1/28 Question of the Day

[DOGFISH]

What is you favorite receipe for croaker or your favorite way of cooking croaker?


Mine is to clean an gut the fish, not fillet. Then stuff the cavity with herbs like fennel, ginger, parsley, garlic and a few others. That way the flavor of the herbs cook through the fish. I spash on a little olive oil and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on each side. Then cook the fish on the grill for about 3-4 minutes each side, depending on the sized of the fish maybe a little longer. It is a great receipe.

[Memory Maker]

Man that sounds goooooood .......... making my mouth water ......

[Redfish12]

Dang it Dogfish!! I've been craving a croaker po-boy all week for some reason. I generally spend the time and filet a mess of them for fish nuggets. Dust in some Indian head corn meal, fry, sprinkle a little old bay. I grilled a couple last year and your recipe sounds awesome, just a lot fancier than what I generally have on hand.

I plan on doing a lot more bottom fishing this year. Would you do the same for white perch?

[Foursteps24]

My recipe is basically the same as Redfish and I've never thought to grill it but I will definately try this year. Keep me in mind when you all go bottom fishing because I'm always down to go out.

[DOGFISH]

Croaker is one of my favorite eating fish from the bay. Last summer I was getting into some up to the 15" range. I would like to get into some of those 20" fish, but they never seem to make it this far up the bay. I did some night fishing in the South River last year. The better croaker really come out at night. Next summer, if we have good croaker fishing, I'll post it if some of you will want to go. The South River usually has pretty good croaker. It varies from year to year.

They are scrappy little fish, which are fun to catch. I saw the photo of the IGFA record croaker, which was 8lbs. That must have been a great catch.

That reciepe is flexible. You can adjust it to your favorite spices or to what ever you have on hand. I have just come to like the flavor of those certain spices.

[MetroMan]

I just clean & split them, and straight up fry them. Season...coat in egg wash....dip in breader of choice...then fry!

[MetroMan]

Last year we went on a charter trip where we caught a bunch of croaker. The mate began to fillet them, but We got ours whole. After getting a good fillet knife, I see how filleting them can be preferable to scaling, gutting & fin-clipping if you have a bunch of them. Seem to lose a lot of the "picking meat" though...

[mmanolis2001]

Last year i Filleted all my croaker. It is a waste though but i hate flying scales that get on everything. I need to make a fish cleaning station this spring. I love me some grilled croaker.

Scale / de-gill and gut. Cut a couple shallow slices in the skin on both sides. Rub with salt, garlic and olive oil. Place in a tinfoil pouch with some white wine and red onions and seal. Put it on the grill for 15 to 20 mins and pop a beer.

Good stuff.

[surfdog]

I just clean & split them, and straight up fry them. Season...coat in egg wash....dip in breader of choice...then fry!

MMMM... add some cayenne pepper or old bay to that and im down. texas pete goes with everything think i'll take some tog out of the freezer for tomorrow

[DOGFISH]

I forgot to mention that. I do score the sides of my fish also.

[surfdog]

I forgot to mention that. I do score the sides of my fish also.

i wont score smaller fish but larger ones i do when i cook them whole. the wife and i caught a couple puppy drum (black) at lynnhaven inlet a couple years ago on our way to nags head, i picked up some fish fry at the store by the pier, fileted the drum and chunked them and fried them up with the fish fry i wish i could remember the brand it was sooo good. man im hungry

[Foursteps24]

To kep the scales from flying all over I fill the kitchen sink about 1/4 of the way and scale them under water. The scales will not fly but settle in the water. I tried doing it outside and trust me before you are done scaling the first half of the first fish the FLIES are having there version of a fish "buffet"

[MetroMan]

Yes indeed! Gotta scale them under water.

[DOGFISH]

Redfish:
"I plan on doing a lot more bottom fishing this year. Would you do the same for white perch?"

I am sure the receipe would work on white perch also. I am also planning on doing alot more croaker fishing this year. I am going to do a few more night fishing trips. It is so pleasnant fishing at night. Everything seems to calm down. The bigger croaker also seem to bite at night.

[mmanolis2001]

I never thought of scaling under water.

I will do that this year. Just need to get a strainer thingy-plug-a-magig for the sink and i should be good to go.

I love night fishing for croaker it is much more peaceful.

funny thing. I'm cleaning the kitchen now and found a scale stuck to the wall behind a vase. It must have ricochet off the wall 2 years ago while cleaning a fish.