So Many Varieties

[Al Agnew]

I think others have said that flavor depends upon how they were cooked.  I would add that flavor also depends upon how they were taken care of before being cooked, and what kind of water they came from.  I love fish.  I'll eat just about any kind of fish and probably enjoy it, IF it's from decent water, cared for, and cooked well.  But my test of good tasting versus bad-tasting fish is in eating some that are prepared in the simplest way; simply quick frying them with only a few seasonings and no breading or coating.  I do that occasionally when I don't want to make a big production out of things.  Fixed that way, I find most saltwater fish and most fish you can buy easily commercially to be far inferior to the best of freshwater fish.  My rankings of fish fixed that way probably go:

1.  Bluegill fillets, or other sunfish big enough to fillet, including goggle-eye.

2.  Crappie.

3.  Small bass, under 14 inches; the smaller the better.  An 8-inch spotted bass is terrific.

4.  Walleye.

5.  Redhorse.

6.  Pickerel.

7.  Wild trout.

8.  Catfish from CLEAN water.  Catfish tend to take on the undesirable characteristics of the water they live in more than most other fish.

By taking good care of fish, I mean the following:  Kill it immediately.  Put it on ice immediately.  Clean it carefully, avoiding getting stomach contents on the meat.  If freezing it, freeze it immersed completely in clean water after cleaning the fillets carefully.  If you let a fish die or nearly die (fins faded out and color washed out but still alive) on a stringer or in a live well, or just let it swim around on a stringer or a live well in warm water, taste will suffer.  If you don't freeze it immersed in water, it doesn't take long for the taste to suffer.  So if I'm going after eating fish, I plan accordingly.  I do keep spotted bass in the livewell in the winter when the water is cold; they'll usually do quite well all day.  But in the summer it's a questionable practice for fish you plan to eat.

I'm also against heavily seasoned breading.  That's for bad fish.  Good fish like those at the top of my list, I want them deep fried in cornmeal with nothing but salt and pepper to taste, and first dipped in a mixture of egg and milk so that the cornmeal sticks to them well.  And DON'T overfry them; you want the meat to just be flaky, so much so that it's difficult to lift a fillet without it falling apart.  Overfrying makes them tough and they lose half their flavor.

  

[Terrierman]

No one that I can remember has mentioned Pollock.  It's a lot like Cod.  Very good for the table.

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, Al Agnew said:

I think others have said that flavor depends upon how they were cooked.  I would add that flavor also depends upon how they were taken care of before being cooked, and what kind of water they came from.  I love fish.  I'll eat just about any kind of fish and probably enjoy it, IF it's from decent water, cared for, and cooked well.  But my test of good tasting versus bad-tasting fish is in eating some that are prepared in the simplest way; simply quick frying them with only a few seasonings and no breading or coating.  I do that occasionally when I don't want to make a big production out of things.  Fixed that way, I find most saltwater fish and most fish you can buy easily commercially to be far inferior to the best of freshwater fish.  My rankings of fish fixed that way probably go:

1.  Bluegill fillets, or other sunfish big enough to fillet, including goggle-eye.

2.  Crappie.

3.  Small bass, under 14 inches; the smaller the better.  An 8-inch spotted bass is terrific.

4.  Walleye.

5.  Redhorse.

6.  Pickerel.

7.  Wild trout.

8.  Catfish from CLEAN water.  Catfish tend to take on the undesirable characteristics of the water they live in more than most other fish.

By taking good care of fish, I mean the following:  Kill it immediately.  Put it on ice immediately.  Clean it carefully, avoiding getting stomach contents on the meat.  If freezing it, freeze it immersed completely in clean water after cleaning the fillets carefully.  If you let a fish die or nearly die (fins faded out and color washed out but still alive) on a stringer or in a live well, or just let it swim around on a stringer or a live well in warm water, taste will suffer.  If you don't freeze it immersed in water, it doesn't take long for the taste to suffer.  So if I'm going after eating fish, I plan accordingly.  I do keep spotted bass in the livewell in the winter when the water is cold; they'll usually do quite well all day.  But in the summer it's a questionable practice for fish you plan to eat.

I'm also against heavily seasoned breading.  That's for bad fish.  Good fish like those at the top of my list, I want them deep fried in cornmeal with nothing but salt and pepper to taste, and first dipped in a mixture of egg and milk so that the cornmeal sticks to them well.  And DON'T overfry them; you want the meat to just be flaky, so much so that it's difficult to lift a fillet without it falling apart.  Overfrying makes them tough and they lose half their flavor.

  

Your first three are all sunfish unless I've made a mistake.  AND I note the complete absence of any saltwater fish.  Whatsamatter you hey?

[tjm]

Crappie are not sunfish. Although they look like they could be.

[tjm]

1 hour ago, Al Agnew said:

Kill it immediately

and bleed the things. Even fresh from the  hatchery trout will taste good enough if bleed out while still squirming. The carp that I bled were fine eating too. And I'm not a real fan of eating fish. In my opinion all fish taste better without the bread and spices, but still fall far below a boiled brisket.

[Johnsfolly]

14 hours ago, Terrierman said:

No one that I can remember has mentioned Pollock.  It's a lot like Cod.  Very good for the table.

Back in New England we would often get scrod, which was more often young cod, but could be haddock and pollock. Those three all get kind of lumped together in my opinion.

My list is as follows:

Bluegill

Wahoo

Grouper / snapper (yellowtail, red, mutton)

well cleaned white bass / <12 inch black bass

Black Sea bass / Tautog

cod / haddock / pollock aka scrod😉

sushi eel

Yellow perch / crappie / flounder

Striper / hybrid / kingfish (whiting) / white perch

salmon

Carryover In the stream orange/pink fleshed trout

Should we look at shellfish next😁

 

[nomolites]

10 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Back in New England we would often get scrod, which was more often young cod, but could be haddock and pollock. Those three all get kind of lumped together in my opinion.

My list is as follows:

Bluegill

Wahoo

Grouper / snapper (yellowtail, red, mutton)

well cleaned white bass / <12 inch black bass

Black Sea bass / Tautog

cod / haddock / pollock aka scrod😉

sushi eel

Yellow perch / crappie / flounder

Striper / hybrid / kingfish (whiting) / white perch

salmon

Carryover In the stream orange/pink fleshed trout

Should we look at shellfish next😁

 

Love me some shellfish too….

Mike

[kjackson]

I grew up in the PNW, and I'm partial to the fish there, and here's my list:

Spring chinook

Blackmouth (immature or feeder chinook)

flounder

halibut

walleye

steelhead or searun cutthroat

winter bluegill

Gulf grouper

Lingcod

Pacific cod

high-altitude trout

hybrids

white bass

 

[Terrierman]

Sheepshead. 👍 Did I miss something or is redfish missing from all the lists?

[netboy]

2 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Sheepshead. 👍 Did I miss something or is redfish missing from all the lists?

I had redfish on my list, but it was on the bottom of the list. The problem with redfish is that the smaller ones around 16-18" are really good eating, but there is a slot limit of 20-28" in Texas and it was rare to catch lower slot size reds in the Laguna Madre. Most were 25" and up.