best-tasting fish?

[shoot]

What kind of Alberta fish tastes best? I've never been fishing, nor have I eaten any Alberta fish. I grew up in Nova Scotia, so have had lots of ocean fish. So, what's the best eatin' around these parts?

[Lefty-Canuck]

Personally like wall-eye and perch, pike sans bones is good too.

Lefty

[Vega21]

Perch by far

[Scotty P.]

There are alot I haven't tried but IMHO it would be nice fat Perch. Not just the meat but the row sacks as well. It may sound a little gross but breaded and fried in butter, the row sacks are delish! I have heard Walleye is great but I haven't tried it yet myself.

[Scotty P.]

Personally like wall-eye and perch, pike sans bones is good too.
Lefty

Also very good but I seem to preferr them if caught during the hard water season.

[Hoyt82]

Walleye then perch a close second

[RayL42]

Trout if it is caught out of the correct lake.

[the local angler]

i normally would choose perch too but seem to like the high mountian stream brookies and also burbot.

[S-in-Cochrane]

Walleye! Though I've yet to eat one from Alberta.

[Outt and Aboutt]

Walleye, hands down.
Perch is very close, but after cleaning 20 perch for a family meal I'm not in as good a mood!
Pike is next.
That said I do enjoy a good trout (but not as much as a good walleye).

[kingkongpennock]

whitefish, trout, grayling, pike, etc. Too many to choose from. In my experience, if the water is fresh and clean, the fish will taste fresh and clean.

[Robotfish]

I would say Bourbot, walleye, and trout. But it's all in how you prepare them.

[finsnfeathers]

Def. walleye, but in alberta, i've been told your best bet is Costco... Sure wish we could get more fisheries stocked with them. I hate fishing at the grocery store!

[fishstalker]

by far

brook trout cooked in a pan with some salt and pepper

but frenchman (burbot) pike perch other trout, its good too

[trigger7mm]

Perch!!!!:sHa_shakeshout:

[ironbadger]

Burb, pike from hard water, walleye well prepared trout, chubby perch. I haven't had Sauger-- I assume similar to walleye? I've not tried eating a Frenchman yet. lol :party0052:

[Dust1n]

by far

brook trout cooked in a pan with some salt and pepper

but frenchman (burbot) pike perch other trout, its good too

x2 small mountain streem trout are by far the best imo
and burbot tastes pretty good too....
Salmon would be the best saltwater

[Fishgut]

Perch, Burbot, Walleye, Pike, Sucker, Whitefish, Trout,

[ESOXangler]

red angus cross

[deanmc]

red angus cross

lol Easy to fillet too.

My vote is for perch.

[Cal]

I used to think walleye and perch were the best, then I went to Panama and had Pargo which I think is some kind of snapper. I havnt eaten a fish that can touch fresh Pargo.

[ishootbambi]

eat fish? are you kidding? :mad3: what kind of fool kills fish in alberta? dont you know how few fish bearing lakes there are in this province? cmon you guys.:snapoutofit:






























of course im kidding. i dont eat em myself, but have no ill will toward those who do keep a couple. :)

[marlin1]

perch , burbot

[Jwood 456]

For freshwater fish:

1. Perch deepfried in batter.
2. Walleye cooked in Ritz cracker crumbs and Becel.
3. Pike deepfried in mango juice flavoured batter.
4. Baked or panfried Rainbow Trout

For Salt-water fish:

1. Halibut.
2. Haddock.
4. Pacific Ling Cod.
5. Smoked Pacific Salmon
6. Atlantic Amberjack
7. Atlantic cod.

[New Hunter Okotoks]

Walleye (I catch mine at Costco) I ended up eating a 21lb Pike out of Badger this year that wasn't going to make it. It was really good. I never thought a big hen like that would taste so good. It was just as good as the 6-8lb pike I have eaten in the past.

I tried some burbot that was taken out of PCR and found it really muddy tasting.

[KegRiver]

For taste alone, I'll take Goldeye over any other.

For best eating, taste + texture. Walleye beyond a doubt.

Sadly not much of either left in these parts. To many poachers.

When thirty or forty people set up a fish cannery at your favourite fishing hole for a week or more every year, it isn't long befor there isn't anything left for anyone else.

Throw in a few treaty nets setters and the rest of us may as well stay at home or do our fishing at the grocery store.

