Taste vs location and size

I am kinda new to the area and only this year have I caught a few keepers which I did keep. I know walleye don’t stay in one area but I was wondering if there were any opinions on were the better tasting walleye are caught. The last 2 I caught and ate were caught off of some rip rap south in Pool 4 before the channel narrows and they had that wonderful lakey taste. I’m sure my PCB levels went up big time. Earlier this year I caught a sauger on the WI side and it tasted great.

Now none of these fish I ate were over 18 inches and I do know the bigger they are the poor they will taste and obviously I would just put the big haugs (assuming I catch a few) back.

Do sauger taste better than walleye? Do eyes caught in Pool 3 or the St Croix taste better than ones from Pool 4.

survey says?……

hmmmm we dont often get asked to taste test our catch!!
but YOU asked for it!.. there is usually a bias about river walleye not being up to the quality of lake fish… when you clean your river fish you will most always see red meat just under the skin, particularly on the lateral line…..
river fish eat a lot of shad… shad is oily… and my guess is this is the source of the red meat.. all I know is if you want your fish to taste just like walleye anywhere.. cut out the red (or you may experience a strong fishy taste!)…. I zipper my fillets which is a process that has been explained here before.. it gets rid of the red and the bones… and I wont get into it here.. unless there is renewed interest….
sauger seem to have even more red meat than walleye… I dont know why… but many fisherman feel that sauger are not good to eat.. well.. not true… you cant tell the difference… if you remove the red meat… (well I cant anyway, and Id have to have someone prove it to me in a taste test before I believed anyone can!)……. the main thing I do is if Im eating fish is I dont put them in a live well.. I put them right on ice…. take care of your fish and they will be great…. if it comes to a choice of “poison” I will take PCB over mercury….. and mercury is the poison that most lake fish are carrying…… oh.. and eat them FRESH… dont freeze em… keep enough for a fresh meal, let the rest go… toss back the biguns…..
thanks…..(from all of us!)

An 18″ Sauger vs. an 18″ Walleye do have a bit of a difference in my opinion…………and that’s all it is……….my opinion. If there’s any theory behind it I’d have to GUESS that because sauger are a smaller fish, the growth rate is different. Therefore, while being the same size, the flavor might be more comparable to a larger walleye. Anyway, I noticed a slight difference and preferred the walleye.

Ok Rivereyes, I haven’t had the chance to read how you “zipper” a fish. I spent some time searching for the article on this, but my searching skills may need some practice. If you don’t want to post this again, can you send me a pm?? Hopefully I will catch something this weekend that will give me the opportunity to try your method!!

Thanks

what about water temp?

Interested in what zippering your fillets means RiverEyes, either pm or post in general info section please.

well.. guess my search skills are poor too.. or my memory.. or both… I would swear that there was a great description of zippering posted on the board at one time…. but my search found nothing….. so I will bend my feeble verbal skills to the task of description……. wish I had some pix!… maybe next time I clean fish I will have to take some pix…… but no doubt some of our guides are better at this technique then me… and no doubt better at its description as well….
BUT….. here goes!!!
I remove the fillets the same as most everyone does… but when it comes time to remove the skin I try to keep my knife just a little higher than normal… since the red meet lies just under the skin if you do this just right you will strip all the red meet off the fillet…… if you dont get it… using a sharp knife shave it off……
then what I have left is a fillet that still has that little row of bones over the ribcage (along the lateral line) left…. and the red meat that runs down the lateral line… zippering is simply removing this strip….. to do this.. I take a sharp knife and cut along both sides of the lateral line with the knife angled to so the cuts meet down in the fillet far enough to remove the lateral line… then starting at the tail I grab this strip of flesh and pull forward to the head of the fish, kind of like using a zipper (hence the name)… if you made the correct cuts the entire strip will come right off and bring the row of bones with it……. nice and neat……. I then take my knife and cut the fish into two pieces along the lateral line… and then take those two pieces and cut them in half…. thus I have a total of 8 chunks of fish when Im done… its makes them much easier to cook… and all the red meat is gone, all the bones are gone…. its a great way to go…..
I originally learned zippering from some friends in red wing…. its how they were cleaning white bass… (they REALLY need to be zippered, because they have much more red meat than walleye)…. I just started to use the same technique on walleye and sauger to remove the red meat on them… and it worked wonders to improve their taste… it also helps considerably to reduce PCB’s.. because they concentrate to a large degree in the red meat……. (so Ive heard!)……
hope this helps……

