You Can Eat Whitefish!

[dave potts]

A few years ago we were in the upper tip of the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. There was a commercial smoker place there and we tried both the smoked salmon and the smoked whitefish. Although I preferred the salmon, the whitefish was very good.

[exiledguide]

I was confused. We ate whitefish in NW Ontario at camp fish fries and they were really good so I looked up whitefish and I guess there are at least two different kinds , lake whitefish which are served in restaurants in Canada and the upper Midwest and mountain whitefish.

[kjackson]

Ahhh, the Little Chief, smoked a lot of salmon and steelhead in one of those, man that was good stuff! You can't beat warm, right out of the smoker, salmon. Take a piece of that snack sized rye bread, spread some mayo on it, add some smoked salmon, top it off with some chopped red onion and a couple of capers - good eats!

Or...take some smoked chinook, flake it, mix in a bit of minced onion, a dash of Tabasco and cream cheese....

Quill--have you tried smoking any of the fish out here? I'm tempted to try white bass as they have a lot of oil. However, I my Little Chief wasn't fit to move. I may experiment with my grill, and if whities are decent, invest in a Little Chief.

[exiledguide]

Or...take some smoked chinook, flake it, mix in a bit of minced onion, a dash of Tabasco and cream cheese....

Quill--have you tried smoking any of the fish out here? I'm tempted to try white bass as they have a lot of oil. However, I my Little Chief wasn't fit to move. I may experiment with my grill, and if whities are decent, invest in a Little Chief.

We have been grilling panfish for a long time now. Bluegill, crappie, whites, yellow perch etc used Jim Houston's Kraft Italian dressing with Teriyaky sauce as a marinade.

[Al Agnew]

Yep, these are mountain whitefish, different though closely related species to the Great Lakes whitefish.

Cutting the red meat off isn't easy. It's in a layer under the skin that's about an eighth inch thick, plus a deeper strip right down the middle of the fillet. I was able to shave off much of the thin layer, but just left the other parts and the remains of the layer.

One source suggested they are a lot better in winter and early spring when the water is very cold, and the muddy taste gets a lot worse in the summer.

[Quillback]

Or...take some smoked chinook, flake it, mix in a bit of minced onion, a dash of Tabasco and cream cheese....

Quill--have you tried smoking any of the fish out here? I'm tempted to try white bass as they have a lot of oil. However, I my Little Chief wasn't fit to move. I may experiment with my grill, and if whities are decent, invest in a Little Chief.

I never have smoked white bass or panfish, I have smoked trout and they were pretty tasty but not good as salmon. I did not bring my Little Chief out here either. inside was covered in a layer of that brown, oily smoke residue. Carp are supposed to be good smoked, but I'd want to try some before investing in all the smoking stuff.

[kjackson]

I never have smoked white bass or panfish, I have smoked trout and they were pretty tasty but not good as salmon. I did not bring my Little Chief out here either. inside was covered in a layer of that brown, oily smoke residue. Carp are supposed to be good smoked, but I'd want to try some before investing in all the smoking stuff.

I had the same issues, plus the coons decided to open it one night (after the fish was out), and they didn't quite use the right technique. As for the smoking gear, I do need a turkey/pork butt smoker, and I'll probably pick one of those up this spring. That will be the test. If it works, a Little Chief will be next. Of course, a trip to Sitka would settle the issue of whether or not to get a smoker...

[Quillback]

Good old Sitka, made a few trips up there in the 90's. Always came home with a load of halibut and salmon. I wonder how the salmon fishing is holding up in Sitka? It the timing was right we caught a buttload of silvers in the 10-12 lb. range, with an occasional King thrown in. One concern I have is getting the fish back here still frozen.

[kjackson]

I'm not sure how the fishing is holding up, Quill, but I'm sure there are more salmon than here.

My last trip north was to Kodiak where we did well on silvers but had missed the kings. As far as traveling with fish, one of my buddies lived in New York and said he had no issues bringing back fish from Alaska. I'm thinking if you were able to schedule your flights out of a major airport like KC, things would be OK --assuming it wasn't 106 in the shade like last summer. A lot would depend upon time in transit and also how well the fish was packed. I'd probably bring along some of that Mylar-backed bubble wrap and insist my fish was packed in that.

[grizzly]

Nice post Al. I caught a big 19' white on the Gallatin about 4 years ago. And sure enough, it was on a prince nymph. I know they get the report as being a trash fish, but I thought it was a relatively beautiful fish.