[mulecrazy]

My rank of the ones I have tried in AB are:

Walleye
Perch
Pike (would be higher if not for the pain to debone them)
Burbot
trout

and way way down the list:

goldeye.


Kegriver, How do you cook goldeye to make them edible? I tried them once and thought they were horrendous.

[The DragonSlayer]

In order: Burbot, walleye, perch (especially smoked), trout (out of cold water), whitefish.
You may notice that I didn't list pike!!

[Albertafisher]

Trout. Hands down..... Even raw :)

[great white whaler]

rocky mountain brookies,,,,,,and rainbows.yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm,along with a slice of toast,and a cup of red rose.

[iluvfishin]

rocky mountain brookies,,,,,,and rainbows.yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm,along with a slice of toast,and a cup of red rose.

C'mon....its gotta be Tetley!!!

[scudman]

I love trout, cooked over the campfire. I do not keep trout often at all but when I do I demolish it as its my favorite fish to eat.

[great white whaler]

little 6 inch bookies in a fry pan,,,,,,i need to hit the forestry trout road,,before i kills somebody

[laker]

White flesh fish are by far better to me,in order... walleye,burbot,cold water pike and perch,dont like whitefish and for trout, splake is the best hands down,,hard to beat smoked or canned lake trout too!

[ice]

id say pike, Handsdown, Deepfried batterd in old dutch salt in vinegar chips mmm,
Really close in second id say Burbot, Then Walleyes Then Perch,
they're all too damn delicious

[alodar]

As a fellow nova scotian i will tell you that pike perch whites and burbot are all delicious ive yet to try a fish here i didnt like. I wont mention trout cuz we got tons of em down home they taste the same here as they do there......delicious

[jpietrzak1979]

walleye hands down.

[Mr.goldeye]

Bull trout fried in butter and garlic mmmmmmmmmm... :p

[boot]

Perch, but it's been a while since I've eaten one.

[Lefty-Canuck]

Bull trout fried in butter and garlic mmmmmmmmmm... :p

I figured you would like your bull trout poached? :sHa_shakeshout:

Lefty

[rawhide]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned Actric Grayling :thinking-006:, a great pan fry fish :sHa_shakeshout:.

[KegRiver]

Kegriver, How do you cook goldeye to make them edible? I tried them once and thought they were horrendous.

First, remember that Goldeye are oily and strong tasting and their bones are very fine (thin).

As I said, I like that taste, not much one can do about the texture so far as I know.

I have two methods. My favourite;

Make a campfire on the river bank. Catch a Goldeye. Gut it, don't scale it or cut it up, simply roast it just like a wiener. Put a stick through it's mouth and up to the end of the body cavity, press the stick into the flesh at the end of the cavity, then hold over hot coals until the eyes turn white. Then skin and eat. Watch out for the bones!

The second way is to scale, gut and section into three or four pieces, then fry in butter with a little salt and pepper. When done this way, I find it helps to rake the meat off the spine with a fork, working outward from the backbone. This will leave most of the bones attached to the backbone. Just a few of the fine bone remain with the meat with this technique.

Note that done this way the flesh is even softer and oilier then when done the first way.

I like them done either way.

One last thing. Goldeye are best early in the year, while the water is still cold from winter. As the weather and the water warms the meat gets softer, stronger flavoured and oilier. By late summer they can become so oily that one can squeeze oil out of the raw flesh and the flesh becomes mush.

[iliketrout]

Shoot,

If you like haddock, you'll love walleye.

[shoot]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I'd best just try a bit of everything.

[Braun]

this should be a poll infact im going to make one. mine highly depends on the way its cooked.

I have an absolutely amazing smoked whitefish recipie that is better than any smoked salmon hands down

Walleye is always good

Female brook trout is the best trout I have ever had, cooked with my special glaze

perch nuggets breaded in a special spice blend

all those tied for 1st. If any of you are lucky enough to come on my boat this year I will definitely bring some of my whitefish for you to drool over

[Gust]

this should be a poll infact im going to make one. mine highly depends on the way its cooked.

