Lake Whitefish...what do you do with your catch?

[Sundancefisher]

I have caught a ton of lake whitefish over the years. When I was younger I would give them to my grandpa to smoke. They were delicious. After university a buddy of mine smoked them all...I got a few back and they were great.

I never fried them up when I look back. How do others prepare their whitefish assuming you’re bonking some?

[Bigwoodsman]

I've done this with Whitefish, Walleye and Pike. Good eats

https://www.outdoorcanada.ca/cool-cuisine-for-the-winter-of-2017-whitefish-stew/

BW

[bucksman]

I feel like the guy that's caught a ton of whitefish should have figured a recipe out by now :lol:

"akashaq" had posted this recipe on the forum in 2011 and I used it the other day. I smoked on the Traeger for 2 hours with hickory and then cranked up the temp abit and I think I pulled them off when internal temp was 165? Brining them for 24hours I think was key because some of them sure are fishy


Brine: (all amounts approximate)

4 quarts cold water

1/2 cup salt (any kind works)

3/4 cup of white sugar (or brown sugar, or maple syrup, but not honey)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp granulated garlic (or use fresh garlic, but then you will have chunks of garlic stuck to the fillets)

Mix until everything is dissolved. Put fillets into brine, skin side up, and leave in a fridge or other cool spot for an absolute minimum of 6 hours, 12 is better, 24 is about optimum, longer than that is sub-optimal because the fillets get soggy.

Take them out of the brine, lay them out on a paper towel or newspaper skin side down for an hour, then smoke.

[SNAPFisher]

I was lucky enough to print out a Great Lakes Potato Encrusted Whitefish recipe. Seems to be gone from the interweb now. But this should do:

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/fish/potatoe-encrusted-fish.html

Whitefish take on flavors as the fillets are pretty mild. Smoking is fine but you can do so much more with whitefish. One of the most versatile fish.

[pikergolf]

I like white fish done in the English fish and chip style, my wife likes it pan fried. Either way we make sure to remove the lateral fat line, it is gross, think cod liver oil. It is not as good as perch, walleye or pike, a little bit fishier taste, but I far prefer it to trout.

[Poppa]

Gonna take this opportunity to say I send my catch right back down the hole to grow into a true trophy fish :) *waves* :scared0018:

[338Bluff]

Very Simple Recipe. Use boneless skinless fillets.

Melt 1/4 stick of butter and stir in a couple tablespoons of Frank's Red Hot.

Brush this mixture on both sides of fillet and then roll in fine breadcrumbs.

Place onto a baking sheet covered with parched paper

Bake at 385C for about 20 minutes

[338Bluff]

Gonna take this opportunity to say I send my catch right back down the hole to grow into a true trophy fish :) *waves* :scared0018:

Right.....a true trophy whitefish lol.

[Sundancefisher]

Gonna take this opportunity to say I send my catch right back down the hole to grow into a true trophy fish :) *waves* :scared0018:

Interesting aspect about whitefish is they can have a wide swing in year class size.

Hit Lac Ste Anne one year when some massive jumbos went through the system. Doubt they will ever be that big again.

Once they get to a large size...not too many years left before old age kills em.

[Sundancefisher]

Very Simple Recipe. Use boneless skinless fillets.

Melt 1/4 stick of butter and stir in a couple tablespoons of Frank's Red Hot.

Brush this mixture on both sides of fillet and then roll in fine breadcrumbs.

Place onto a baking sheet covered with parched paper

Bake at 385C for about 20 minutes

Some great ideas. I’m not interested in smoking. More interested in other cooking ideas. Typically if my gramps or buddy wasn’t going to smoke I would just release em.

[chucklesthe3rd]

I prefer to score the outline of the fillets on each side of the whitefish then peel off the skin right off the fillet. From there I cut out most of the red meat and then cut the whole whitefish down into steaks and bake them with brown sugar and butter.

[pikeman06]

I smoke mine too but x10 on that scraping that grey crap off the skin side of the fillet. Thats your fishy taste and I dont leave the skin on when smoking whites they turn out just about clear and my favourite smoked fish. A 10 or 15 pound pike is very very good smoked too its nice and course with big flakes

[Fastfred]

Grew up frying them fresh, but now I put them on a cedar plank.

I take the fillet and rub with olive oil and then sprinkle with seasoned salt, not too much. They absorb the smoke and cedar very nicely (like salmon). It is now our go-to when we are fortunate enough to get a white.

[Talking moose]

Once they get to a large size...not too many years left before old age kills em.

The lifespan is 25-50 years......they can be big for many years if the nets don’t get em.

[AK47]

We used to just pan fry them but after trying them smoked I am never doing it any other way.

[calgarygringo]

I dont have a smoker so cant say there but many I know do smoke them. Any I have done we just do them like a walleye except take off the brown fatty layer. Thats the bad taste many complain about. And also dont forget the pin bones too. They fry up real tasty.

[BEL]

Gotta try the potato encrusted fry up. Thanks Snap for posting. BEL

[dshot]

I smoke them or fry them.

One go to tip I do for any fried fish especially whitefish, I cut all my fillets into chunks a few inches in size then score them with a shallow criss cross pattern.

It creates more edges for the dredge to stick to and you get all the crispy edges you can dream of.

Dredge mix:
50/50 Flour and Fine Cornmeal
Lowrys Seasoning Salt

Serve with lemon slices and cold beers

[338Bluff]

The lifespan is 25-50 years......they can be big for many years if the nets don’t get em.
When I googled it I hit a glitzy click bait website with no citations,/references for that number. A little more digging came up with 8-14 years from a few scientific references. 50 seems pretty old. Maybe up in the territories?

[Talking moose]

When I googled it I hit a glitzy click bait website with no citations,/references for that number. A little more digging came up with 8-14 years from a few scientific references. 50 seems pretty old. Maybe up in the territories?

Every site on there when google lake whitefish life span says 25-50 years. Average around 25

[Talking moose]

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[Sundancefisher]

Every site on there when google lake whitefish life span says 25-50 years. Average around 25

Up in cold northern lakes you could find ones older than 15.

Down where we are an old whitefish is probably between 8-10 years old.

Not a ton of info on age distribution especially by latitude.

When I worked on lakes... Lac Ste Anne’s big old year class was about 8 years old.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Age-years-frequency-histogram-for-lake-whitefish-captured-in-Tchesinkut-Lake-May_fig6_237242160

If someone finds some other info on older whitefish I would love to read it.