ryanheritage Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 I noticed a couple posts about how pike is a good eating fish. I am having some difficulty in believing this as I think that smell they have would be something that would be in the flavour of the fish. I do alot of fishing on Bob's Lake north of Kingston and I catch ALOT of pike but have never eaten one. Can anyone enlighten me as best way to cook or how the taste? I am a catch and release guy but I normally take one fish for dinner but never even considered pike.
Bernie Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 Absolutely nothing wrong with the taste of great northerns. Cleaning them so there are few bones is the key.
GbayGiant Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 I cook them exactly like walleye and they taste exactly like walleye to me, small under 7lbs is what I keep if I do. It's just a little harder to clean with the extra bones.
muskieb Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 Quite honestly even if I am fishing a lake with walleye I prefer to keep the pike. As long as you know how to clean them you will get way more meat to eat out a small fish and it tastes great. You can keep one 24" pike and get as much meat as out of probably three 16" walleye. I cook it the same way I would cook walleye or perch, don't have to do anything special with it.
douG Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 (edited) No More Y Bones! Instead of losing 10 or 15 minutes out of your life looking at the youtube, just look at the picture in the link. BTW, when you see some text that is underlined, you can click on it, and then the whole world will be revealed. And yes, it is the same method shown in the video. Edited February 21, 2007 by douG
NBR Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 I personally think smaller pike are as good as pickerel except for the difficulty in cleaning to remove the Y bones. I don't pretend to be expert at the cleaning but I struggle along and get it done. I fry the parts just like I would pickerel and I don't keep larger pike or large anything else. There used to be a method of cleaning them shown on Fishing Minnesota I haven't gone there inquite a while so I'm not sure if it still exists.
TJQ Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 Pike can be great to eat DEPENDING on where they come from.... Its funny cause Ive never ate pickerel that I didn't like, but some real warm water pike can be a bit fishy... Cold water pike are generally really good, especially if they come from cold water lakes that have trout like Temagami etc. If they are fishy you can prepare them like I do.. and make "Popcorn Pike" outta them.. same recipe as normal just smaller bite sized chunck. Done correctly its all good... don't make me tell you about the pike-head eating episode....
kennyman Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 I've never cleaned a fish in my life. I guess I'm going to learn this year. Here is a video at youtube on filleting pike ....... http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=filleting+pike . Hope this helps. Maybe a couple of the experts here can check it out and see if it's the correct way (same as theirs LOL).
GbayGiant Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 don't make me tell you about the pike-head eating episode.... Let's here it.
mepps Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 lol, great photo snag. We had a taste test last year with walleye, pike and pearch, and walleye was the best by far - the whites and best tasting. Pike wasnt bad, but it would be a my first choice.
ryanheritage Posted February 20, 2007 Author Report Posted February 20, 2007 Thanks Guys!!!! I will be definetly putting a pike on the table then, you guys have convinced me.
Clampet Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 Here's a link showing the filleting process fer Pike: http://books.google.ca/books?vid=ISBN08657...TJg93ZeiGXtScbI
TJQ Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 Let's here it. Ok... well here goes... from my perspective... cause I know that some of the guys I was with Lurk here.. so remember this is from MY northern spoiled perspective. A few years back, I'm invited to go fishing with this bunch of boys from south of Barrie somewhere.. some place named after Catherine the great or something... anyway up they come for a weekend on the west arm and I go meet them and bunk in... we have a great time and out we go fishing... cause I live here I'm sposed to be the guide.. LOL.. (fooled them) So away we go.. trolling my favorite spots.. cause I won't still fish and we start getting these smaller pike... so were hooking them and I'm tossing them back till we get something bigger and they are looking at me like I'm NUTS.. After a while, one of em asks me why I'm throwing them back.. and I say there a bit small.. and they say... well they are bigger than what we normally catch... so I starts a keeping them. Nothing else is biting.. and its pre bass/musky season.. (and I couldn't pickeral fish my way outta of a wet paper bag) By the next day or so, we have got at least two dozen of the little beauties and I go down to the cleaning shack and start cleaning them... well I had some help (yes you Al) and as I'm about to throw the first head away.. Al stops me and says"What are ya doing... we eat those too!" OK.. anybody who knows me knows I'm open minded so I say "OK.. lets giver a whirl." When we were done we had a monster plate of fish which I proceeded to fry up for them there was at least a dozen guys and we ate well... when were done Al says Time for the heads.... Up to the camp he goes and grabs all the heads... put them on a batch of tin foil, piles them up like they are a pyramid, crushes a lemon on top, and throws in the lemon and some cut up onion I think, and then twists the thing up till it looks like a big Hershey's kiss... He throws this on the coals of the fire and we sit until theres steam coming outta the top. He takes it off and there go the boys peeling the meat outta the foreheads and cheeks and generally chowing down. I had one or two and to be honest it was just fine, it was at this point that I said if they were willing to go this far to eat them fish I didn't mind keeping the small ones... One of the days when I got some real city dudes around.. I'm gonna duplicate this event and freak them right out. Everytime I think about this story I always say "Bravo" .. to those dudes...
