What are some tasty fresh water fish?

#43
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#43
SouthGa Fisher said:
Most people don't know how to clean/cook a jack or a sucker...I was brought up running nets for suckers. Nothing beats them cooked on the bank of the river by a fire. I've had every fish mentioned above except paddlefish, **including walleye from the north GA mountain lakes**, and none compare.

Walleye is easily next on the list though.
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Is a White sucker the same as a Red Horse?

Try Whitefish if you get a chance,,,,really good smoked,cold smoked,that is,,,,
 
#44
blakely

blakely

Senior Member
#44
SouthGa Fisher said:
That is a lost art that few know how to do anymore. If someone trusts you enough to eat a sucker you've cleaned and cooked for them, then you know what you're doing.

Personally, I'll only eat one if I cleaned it. Too many people think they can do it until they spit out a mouthful of bones.
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You're correct about people not knowing how to gash suckers and jacks. When I was doing a lot of netting, my boys were very young I'd give them suckers that I'd gashed and never had a problem.

When gashing, I keep my knife shaving sharp and would touch it up on a butcher's steel when I started feeling the bones as I gashed the fillets.

From looking at the pic, Nic knows what he's doing.
 
#51
Geno67

Geno67

Senior Member
#51
A lot of fish can be good that you would not expect. Blue cats that chase shad in the turbulent water in tailraces are generally quite good. As with anything, it depends on what they have been eating and the water quality where they're caught.

Bass are ok.
Specks (crappie - not speckled trout) are good but on the small side.
Most if not all of the trout are very good but pink fleshed.
Walleye are very good.
Sauger are very good.
The entire perch family are good but usually small.
 
#54
NCHillbilly

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
#54
GONoob said:
I cant stand a catfish's after taste. Tastes like sewage. I find that the smaller ones are better, though.
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You are doing something wrong, then, because catfish don't have an aftertaste. They taste like a flounder fillet if done right. You are either eating nasty farm-raised catfish, or you aren't cleaning them. Get anything red or yellow off there, down to the clean white meat. Remove all the skin and gunk under it. Steaks off a 50-lb flathead taste just like Chilean sea bass or halibut if they're handled right.
 
#56
O

oldfella1962

Senior Member
#56
blood on the ground said:
Had a guy tell me he didn't know bass were edible.... clueless!
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could be because so many bass fishermen practice "catch & release" it would seem like nobody wants to keep & eat them. :unsure: I keep one now & then, especially if they are hooked deep, bleeding & otherwise torn up from being caught. But the small lake I'm fishing at tomorrow for example is overpopulated with small, skinny bass so I'd be doing the lake a favor by keeping a few.
 
#57
O

oldfella1962

Senior Member
#57
blakely said:
Not the first mention of jackfish - the best tasting freshwater fish there is. Next would be red horse sucker but they're usually caught in a net.
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jackfish pickled (vinegar melts the bones) is great. Recipes & techniques are on the internet. It's a great way to prepare the really small ones.
 
#58
O

oldfella1962

Senior Member
#58
SouthGa Fisher said:
That is a lost art that few know how to do anymore. If someone trusts you enough to eat a sucker you've cleaned and cooked for them, then you know what you're doing.

Personally, I'll only eat one if I cleaned it. Too many people think they can do it until they spit out a mouthful of bones.
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Suckers wood smoked are great. In Wisconsin we could legally net them when they spawned in creeks. They were a different kind of sucker (maybe white sucker) but I would think redhorse would be about the same.
 
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