I have an absolutely amazing smoked whitefish recipie that is better than any smoked salmon hands down

Walleye is always good

Female brook trout is the best trout I have ever had, cooked with my special glaze

perch nuggets breaded in a special spice blend

all those tied for 1st. If any of you are lucky enough to come on my boat this year I will definitely bring some of my whitefish for you to drool over

Do the poll as a more than 1 choice, or do 3 polls,,, first one being fave'est eatin, 2nd being 2nd favest and 3rd being 3rd fave'est eatins.

my answer to the OP is anything cooked within 10 minutes of catching it in a skillet over a campfire, with onions and potatos and salt & pepper

[Redfrog]

"then hold over hot coals until the eyes turn white"


Now there's a man who knows how to cook fish on an open fire.:sHa_shakeshout:

I love small rainbows done like that.


Braun:
"I have an absolutely amazing smoked whitefish recipie that is better than any smoked salmon hands down"

How about sharing the recipe please?

[Redfrog]

"When thirty or forty people set up a fish cannery at your favourite fishing hole for a week or more every year, it isn't long befor there isn't anything left for anyone else."


what are they canning? Sounds like salmon on the coast.

[Braun]

Braun:
"I have an absolutely amazing smoked whitefish recipie that is better than any smoked salmon hands down"

How about sharing the recipe please?

Hmmm. I would deny you but you said please :)

ok, so a couple key things:

cook on a lower temperature than you would normally. This is because I slow smoke my fish because I love my smokey flavour. Now most people will say "well that is just going to dry out your fish." then I shove a piece of moist golden smokey heaven in their mouths and i never hear a word about dry again. lol. im not sure what kind of smokers you guys have but it took a while to figure out how to get maximum smoke in mine. do whatever you can to achieve this.

Woodchips: i use a mixture of hickory and mesquite. i usually try to get one in the large chip format and one in the finer mulch type. The mulch type smokes more but burns quicker.

Brine: bowl of water + equal parts of brown sugar and sea salt until the water cannot disolve any more of the two.


Let brine for as long as you are patient. Probably Idea to do it over night but quite often I'm too damn impatient and only brine for a few hours. With rockey mountain white (what I always use) you can get away with it because they are smaller and will not need as long to absorb the brine.

Take out of the brine and let dry for as long as you are patient. Once again, I'm not the picture of patients. I usually the to speed it up by dabbing a paper towel over them then let set for as long as i can stand not seeing them in the smoker. (about 30 min) I would reccommend a hour - two. a light / whitish film is supposed to be present when they are ready. I usually just go with whether or not it's tacky to my finger when i touch it. If it doesnt and just slides off its not dry enough.

here is the secret though......... mix together a mixture of olive oil and tony's original creole (http://www.tonychachere.com/). I get my tony's brought to me from houston. rumor has it that it can now be found at specialty BBQ places here in calgary now. Not sure if that is true but I heard its something like 6 bucks for a small bottle. I get a big bottle of it for a buck from houston. lol. I put this stuff on everything. no more do i use any other type of salt of any kind other than garlic. Seasoning salt is dead to me. this stuff has so much flavour and is to be a salt replacement. i put it on steaks, eggs, sauces, any meats.......


anyways. mix the tony's and olive oil (be generous with the tony's) glaze the meat side of the fillets with the oil and tonys. (fillets still have skin on them) and then throw on the smoker. glaze the fillets a few times throughout the smoking. and make sure you are putting as much smoke through as possible. If your smoker has a pan that you fill with water to keep humidity up use it. it makes a difference.

cooking time, I havent done any this year to tell you but i typically watch it and decide when its ready by looks and taste. but typically i try to aim for 5 hours (temperature dependent) longer if its a cooler day shorter if its 25 deg outside. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can continue to smoke for a while even if the fish is fully cooked and it wont dry out much. i only do it to achieve extra smoke and tonys flavour. my best tasting batches are usually the one that the exterior flesh is like a brown. the darker the better apparently. I had one batch of fillets turn out a dark and almost looked burnt and might've even turned some people off of that patch thinking it was cooked too long.... in fear of that i kept it to myself and fed everyone a different batch I had made. Turned out that dark batch was the best one I ever did.


o man now i just want to smoke some rockies and the river is closed :angry3:

[KegRiver]

"When thirty or forty people set up a fish cannery at your favourite fishing hole for a week or more every year, it isn't long befor there isn't anything left for anyone else."


what are they canning? Sounds like salmon on the coast.

It is my understanding that they can everything they catch, which would be Walleye, Pike, Goldeye, and possibly Suckers and Burbot.

At one time, it was not hard to catch one's limit in that fishing hole, in a few hours.
Today you could fish there for weeks and not get one bite.

[The DragonSlayer]

Ha, Ha. That was very funny. lol