Eating fresh water fish?

[Turtle135]

I'm pretty much 100% catch and release. Every season I do wind up with a couple of largemouth or smallmouth bass that get deep hooked (or stressed) and those I eat.

[upgradingdave]

Sunfish and Crappie from the reservoirs down here around Fredericksburg VA are good eats, but a bit tedious to clean.

[DanMarino]

I will release all bass. I could see doing what Turtle135 does if a bass gets gut hooked or bleeds out from the gills and dies.
So far I've only eaten snakehead and stocked trout.
There's a zillion white perch in the reservoir near my home so I might start keeping them if I catch some big ones.

[Moschedmi]

I am pretty much a catch and release. In the Fall when the crappie bite is on I keep them. To prepare them I fillet them egg them and cover them with seasoned bread crum. I the drizzle a little olive oil and at 3:50 for 10-15 mins. When prepping you really have to keep an eye out for parasitic worms. The worms are easy to spot.

[chimo]

I'll eat my share of walleye, crappies, perch and bluegills. I'll also eat an occasional bass, a couple trout a year and a few snakeheads. Not much on catfish. Flounder, rockfish and croaker are good but I'll take walleyes, perch and bluegills any day.

[kevinfry]

love blue catfish, crappie, white catfish, walleye and smallmouth.

[rwh]

I keep a small LMB every now and then to eat and they are very good but like someone else said, I consider them more of a sport fish than table fare. Bluegills and crappie on the other hand are fair game! No need to even filet them. Scale, de-head and gut them put them in seasoned cornmeal and put them in the deep fryer. My fav part is the tail.....like fish chips....yum!

[Meadeo]

I eat lots of crappie, white perch, walleye and blue cat.

All are very tasty. Yellow perch and bluegills are also good.

Snakeheads are top notch as well..

Meadeo

[AbuMasgouf]

I keep a small LMB every now and then to eat and they are very good but like someone else said, I consider them more of a sport fish than table fare. Bluegills and crappie on the other hand are fair game! No need to even filet them. Scale, de-head and gut them put them in seasoned cornmeal and put them in the deep fryer. My fav part is the tail.....like fish chips....yum!

I've had a couple of SMB (Masgoufed of course) and they were OK. I think the water source affected the taste. Crappie and BGs (when they come from a clean water source) are very tasty! I also eat BG's like rwh says above... LOL the tails is the best!

I still need to get my first snakehead and walleye...

[AbuMasgouf]

I'm curious about the effects of PCBs on migratory fish... Since they are in the ocean most of the time, will they have high amounts of PCBs?

I don't eat anything from the Chesapeake either! However, FW fish from clean water are tasty. I remember taking a LMB from a stained lake and it tasted like mud. Took one from a clear, drinking water reservoir and the meat was white, flaky and tasty.

But, keep in mind there's a reason for those fish consumption advisories:

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/blog/po..._bay_watershed

http://www.mde.maryland.gov/programs...ies%202011.pdf

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemio...gy/Advisories/

http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/Fis...sory_Chart.pdf

PCB's, Yum!

[Meadeo]

I'm curious about the effects of PCBs on migratory fish... Since they are in the ocean most of the time, will they have high amounts of PCBs?

Look at it this way.

The faster a fish grows the safer it is to eat. Fish that live along time and grow slowly are the most unsafe to eat. This includes TOG.

General rule of thumb of food fish is to eat smaller fish and fish that grow quickly if your concerned about the lasting effects of fish consumption.

Diet also plays a role in this as fish that predate heavily on other fish tend to build up toxins quicker than filter feeders for example.

Lakes typically are a better bet for consuming fish from regularly. Tidal rivers tend to be fairly polluted with long term pollution AKA Mercury and PCB, Kapone etc.

Limit your consumption to only a few meals a month from tidal rivers and you should be fine.

Basically all of your saltwater fish - I.E. Flounder, Trout, Blues etc should only be eaten twice a month if your overly concerned with the lasting health impacts.

Meadeo

[Rroop32]

you couldnt pay me to eat anything out of delaware waters.

[Jaspratt]

If you ask me, from my experience of keeping fish. If the water smells like shit, the fish will taste like shit. I found the fish taste similar to how the water smells. I mainly like to keep fish in clear water streams where water is damn nesr filter by the mountains.

[Yak Fish]

If you ask me, from my experience of keeping fish. If the water smells like shit, the fish will taste like shit. I found the fish taste similar to how the water smells. I mainly like to keep fish in clear water streams where water is damn nesr filter by the mountains.

That is definitely the truth.

I have taken a LMB to try and found it not very good. I've even had it served at a nice restaurant and it tasted the same. It's rather soft meat and has a river-y taste.
Like Shady said, blue gills are awesome. The trouble is finding them big enough. I fished a private pond that had really big blue gills, bigger than I'd ever seen. They fought really hard too. I decided to keep a few, not expecting anything. But wow, I was really surprised how good the meat was. I've never found them big enough to fish for keepers. I don't know if they grow slow or just get pummeled by other fish, but big ones are rare. Surprising for how common those things are in freshwater.

Walleye are probably the best freshwater eating fish in my opinion, at least off the top of my head. Trout aren't bad but i don't find them anything to write home about. Andrew Zimmern on Bizzare Foods just ate a fish on TV the other night and he said you could tell that it had never been in salt water. For whatever that's worth, he meant it to mean that it didn't taste as good.

[manlystanley]

Generally eat from a local lake. Had a big Crappie that tasted like mud once. Had to toss it.... But then, I'm not the most productive fisherman.

Best Regards,
Stan