BWCA Favorite way to cook fish in the BWCA Boundary Waters BWCA Food and Recipes
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05/01/2016 02:57PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Looking at what you guys bring to cook your fish in the BWCA....

Foil?
Lemon?
Special seasoning?

We like frying fish - but we're not going to bring in "that much" oil to do that... so wondering how you like to cook your fish!

**** sorry I didn't see the main thread of "fish recipes" ****** at the top.
 
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jeremylynn
member (14)member
  
05/01/2016 06:11PM  
You dont need a lot of oil. add a little oil,drop fillets in and flip to coat the other side. We never "deep fry" the fish.
This is our preference anyway.
 
jeremylynn
member (14)member
  
05/01/2016 06:14PM  
Bacon grease is really good. Try it.
 
Old Hoosier
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05/02/2016 12:01PM  
Fillet and dry the meat well. Then rub just enough olive oil on them to get seasoning to stick. Oil the grate heavily so they don't stick.

Can use squeeze butter instead of olive oil on the fillets - great flavor when carmelized over fire. If you have one - bring a burger basket (with long handle) and let the kids roast the fillets while you do other things.

Broil right over a camp fire - and smoke is a GOOD flavor adder.

Best you will ever get - in the woods or any high end restaurant.

Old Hoosier

 
Swampturtle
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05/03/2016 03:50PM  
I never know how I am going to feel at the end of the day or what the weather will be, so I cover all my bases. I don't deep fry either, just enough ghee/canola oil to get it going if I am cooking it in a pan. I bring zatarains fish fry & 2 small shakers of spice blends. Old bay & Montreal steak seasoning from Penzeys. I bring a few folded sheets of non-stick Reynolds wrap if I feel like dusting with spices & cooking over the fire grate. I don't bring any extra tools for cooking over the campfire, so fish in foil packets is my way of enjoying fish that way.
 
Loony_canoe
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05/03/2016 06:36PM  
Depends on the fish. But my very favotite is a lightly egg and flour fried felled. Second is foil baked with butter, lemon, and dill.
 
Canoe42
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05/03/2016 10:48PM  
This is awesome. Lobster
 
Kentucky2Nashville
senior member (63)senior membersenior member
  
05/09/2016 08:58PM  
Ran out of crisco last year with a couple days left. We bank on eating fish every night, so obviously we had to think of something. Best thing that ever happened.

We always bring a bunch of add boiling water pasta sides you get from the grocery. Alfredo-style. subsitute powdered milk.

We thought to ourselves, "Gee, I wonder if we could boil the walleye in chunks and then just add it to pasta?!"

YES! It's killer!!

Be sure to throw a ton of Cajun spice, salt, and pepper in the water while the fish is boiling. Gives it some kick

Throw it on top of the pasta you cooked separately.

Boom----brand new way to enjoy bwca fish!

 
05/09/2016 11:25PM  

K2N,

Great idea. Going to give it a try on this years trip.
 
Kentucky2Nashville
senior member (63)senior membersenior member
  
05/10/2016 09:59AM  
Love to hear that, Wally. I would assume it's healthier as well?

I plan on doing it half the trip this year.
 
ayudell
distinguished member (156)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/11/2016 11:15PM  
Fish Corn Chowder
My wife dehydrates ingredients and puts together some excellent corn chowder recipes that go into plastic bags. Get the soup boiling, and drop in big chunks of filets. Only boil for a couple minutes or they get soggy and fall apart. This is great with white or pink fish. I have also had luck doing the same thing with pre-made dehydrated soups like the Bear Creek soups you can get from just about any grocery store.

Tin Foil Lake Trout
This is my favorite ever. Catch a nice eater lake trout ~24". Rinse off as much slime as possible, cut off the head and gut. Stuff the inside of the trout with onions and a lemon slice, put in a goodly splash of olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Wrap the whole thing tight with aluminum foil. Place the package on the fire grate and cook over the fire until the foil starts charring. Flip and cook until charring again. Pick the big chunks of meat off with a fork and eat. The skin on trout is edible and tasty.
 
Savage Voyageur
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05/12/2016 08:12AM  
We use home made fish breeding from Pikehunter, then in a cast iron fry pan over the fire. For oil we use butter flavored Crisco. Not much better than that.
 
05/14/2016 02:25PM  
Fried in lard, it doesn't stick. Plus I get plenty when I get a hog butchered.
 
Magnumb
senior member (55)senior membersenior member
  
05/16/2016 03:14PM  
My favorite way is to smoke it...not roll it up and smoke it, but smoke it teepee style then eat it cold with crackers and salt.
 
Jackfish
Moderator
  
05/16/2016 03:50PM  
quote Captn Tony: "Fried in lard, it doesn't stick. Plus I get plenty when I get a hog butchered."

"Excuse me, you guys ever hear about the ongoing cholesterol problem in the country?"

~ Vincent LaGuardia Gambini
from My Cousin Vinny
 
05/17/2016 01:02PM  
We used to fry SMB and walleye all the time, but breading and frying fish out in the woods can be a mess and pain.

Over the last couple of years we've tried to find alternatives to frying.

