taste okay.
6. Suckers. We ate 4 of them in the BW and they were awful.

In the BW I think pike are the best and lakers are the worst, but they are all excellent if cleaned and prepared properly. Walleye, saugers, and yellow perch are my favorite because of the ease of cleaning and they are reliably excellent (also plentiful and very easy to catch in canoe country) but pike taste even better. Outside of the BW but still fresh water, I would add stripers, wipers, blue catfish, flathead catfish, crappie, sunfish. I like the mild flavored fish and do not appreciate fishy or muddy flavors. We have for many years done large fish fries with 20-40 people and the consensus for the average person in blind taste tests is almost always walleye, catfish or crappie being the favorite. Catfish does require a bit more trimming of dark meat and fat but the results are outstanding, similar to the effort required for pike. I have tried over 40 species and we eat fish a lot and share it a lot. What a person likes is variable, but a lot has to do with prejudices. I have had drum, carp, gar, suckers, buffalo, bullheads, whitefish and other rough fish that have been excellent and restaurant worthy, but have also had a lot of very bad fish, often popular species that were served in popular restaurants. You have to know what you are doing!

Bluegill

For those who don't like trout, its probably because you are frying it. I cook my trout with the skin on and only use a little oil to keep the skin from sticking to the tinfoil or grill grate. There is already enough oil and fat in trout, so frying it makes it way too greasy.

Walleye is the second best because it's easy to prepare flakey white meat.

Pike is close behind, but it is a hassle to get all the bones out unless you have been doing it for years or are cleaning big pike. The Y bones are easy to cut through on eater sized fish.

Best fish I've eaten that I caught myself are cutthroat trout caught in Alaska, Mahi Mahi and marlin caught in Mexico, and BWCA trout, northern, with walleye down the list, although I do remember some great walleye given to us by commercial fishermen near Kettle Falls a half century ago. My friend in Alaska says the salmon we get down here are mostly what he calls dog salmon, so named because they feed them to the dogs up there, not people. He swears by halibut and the tiger prawns they can catch there. I remember one memorable meal with him when we had king crab which he took directly from the pots of a friend who was a commercial crab fisherman. Then, there is nothing like a 200 pound marlin on the line.

Brook Trout

Close call for me between bluegill and crappie

MidwestMan: "Close call for me between bluegill and crappie"

skin on or off? I scale and like the skin.

Pinetree: "

MidwestMan: "Close call for me between bluegill and crappie"

skin on or off? I scale and like the skin."

Never tried it but I certainly will in the future!

Basspro69: "Brook Trout "

I once baked a fresh caught brook trout without adding any seasoning or additional flavor and it was like eating candy.

Hard to beat bluegills. Although eater size smallmouth bass and walleyes are strong contenders too.

Gadfly: "

Basspro69: "Brook Trout "

I once baked a fresh caught brook trout without adding any seasoning or additional flavor and it was like eating candy. "

Agree 100 percent !

NEIowapaddler: "Hard to beat bluegills. Although eater size smallmouth bass and walleyes are strong contenders too. "

Smallmouth around 14 inches are very sweet tasting.

Pinetree: "

MidwestMan: "Close call for me between bluegill and crappie"

skin on or off? I scale and like the skin."

Scaled with the skin on is a great option for bluegills. But I have recipes for Bluegill Bouillabaisse and Deviled Bluegill so I skin half my bluegills.

Pinetree: "

NEIowapaddler: "Hard to beat bluegills. Although eater size smallmouth bass and walleyes are strong contenders too. "

Smallmouth around 14 inches are very sweet tasting."

They sure are. Smallies are by far the most underrated fish when it comes to table fare. I honestly can't tell a difference between them and bluegills, flavor-wise. And even a 14" smallie has more meat on the filets than 2 slab 'gills.