Northern Pike

Caught some pike last week. Watched a utube video on removing y bones. Did a pretty good job at it. But they didn’t taste as good as other fish. Would soaking them in milk over night have helped?

Really like the actual taste of pike.

I’m not very proficient at removing the y bones of pike, but the taste of them is fine to me as long as it’s not the middle of summer. I pickle most of them and I don’t keep any over the 22-26 inch protected slot.

Gimruis brings up the first thing I thought of when reading your post. Do you know about what length these pike were? I would bet you’ll see a lot of folks chime in that pike taste just as good, if not better, than most fish around here.

Also, if you’re a novice at the Y-bones and you did a pretty good job after watching a youtube video, I say nice work.

Northern pike fillets definitely have their own taste. Soaking in milk, or 7-Up or other liquid for a day does take the flavor down a notch, but the basic flavor is still the same, just not as strong. If you are not a fan of that flavor, you may want to try pickling them, or use them in a recipe with stronger flavors like beer batter, Cajun, or Fish Tacos.

Cut off all the red meat on backside of fillet

Craig Sery wrote:

Cut off all the red meat on backside of fillet

x2! Also, keep the small ones, 20 inches or so and only during cold water times.

I clean them as soon as possible, and also bleed. As with any fish, once you let them sit in a 5 gal bucket for hours they get all slimy, and the slime usually ends up all over filets when you clean them.

Never had a pike that wasn’t better than most fish.

you can tell how good a fish is by not drowning it in batter and oil. i have yet to find a recipe on pike that tastes better than walleye/sauger, perch, crappie or even Cod. i may try again but likely pass due to the slime and taste.

i grew up on pike….and sunfish!!!!! pike is my 2nd favorite fish to eat. i guess i fail to see what it is thats an issue with the flavor of pike meat.

once there cleaned, i rinse them good, set them in water in the frig overnight and then do whatever it is i need to do with them, eat or freeze them.

so many ways to eat pike, grilled, frilled, baked smoked, and pickled. ALL my pike come from northern minnestoa lakes..winter and summer!!!!

but thats just my opinion!!!!!!!

Count me in on the pike bandwagon. Aside from the bones, it’s one of my favorites.

My mistakes were not cleaning right away and not cutting red crap out. I’ll try it again.

I do what Glenn does, rinse them pretty good to get blood and other bloody things off and swap out water a few times, then the next day after sitting in the fridge overnight they’re looking pretty good.

Pike are abundant, easy to catch, and the bag limit is very liberal. There’s really no reason not to take advantage of this resource.

I agree, but for me the fun of having one massacre a crankbait to where it feels like someone took a sledgehammer to it while trolling is my #1 thing.

I do sometimes wish a few 23- or 24-inchers could be kept in whatever that zone is called, but no real complaints for me.

I actually don’t even target them on purpose. I just catch so many when I’m bass or muskie fishing.

I don’t like them much if the meat freezes at all, but freshly cleaned and eaten there are my number 1.

I’m glad to see more people say they keep pike to eat. We need massive harvest of the little guys in order to balance out the lakes. I like eating pike because it’s an easy way of getting the fish to eat without impacting the health of a lake. And they are relatively easy to catch. And fun to catch.

As for the taste, by the time the oil and breading is there, it all tastes good to me. Especially cooked outside over a campfire.

When cleaning pike I always use an old rag or a bunch of paper towels and wipe off as much slime as before cutting. If your fillet board get covered in slime and your fillet comes in-contact, it will affect the taste without a good washing.

Whether I bleed the fish or not, after rinsing the fillets I always put my fillets in a bowl of heavily iced water and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to overnight before cooking. This will contract the flesh and the fillets will stiffen up – any remaining blood gets purged. I give them one more quick rinse with clean water and then good to go.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Whether I bleed the fish or not, after rinsing the fillets I always put my fillets in a bowl of heavily iced water and let sit in the fridge for a few hours to overnight before cooking.

I was always taught to do this. Plus dissolve salt into the ice water prior to putting the fillets in.

For those of you that filet them, do you remove the y bones after you’ve removed the skin, or before? I’ve seen it done both ways.

I’ve switched over to this method of cleaning pike.

Also let them soak in icy salt water for about an hour.

-J.

Things I learned to make the meat the best it can be.

– Bleed out every fish. Ever fillet a walleye where the first side is bloody and the second it blood free? One fillet is dark and cloudy. The other is white and clear. Which one is tastier????

– NEVER let the slime touch any raw meat. I was taught this in the late 1980’s by a Rainy Lake old timer that loved his Northerns. For years I done it for every fish.

It’s simple and easy.

gim wrote:

For those of you that filet them, do you remove the y bones after you’ve removed the skin, or before? I’ve seen it done both ways.

I do it before, just get the fillets/slabs off both sides then take the y-bones out.

I don’t intentionally target them, but often catch a lot from 24-30″ when pulling cranks in the summer. I probably keep 2-3 a year if they catch a crank under the gill plate while thrashing their way into the boat. They immediately go on ice and get bled. The slime is much more manageable when they are cool or cold. Once they are cleaned, the fillets soak in ice water for the remainder of the evening, then I switch out the water and soak them again until mid-day the next day in fresh ice water. After that, they’re rinsed in the sink and deposited into a ziploc bag topped with water and frozen.

When rinsed and soaked in ice water correctly, they are great and I’d put them right there with walleye, sauger, and perch. If they rattle around a livewell for hours in their own slime then are carelessly cleaned, the taste and texture goes downhill.

Going back SD next week so guessing I’ll get more practice on y bone removal and fish prep. Thanks for all the advice.

Jon Jordan wrote:

I’ve switched over to this method of cleaning pike.

Gonna give this a try in the spring.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Also let them soak in icy salt water for about an hour.

Salt water? Does this effect the taste?

Another good tip…If you catch a pike (or just about any fish for that matter) that you know you are going to keep, is cut their throat while they are in the livewell. Bleeding them out right away is not only much less messy when you clean the fish, but the fillets are much less bloody or muddy tasting as well.

Like many have said, I’ve never eaten a pike that wasn’t as good or better table fare than any other fish I’ve had.