A couple of our favorites are "baking" fillets unwrapped on heavy foil right in the fire with a little butter, onion and lemon. Completely wrapping them will more or less steam them. (that's good, too, but doesn't give them any "smokey" flavor)

The second way, and this is a little unorthodox, is to roll the fillets up and skewer them with a bamboo skewer and grill over the fire. I usually give them a good dusting of seasonings before I roll them up.

Last year I gave the grilled rolls a light drizzle of honey, soy sauce, ghee, garlic and ginger mixture a few minutes before removing them from the fire. They were very tasty.
 
05/17/2016 01:45PM  
Besides frying fish in oil with onion and garlic salt, I sometimes like to hot smoke a walleye. You can do it with a stick propped over the fire or with a tripod of sticks and hanging the gutted fish on a string (or stringer). You leave it there in the smoke for about an hour or two until the meat is flaky. Then you just peel back the skin and enjoy the hot smoky fish.

I know this is not true smoking since I am not dehydrating it, I am slow cooking it in the hot smoke. You can also rub salt/seasoning into the fish before cooking for flavor.
 
Saberboys
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05/18/2016 11:26AM  
quote A1t2o: "Besides frying fish in oil with onion and garlic salt, I sometimes like to hot smoke a walleye. You can do it with a stick propped over the fire or with a tripod of sticks and hanging the gutted fish on a string (or stringer). You leave it there in the smoke for about an hour or two until the meat is flaky. Then you just peel back the skin and enjoy the hot smoky fish.


I know this is not true smoking since I am not dehydrating it, I am slow cooking it in the hot smoke. You can also rub salt/seasoning into the fish before cooking for flavor."


Oh boy I will have to give this a try!
 
TuscaroraBorealis
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02/11/2017 08:47AM  


Generally we use some onions & a bed of bacon, seasonings etc. Possibilities are endless
 
Trapper7
senior member (66)senior membersenior member
  
02/14/2017 06:31PM  
Favorite way depends on what kind of fish for me. Lake trout would be a little butter, homemade maple syrup, salt, and pepper wrapped in tin foil. Walleye and pike battered with Andy's red and fried in Parkay squeeze butter. Bass is boiled in chunks and added to Bear Creek clam chowder soup, mmmmm.
 
02/15/2017 01:09PM  
We do the Crisco butter flavored sticks. 1/2 stick will fry a lot of fish.
Have to do walleye 2 or 3 times this way per trip. Another favorite is bacon wrapped LT. For cold days Bear Creek wild rice soup with added extra wild rice, dehydrated carrots&celery and old bay to taste. Put raw fish chunks in late enough to cook them but not so early as they are broken up during cooking.
 
Dances with Sheep
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02/15/2017 01:57PM  
quote AmarilloJim:For cold days Bear Creek wild rice soup with added extra wild rice, dehydrated carrots&celery and old bay to taste. Put raw fish chunks in late enough to cook them but not so early as they are broken up during cooking."


That sounds awesome. I'll try this on my next trip.
 
02/15/2017 05:09PM  
Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?


On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout.
 
GoSpursGo
distinguished member (267)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
02/16/2017 09:38AM  
quote Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?



On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout. "


You must eat like kings... but how heavy is that food pack?? Is that cast iron?
 
02/17/2017 11:40PM  
quote GoSpursGo: "
quote Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?




On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout. "



You must eat like kings... but how heavy is that food pack?? Is that cast iron?"


We do eat well. That little beauty is a 7 1/2" pan that weighs 2# 13 oz. An aluminum pan is OK over a gas stove, but nothing beats a cast iron pan on the fire. You should see the bannock and hash browns that this thing turns out! It is heavy, but every trip we do a gear review, and the cast iron makes the cut without question. Cooking over a fire saves more than it's with weight with fuel weight. With groups of greater than 3, I bring a 10' 1/2" pan that weighs in at a shade over 6#. That is a lot of weight, but you can't put a price on the performance of cast iron. I just paid $98 for a new SS firegrate. It will allow me to cook some whoopass meals in the Q or on Canadian Crown Land that I couldn't normally do. Like anything else it is a compromise. At the end of the day, that is the price of one nice meal out with my wife in exchange for hundreds of nice meals in the woods.
 
huntfun2
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02/22/2017 03:48PM  
The only way I know how!!
 
02/23/2017 07:42PM  
The healthy way to eat fish in the northwoods:








Oops, I meant this one:



 
1JimD
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02/25/2017 08:15PM  
Frying has been my favorite for panfish, pike and walleye. Olive oil not very much. When I'm done, there is very little to dispose of !

Salmon, with Mayonaise, and wrapped in tinfoil is AWESOME. Can't see why it wouldn't work for other fish !

Jim
 
Mickeal
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03/11/2017 03:23PM  
When not portaging or a short portage we carry a 1 gallon propane tank and a small gas grill. Throw wood chips on the heat diffuser and smoke trout. This was Seagull a couple years ago.
 
scoutmastermark
  
03/14/2017 12:49PM  
Like this,, foil and squeeze parkay margarine... either in a pan or foil..depending on how lazy we are doing dishes..Salt/pepper/lemon pepper...mmm
 
03/14/2017 10:31PM  
This is my favorite way to do trout in the Q...pull over to a nice point, cut off the head, remove the guts, stuff with onion and lemon pepper, wrap it in foil, cook 8 minutes or so per side, and enjoy!

