willard question?

[duckkiller33]

So I grew up trout fishing. I was wondering what the wipers taste like. Do most of you guys that fish there keep your fish to eat or do you let them go?
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[MisterCompletely]

If trout are like salmon, then wipers are like halibut. [unimpressed]

Battered and deep fried, they're like fish and chips. Or you give could just give em to me. [cool]
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[WiperMac]

[font "Calibri"]Personally I prefer walleye or crappie but Wiper isn’t bad either. Best advice I can give you is if you want to eat them, bleed them out. They have a heavy blood/lateral line that doesn’t taste good at all. Bleeding them out helps to remove that fishy taste and will aid you when you’re cutting out the lateral line. Doing this makes them much more suited for the table. But that’s just my two cents. [/font]
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[wiperhunter2]

Personally I rarely eat them because of the strong taste, if you do eat them, they taste best deep fried., IMO.
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[Old_Coot]

I once took an old 80 year old guy wiper fishing. He took home a couple for dinner. He grew up on trout. He thought they were kind of bland (compared to his old slimers).
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[Koko21]

I just caught a wiper and 2 crappie Monday, fileted them up, and put in the fridge. Didn't get to cooking them until tonight. First I soaked them in a warm salt water rinse, to help scrub off the fish smell/taste, especially after sitting in the fridge. I highly recommend this, and then rinse in water again after the salt water.

With my filets, I leave the outside skin layer on so I can grill them. Personally, I think grilled fish is the best as it really cooks out the fish flavor. Threw them all on the grill with garlic salt, a little bit of homemade Cajun seasoning, and dried onion pieces. Towards the end I drizzled some fresh lemon and light sea salt.... it was delicious.

I thought of battering or fish and chips, which would be good since it is a light moist fish, but I really just wanted to taste the fish with a bit of seasoning. I also make an annual lake powell trip and catch striped bass that I cook up with same recipe, and they taste similar and are both great fish in my opinion. Grilling with skin side down is definitely the way to go and doesn't leave fish smell in the house. Once cooked, the skin gets crispy and comes right off.

I grew up on trout as well and anymore, I only like to keep and eat the large or wild pink ones. In my opinion the Wiper was much better, as well as the striped bass. I maybe no bass expert, but I love good food.

1st attached photo is my meal I caught the other night.
2nd is my leftovers since I had so much grilled fish = fish tacos tomorrow. Didn't think to snap picture until now and leftover don't do it justice, but it tasted great.
3rd photo for fun is my wife with the largest striped bass caught of the last lake powell trip.

I also have a yummy mango butter sauce that I made for mostly ocean fish like mahimahi, ono, but still super good with any white fish. Let me know if you want recipe.
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[SkunkedAgain]

Everyone has different tastes, but personally I love wiper, I don't have to bleed them or get fancy cooking them and they still come out great. They are a mild flavor not very fishy at all. If you like white meat fish you'll like wiper. I can't taste much difference between them and walleye and you see how much everyone likes to eat eyes. Keep a couple and try them they make really nice fillets. I just take some fine corn meal in a Baggie and add some Zatarans Creol spice to it, then put a chunk of fish in and shake it and you can deep fry or bake this or put it in tinfoil on the grill and it will make great fish tacos or can be eaten and enjoyed alone. Simple and good. Let us know what you think of them. Later J
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[HD7000]

[quote MisterCompletely]If trout are like salmon, then wipers are like halibut. [unimpressed]

Battered and deep fried, they're like fish and chips. Or you give could just give em to me. [cool][/quote]

You said it! Wiper is my substitute for halibut now that I moved inland!

The key is to get them on ice quick and never let the meat get warm. I prefer to eat them as soon as possible and never have a problem with a fishy taste! Bleeding out fish is for oily fish like tuna. Wipers are awesome just how they are and are much less slimy than walleye. Eyes are good too though, just not as good as a deep fried wiper fillet!
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[ReelMasta]

I agree. I know walleye is very good too but the big white flakes and mild flavor make wiper one of my favorite table fare.

I get a bit perplexed by reports of smelly fish when referring to wiper. I filet my wipers by leaving the rib cage with the carcass and remove the skin. When I'm done and smell the filets there is no smell at all.

Once fileted and rinsed, I bag each fish (2 filets worth) in quart freezer zip locks, date and fill with water to prevent freezer burn.

When time to cook, I let thaw in cold water and prepare. When thawed I always put my nose to them and still have no smell to speak of like the fish at the local stores.

Some of the best eating fish in town, and because of the size, you don't have to spend hours working them like perch, gills and crappie.

Scott
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[Sirfilletalot]

Wipers have a fishy taste. If you like fish, you should like Wiper. Just cut in smaller pieces and remove all of the red from the fillets.

In my opinion, Walleye are the best tasting, followed by Yellow Perch, Bluegill, Bass, Wiper and Catfish. Trout and Salmon are at the bottom of my list.
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[Mike_LaTaco]

Totally agree. what I do is bleed them out (just cut the gills) as you would with a Salmon. And then Immediately put them on ice, and they are great when you do that. They are on of the only fish that I will keep and eat in Utah (along with walleyes and crappie)
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[jjannie]

Fully agree - your recipe really got us hooked on them too.