keram Posted February 20, 2007 Report Posted February 20, 2007 I will take pike ( < 30" ) anytime , the only thing better is cold water yellow perch
lunkerbasshunter Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 i use to question eating pike too. then one day a friend made both walleye and pike and i could not thell the difference. i think its like all fish if its cooked right it will taste great lol Cheers!
tjsa Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 Pike are great to eat, used to keep them, but with a slot size up here now, the ones of the size I preferred to keep I cannot now. Now, I either just catch hammerhandles in the summer, or slot sized ones in the winter fishing for lakers. And if I ever caught one larger than the slot(as if), I would release it. The five fillet method is what I used. And when we had a batch of pike meat, we would cut it up into strips and chunks, and dip them in a batter mixture and fry em up in a deep cast iron fry pan with lots of oil. DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if I would try the coal baked pike heads though, but there is something to be said for using as much of the fish flesh as possible. Kinda like eating moose tongue, yeah, I know it can be eaten, but just not by me, lol.
crappieperchhunter Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 (edited) Pike would be my second choice for freshwater fish. Cold water fish under 30 inches can only be beat by perch in my humble opinion. Use the 5 fillet method and you waste hardly any meat and you will never get a bone.Walleye and crappies are a distant third and forth choice as far as I am concerned. Edited February 21, 2007 by crappieperchhunter
Garyv Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 Compare to Walleye pike has a firmer flesh and if within reasonable size and caught out of cool to colder water is excellent eating. The trick is to fillet out the bones. Years ago when Kevin Geray ( Anglers Kingdom ) had the television series "Outdoor Encounters" He put out a video and part of it was how to clean a pike easily while removing the bones. I have the video but haven't watched it in years, now that your post has reminded me of it think I'll take a look again. Look at his lodges website it may still be available. One other guy that really knew how to fillet a Pike was Frank Yuhas a past owner of "Five Mile Lake Lodge" He did a segment on Cronzy's Ontario fisherman show in the early 90's that I also have on tape ( used to tape every one of Cronzy's shows back then). Now I have two things to watch again.....Thanks for the post!
GbayGiant Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 HAha, that's a good story T.J., at least there was absolutely no meat being wasted, maybe they should make some necklaces out of the teeth as well. My grandpa showed me the cheek meat on Walleye, he always claimed it was the best, and I agree. If you guys don't eat the cheeks of Walleye, try it, it is extra lean.
pikehunter Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 TJ. How many beer did you consume before you ate the pike heads?
Jen Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 My uncle taught me to clean fish... this past summer I was fishing at his trailer with my son who caught his first pike...you have to eat the first real fish you catch... so I fillet it to everyones dismay... that was probably the best fish we have ever eatten... what a surprise... should have tried it years ago, but everyone always said, pike were not for eatting.
Deano Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 Another way to eat pike and not lose any meat is to cut off head, tail and fins. Slice along the belly and remove entrails. Wash well and leave the skin on. The pike is now wrapped in foil with carrots and onions and spices of choice in the body cavity. Cook on BBQ or open fire turning once in 15 min. once cooked the fish will fall off the bones and the skin will be stuck to the foil. The carrots were used to absorb any fishy taste so don't eat them. But the fish will be great and you wont lose any meat that might be lost filleting.
Gerritt Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 I grew up eating Pike from Lake St. John, and my grandfather used to keep them whole as deano described.. only thing he would do different is add a couple slices of bacon to the belly and some lemon pepper... I still have fond memories of watching that pike cooked over an open fire on a steel grate... man were those great times as a kid!! I would eat pike anyday of the week especially if the pickeral bite is off. Infact I could batter and plate pike and a pickeral and I bet you wouldnt be able to tell the difference. Gerritt.
muskieb Posted February 21, 2007 Report Posted February 21, 2007 The video Kennyman posted from youtube is how I clean the pike too. I have not seen anyone clean a pike another way that produces a nicer fillet, or wastes less meat. If you try this method, and get good at it the strip of meat with the bones in it will end up being not much thicker than the bones themselves. The trick is a sharp knife, and to feel your way through the fillet, take your time and you will be very pleased with the result.
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