Walleyes Per say…have no red meat….and the PCB’S are depoisted in the belly meat…The larger(and Older) the fish ..the more PCB’s…And Mecury the fish has….The best way to clean…and eat a walleye is as follows…Don’t even argue with me on this Cause you will be wrong…OK?..ok..
Fillet the fish as usual..leaving the skin on…rinse the fillet and freeze flat…like on a cookie sheet…when frozen…..run under cool water ..and with a plieres pull the skin off..then using your finger slide down the (middle) of the fillet.you will feel the bones …take your plieres and pull them out..Just like a salmon…sounds like alot of work but its not…you can keep the fillets alot longer with the skin on…no freezer burn…plus its leagle to transport..

EFN-PRO CHEF

SWANY

As far as suager goes…they are much more (active ) so I find there (meat) a little more compact….As for taste…you cannot tell the difference…and as far as that goes the mudder the water the more (fishy they ALL) taste…..if you know how to cook them…that can all be taken care of…..

SWANY

what me argue? debate maybe… (or is dat de bait?!)….
anyway.. according to a Mn DNR link I found looks like PCB’s reside both in belly fat and lateral line… but I cut off the belly meat totally… my experience has shown me it tastes strong… and Im no chef… so I just chop it…..
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/fish/safeeating/tips.html

as for red meat… well… dont know what you call it.. but when I remove the skin there is a “red” deposit under it… its more common in river fish (like nearly 100%)… but Ive seen it in some lake fish as well… particularly lake fish that have access to tulibee (another oily fish)…. I have no scientific evidence or anything else other than just personal theory to substantiate why these fish have these red deposits…… my guess is consumption of oily prey such as shad and tulibee…..
Ive never frozen fillets with the skin on…. after you thaw the fish does the skin come off easier than normal? because I would be afraid it would tear the fillet up pretty bad….. (you did say you pull it off?)
anyway.. this is good information… anything that nails down the best way to prepare fish…. and the safest way… is good stuff….. thanks everyone for input…..
I dont think you have to have them in your freezer with skin on… but in Mn you have to transport them with a patch of skin on… in wisconsin you have to transport them whole (so I just put them on ice an clean them when I get home)….

Rivereyes, one of the first comments you made about eating fresh vs. frozen is definitely the best. Fresh is way better. Plus, the meat never has a chance to get that rubbery quality.

Of late, the only way I’ll eat a fish is fresh from the lake or the river. Saugers and walleyes are both fabulous that way. Same day filets are about as good as they can be.

One comment, though. Mille Lacs walleyes definitely have that wonderful, clear lake taste that is tough to beat. I’ve always been able to tell the difference between them and river fish. But, heck, I’ll take a good river filet any time. Just something about catching it and eating it.

Oh, and the colder the water, the better, too. But that’s a given, right?

Mike

yeah.. you usually got some work to do if your gonna make your river fish the same as lake fish….. maybe Im fooling myself but I THINK I get close……
some of those Mille Lacs fish had that red meat look… but most dont….. at least in my experience……

Are you trying to tell me I don’t know when something tastes different? No wonder I like Sheepies!!!

yeah *geez*… dont ya know….. “pups” aint got no taste buds!!… so course ya like sheepies… and other things no other living creature would consider as food!!

Hey, I resent that remark about sheepies. They do have a natural taste, especially when served up as sushi. Okay, not for everyone, but then what is?

(E)FN Sheephead King.

Ok When freezining the fillet with the skin still attached..take from freezer and run under cold water as you are pulling the skin (From the tail end) as the surface begins to thaw it “Strips” right on down. do not thaw the fillet!!! As for the “Mud” line I guess I just don’t notice it as much as I do in say White bass. And YES a fresh fillet is a much different animal than one that has been frozen …but walleye does freeze nice if you take care of how you freeze it..Lake Vs. River???..Ive really never eaten them side by side…I’ll have to try it out sometime? Size I think we have covered..15 to 18 in fish eat the best and have lower levels of “bad” things…and I still maintain that sauger are firmer than walleyes..kinda like my new girl friend vs my old one LOL And AS FOR SHEEPIES …..You have to put so much spice on them to EVEN think of eating one………..

EFN CHEF SWANY!!!!!!