We vacuum packed our filets to save freezer space - and they are not fishy. And the size of fillets ain't bad.

We do like kokes and most trout as well.

Having the right prep and great recipes can make a world difference with any fish.
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[Watershadow]

Concur with this post, these are a great table fish without doing anything to them; grilled, pan fried with panco, or deep fried. Never noticed a fishy taste, but then again i dont mind fishy taste either. I put them in the same general category as crappie, walleye, perch, etc tastewise. IMO you cant go wrong with wiper no matter how you prepare.
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[Littlebuck3333]

I have personally never bleed one out and have never had that bloody mess u have with that fish but then again I don't see the guts when I fillet I do cut the dark vein out of the fillers that is nasty.wipers are a bit more oily than walleye but not as bad as a striper.
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[Littlebuck3333]

Exactly big cooler lots ice u drag em around on a stringer u get what u sow same with jokes big cooler plenty of ice.
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[Tin-Can]

Now all you guys don't take this the wrong way.....unless you always catch and release, then you more than likely take some fish home or wherever to eat, right? Isn't that the whole purpose of EATING fish, to taste fish as a change to pork or beef or chicken? I grew up in southern California. I lived on the beaches and on most every kind of sea food you can imagine. Yes, salt water species of fish have a different taste, and much more variety. So why all the comment of washing away the "fishy taste" ? I have never bleed a Wiper, and although my catch rate so far this year is no where near what it usually is, in the 11 years I have fished Willard, I have eaten LOTS of Wiper, Walleye, & Catfish. If you want all the fish you work so hard to go catch, fillet, cook, to not have a"fishy" taste, why not catch and release, and then go buy some fish sticks. They all taste like salty cardboard to me anyway. I agree that Wiper especially should be kept cold and not allowed to warm up between catching and eating, but I solved that issue without having to tote an ice chest. I fillet them out as soon as I get home, constantly rinsing in cold water, bag them up in 1 gal. size zip lock bags so they lay flat, put em in the deep freeze. A week or a month or even 6 months later, I thaw them in cold water, dip in milk, roll in corn meal that is flavored with almost any concoction you want to dream up, lay em down in HOT Peanut oil, turn once, and in 3 to 4 minutes max, you have white flakey meat on the inside, and crisp tasty breading on the outside. Have even changed that up by rolling the fillets in pancake batter, then frying. Make a slightly sweet light tempura like batter over great tasting fish. Works equally well with Wiper, Walleye, Catfish, Crappie, Bass, Striper, almost any fresh water species you may catch in Utah. Can't say for Trout, not much of a trout lover. Ooops, sorry, I know that's probably sacrilegious here where Trout has been king for 100 years. But if not to enjoy the taste of fish, why bother with all the work to go catch and keep them?
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[HD7000]

You said it! I lived in San Diego for 10 years and practically lived on the seafood we harvested... I miss it a ton, especially lobster, pismo clams, and summer spawning halibut!
But yes, fillet them puppies as soon as you get home and take the skin off! The pancake batter is a good trick too but I prefer an actual batter before deep frying but I don't think I've ever had a bad wiper meal!
Trout can be tasty too, its just a pain dealing with the bones... Try baking it, then picking all the bones out and ending up with a big pile of boneless flakes. Then make a trout casserole with cream of mushroom soup, egg noodles and lots of cheese! My mouth just watered...
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[Tin-Can]

HD, gonna have to invite you to our annual August camp out at Hyrum. We usually catch and release all the trout we get, cause even though we like the taste of trout, we have the same issue, the bones. When I was a kid growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, we would catch stocked rainbows at the local ponds or small lakes in the foothills (probably not even there anymore), scale and gut them, fill the cavity with any number of things, wrap in foil and shove them down in the camp fire coals. Pull them out later, get a hold of the head and pull backwards. Most times that would pull the backbone and majority of the ribs out all in one go. The smallest bones would usually cook up so much you didn't notice them. But the few bones that got left behind could be troublesome if you were not careful. Nowadays I'm too old and impatient to do that much work on my fish. I can fillet a Wiper or Walleye, or Cat and just about promise you no bones. So we always take fish caught earlier in the summer and frozen when we go to Hyrum. We get the best of both, terrorize the trout, or perch all day, and eat wiper and walleye at night.[sly] [fishin]
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[HD7000]

That sounds like a blast! As long as its before Aug 15, I would love to go. But from Aug 15 till duck season, I'm usually doing a whole lotta armed hiking with my bow looking for some red meat!
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[Tin-Can]

Usually the first weekend in August. Oldest son's birthday is 5th, #2 son's is 31 July, so it's kind of a guys getaway weekend. Not sure if it will happen this year though. #2 son's wife is due to deliver a baby girl in June, and my daughter is due to have a boy in July. Gonna be grandpa x 2 [:/]
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