fishy tasting fish

[Eye Dog]

He Hans those sea gulls fight prety good too.
Good post Eye Dog

[Hans]

Friend of mine once caught a muskrat on a Rapala (true story!). Helluva fight, and it bit him 4 times when he was trying to fillet it (not so true story). Didn't taste like fish though, more like chicken. ;-)

Hans

[WAeyes]

Hans, I think you took that organs thing a little to literal. Would gamey be more politically correct?

[chrism]

I hear ya about the fat/cholesterol thing. The buttermilk soak does something to the muddy/gamey flavour some fish has, I don't know how, but it works. I routinely buttermilk soak fish from one of the lakes that I fish as the fish are awfully muddy, but I have also washed/rinsed off the buttermilk and then steamed - the muddy taste is gone, and the fillets are light and ready for however you want to cook them.
I was told yesterday that light buttermilk has less fat and cholesterol than whole milk...I'm going to look into that one - I always thought buttermilk was like cream!
Good luck and Happy eating!

[Gunga Din]

Hey Mac,

I put casting plugs on my kids poles occasionally at home and have them practice in the back yard. The cat loves to chase those things. You could try replacing the casting plug with a 00 trebel baited with a live mouse! I hear cat is a delicacy in some Asian countries.

try gutting and rinsing the fish before filleting it. could be the meat is getting contaminated with bile and/or other gut flavours......or... rapala has a video that shows garry roach filleting fish without disturbing or cutting into the stomach cavity. it takes a little practice and is a little slower but a lot cleaner.....no blood and guts smeared everywhere.

try knicking the fishes gill while it is still in the live well. the fishes heart pumps the blood out and you will end up with whiter, cleaner tasting fillets.

Corey,
I freeze my fish in the following manner. First, put the fillets in a bowl of cold water immediately after cleaning. When all of the fish are cleaned, rinse the fillets thoroughly with cold water. Put the fillets in an appropriate sized freezer bag and cover with water. Immerse the bag of fillets in a sink full of water and squeeze out as much excess water from the bag as possible and close the seal while still submerged. This eliminates all of the air from the bag and minimizes the amount of water in the bag so that thawing is easier. Make sure you label the bag for the number of fillets it contains and the date. Fillets cared for and stored in this manner will keep indefinitely.

two main concerns with fishy fish; wrong lake-some lakes are not created equal for taste, but primarily correct care. one must take care of live fish not letting them die in the livewell. take your fish out of the well before they die and put them on ice. my dad went on a great trip to so. dak. once and had great stories about the fishing. too bad the fish tasted like leutefisk. yes, fish should taste like fish, but not slimy,fishy leutefisk.

Agreed...remove the blood line (zippering)

Soak in milk for a couple of hours...

for baking:

dip fillets in melted butter
then in mixture of 1 part bread crumbs to 3 parts Idaho Potato flakes (season to taste..I like dill weed)
put on no-stick cookie sheet in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Flip over and bake until golden brown.

This recipe makes them crispy as deep fried but without all the grease. MMMMM MMMMMMMM Good!