 
03/17/2017 07:41PM  
Our favorite thus far has been a small jar of TJ's ghee, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
 
nmillette
member (32)member
  
05/20/2017 05:34PM  
We used to fry fish, but after wasting tons of gas, and carrying lots of oil we decided to bake it over the grate one night after running out of oil. We try to get cedar, put tin foil on the grate, and cook it over the fire. We haven't carried oil other than a dropper to keep the fish from sticking to the foil. We bring slap your momma and or paprika for seasoning. I have used the reflector oven with a tinfoil pan also. Try it, you won't regret it!
 
DrBobDg
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05/21/2017 04:21PM  
we have done fillets in a skillet with some squeeze margarine and soy sauce...couple minutes on each side. way tastey.

dr bob
 
05/22/2017 03:22PM  
Any way other than the way we did it last year. We (well, I) forgot the shore lunch so we figured hey, this pancake mix we have is more or less the same thing, right?

Wrong.

Turns out that pancake mix is just breading with no salt or seasoning and the end result is what can adequately be described as fish pancakes.

On a serious note I'm a big fan of just a sprinkle of shore lunch on both side fried in an adequate amount of oil. That stuff really is well engineered to be tasty. Alternately some lemon and dill and/or lemon pepper seasoning and cooked on the grate (with some foil under it) is delightful as well, but really they're (almost) all good ways of cooking it if it's fresh BWCA fish!
 
05/22/2017 08:42PM  
lake trout with stove top stuffing, lemon and spices, cooked in the super hot coals.




northern pike deep fried.



 
mapsguy1955
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06/17/2017 08:08AM  
Real easy and restaurant quality... Whatever fillet you have, dredge in pre-made flour/cornmeal/blackened seasoning mix (to taste), heat 2 tbsp olive oil and same of butter in your frying pan to bubbling and cook fish halfway and flip once until done (lightly browned). Put fish on serving plates and quickly put 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (squeeze bottle fine) into remaining HOT oil mixture. It will quickly bubble and you stir together and put small spoonful on each piece of fish on the plate...

It is an easy cleanup as there is no oil left in frying pan and is delicious and fast.
 
TwoByGreenCanoe
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06/18/2017 09:15PM  
Cut filets into inch to inch and a half chunks drop into boiling water briefly. Add Bear Creek creamy wild rice soup till done. Enjoy.
 
06/26/2017 12:15PM  
on our last trip , we did pan seared lake trout with the skin on , no breading, just a little crisco in the pan and it was fantastic !!!
 
GeoFisher
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06/28/2017 06:02PM  

This:
 
TheGreatIndoors
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06/28/2017 08:37PM  
^^^^ What is that lake trout resting on? Cedar?
 
GearJunkie
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04/24/2018 12:10PM  
For you guys using bacon....how long does it last and/or how do you preserve it?
 
04/25/2018 07:51AM  
The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me.
 
fishinfool71
senior member (82)senior membersenior member
  
04/26/2018 10:13AM  
Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?



On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. "

OK Wables.....You definitely hit my sweet spot. I always bring 3# plus of bacon for our trips. Usually fry bacon first as appetizer and fry fish in the grease. First day this year bacon wrapped eyes on the menu. Thanks for the tip
 
fishinfool71
senior member (82)senior membersenior member
  
04/26/2018 10:18AM  
AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."

Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings.
 
04/26/2018 03:07PM  
fishinfool71: "
Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?




On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. "

OK Wables.....You definitely hit my sweet spot. I always bring 3# plus of bacon for our trips. Usually fry bacon first as appetizer and fry fish in the grease. First day this year bacon wrapped eyes on the menu. Thanks for the tip"


Only thing better is bacon wrapped LT
 
backpackingZombie
senior member (92)senior membersenior member
  
08/04/2021 10:06AM  
fishinfool71: "
AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."

Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings. "


This is golden. I've failed (my fault, nobody else) at fishing in the BWCA so far but am trying again this year and really want to be prepped for being able to fry up some fish for my buddies if any are caught. I really don't want to transport oil in my pack just because of the obvious reasons, but this frozen bacon route seems like a solid plan :)

 
08/05/2021 08:15AM  
backpackingZombie: "
fishinfool71: "
AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."

Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings. "



This is golden. I've failed (my fault, nobody else) at fishing in the BWCA so far but am trying again this year and really want to be prepped for being able to fry up some fish for my buddies if any are caught. I really don't want to transport oil in my pack just because of the obvious reasons, but this frozen bacon route seems like a solid plan :)


"


Try trolling about 30' off shore and you should catch all the NP you need.
Just learn the 5 fillet technique before you go.
 
08/05/2021 12:00PM  
Take a slip bobber and a crawler or leaches fishing on about 10 ft of water right off your campsite and be patient. You’ll eventually can catch a smallmouth bass which in the bdub is good to eat.
 
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