Spoonbill

[MrGiggles]

What's the secret to making them things taste good?

I fried some last night, and man, it was not good. Real fishy tasting. 

We did everything you're supposed to, pulled out the spinal cord, trimmed all the red meat, etc.. It was not the freshest, been in the freezer since last April but I figured it would've been fine. 

Any suggestions?

[Dutch]

I only tried it once.  My experience was the same as yours.  I don’t need seconds.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

tried it, fried, baked, grilled, blackened. None of it tasted any good to me. I would love to try someones that swears its good

[Dutch]

2 hours ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

tried it, fried, baked, grilled, blackened. None of it tasted any good to me. I would love to try someones that swears its good

I’d want to have their taste buds tested before I just took their word and tried some.

[Quillback]

Sending up the bat signal for Marty @BilletHeadhe can make anything taste good.  If he says they aren't any good to eat, then they aren't any good to eat.  😃

[Terrierman]

And the texture is not appealing to me either.  To me it's better grilled than any other way but still lower on the ladder than just about anything other than freshwater drum.  Either would be welcome if you were lost at sea for a few weeks and ran out of moldy hardtack.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

Sending up the bat signal for Marty @BilletHeadhe can make anything taste good.  If he says they aren't any good to eat, then they aren't any good to eat.  😃

                It has been many moons since I ate spoonbill. Let's see I am not sure when it first opened again after Truman Lake was built. I am guessing mid 80s maybe? I was there trying and caught some. Brought them home and cleaned to the best of my ability not knowing what I was doing. I do remember it was fatty and lots or red meat. By the time I got butchered what was left wasn't much. We fried some fresh and found it ok. What was good though was what my mom did with it. She brined it and smoked in a little chief smoker. During the smoking process the oil/fat/grease ran out of the meat. This was very good stuff.  At that time, I was still an apprentice lineman. I took it to work and shared with the lineman and foreman on the truck. They were all over it and each day I brought it disappeared quickly. 

    I think it's just a fatty fish like a big catfish and white bass. You have to get all the red out and fatty looking parts. Some fats get rancid with age. Let's use white bass as an example. Cleaned well it is really good fresh. Freeze it and you have to use it pretty quickly or it will get strong.  Even crappie can get strong. I have learned eat your fish fresh or frozen really quick.  Learned that many years ago when being a young fisher person we would try to always keep our legal possession limit in the freezer. No need to do that eat those fish fresh or gift to someone that does not fish.  

[Seth]

The people I know of that REALLY like them all grill or smoke it. They are a lot more fun to catch than they are to clean and eat to me.

Try cooking them this way.

Get a charcoal grill good and hot.
Melt butter and liberally season with cajun seasoning.
Dip 1" strips of paddlefish fillets in the melted cajun butter mix.
Throw paddlefish strips on grill and cook each side for 4 minutes.
Eat them while they are hot.
It was about like eating grilled chicken.

The only paddlefish that I bother keeping is the smaller fish caught below Bagnell dam. They are usually snakey, river fish but taste better than the big reservoir fish IMO.

[fishinwrench]

I chunked up a mediocre sized blue cat a month ago, and apparently cut the chunks too thick.   It didn't cook well enough in the center.....and it was downright nasty.    

With any fried fish I think the thickness of the fillets/pieces needs to match the temperature of the grease.   I'm used to cooking white bass/crappie fillets at 400°......but those catfish chunks would have been burnt on the outside way before the center got properly cooked.  Lowering the temp of the grease probably would have saved that meal.  

[fshndoug]

Wrench burns cornbread if you let him