Blind taste test

The best fish I’ve ever had, was a lake trout from Burntside, cooked on the grill, on the ice. The trout got a hook in the gill and wasn’t going to make it so we decided to keep it and eat it.

Gutted it, filled with orange and lemon slices, spices, garlic, and grilled in foil. It was without a doubt the best fish I’ve ever ate. Big thanks to Ben Putnam for that meal!

Surprised no one has brought up the might eel pout as well! Pretty good eating, even eelpoutguy didn’t bring them up? You just don’t get a huge ‘yield’ off of an eelpout compared to a walleye.

For Taste:
1. Pike
2. Perch
3. Walleye
4. Bluegill

The largest percentage of fish I keep is generally walleye and then perch. I usually only keep fish if I have intentions to eat them within the next few days. The only time I freeze fish is if it’s going to my parents for a larger fish fry (once or twice per year).

I have been meaning to start keeping more Pike, but I simply release them back without a thought until afterwards. They’re my favorite tasting fish. A few of the people I fish with really like to keep the ones in the high 20s. Panfish, Perch, Saugers, and Eyes could be cleaned with a blindfold now. For some reason, pike slow me down significantly (even with seeing all the videos out there).

I’ve always heard that pike taste better if caught in the winter, any truth to that? I think I catch a lot more ‘keeper’ sized pike in the summer, but always throw them back as well.

never tried em yet