chain pickerel (do you eat them?)

[c17Lat]

Here's a pic of a probably citation sized pickerel i caught in maryland. I never hear of anyone eating them. Anyone know how they taste?

[Crabcakes]

From what I hear bony but not terrible.

I wouldn't keep any in that lake. I think you'll get more enjoyment out of catching them since you go there often. The pickerel fishing is very good size wise there with lots of big ones and not a ton of little ones.

[BassFishingMachine]

They tend to swallow alot of baits, and when this happens with a hard jerkbait, the fish is pretty much done. So instead of throwing him back to die anyway, eating them would be the best bet.

I have never tryed one, but Im looking forward to see what people  have to say. My friend tryed one and said it was pretty good, I don't know if I trust the waters where I catch my pickerel out of though.

[c17Lat]

yea i haven't caught too many pickerel, but the ones i have are probably dead right now cuz they swallowed the bait and really took it deep. MDangler14, there definitely are some huge pickerel (huge everything really) in that lake. I once saw two guys in a canoe there almost land a pickerel so big that it looked like it could have been a record northern pike. I just saw the head and it was massive!

[maxke01]

VERY boney hardly worth the time to clean/cook them

[MskSlyr]

They taste a lot like Pike or Musky to me. They have a decent taste but typically are small with a lot of bone. Basser89 on this board has a decent recipe for ESOX. 24 inches is citation size and that one looks like it would make that.

[HesterIsGod]

VERY boney hardly worth the time to clean/cook them

x2

[SenkoBasser]

They don't taste remotely good. You have to prepare them a certain way and extremely bony. I have never heard of anyone eating pickerel and I've read from Fish and Game that they carry a significant amount more of mercury than other fish and do not recommend eating if they are more than 12". I really haven't had a problem with them swallowing baits.

[Crabcakes]

Oh yeah if they're bleeding or have swallowed the bait go ahead and enjoy. The reports do seem a bit mixed on the enjoyability though.  

[=Matt 5.0=]

They taste like snapping turtle to me....to much trouble to clean as mentioned above...Bony as a mofo...

[Rat Man]

Hi;

  I live in South Jersey and have targeted pickerel for many years.  Yes, you can eat them, but they are VERY bony.  I like the taste but unless it's a really large pick they're not worth the trouble.  Why not just release then to fight another day.  They're excellent fighters on light tackle.  

   Also, I read some posts that say that pickerel swallow lures and die anyway.  I think that if you keep good, heavy wire cutters on hand and are willing to sacrafice a hook to save a beautiful game fish you'll be able to release almost all of the pickerel that you catch alive.  It takes a long time for any fish to grow to lunker size.  Please don't kill them.

[fishizzle]

The only reason they are not extinct is because people don't like to eat them

[RobbyZ5001]

If you guys new how to prepare the pickerel you would be eating them all the time! I keep them when I get one around 20 or bigger because any smaller and it isn't worth the struggle. I don't have the recipe,  but I may be able to get it for you. I can tell you what I know though. My grandmother pressure cooks the pickerel and then picks the meat off the bones and makes them into cakes (sort of like crab cakes). I am not aware of the seasoning,  but they are amazing! She does the same with pike. One day I actually caught an enormous sucker from the lake the thing must have been pushing 8 or 9 pounds. She cleaned the sucked the same way as she did the pickerel. If you guys want I can give her a call some time and get ahold of the recipe.

[RoLo]

All prejudices aside, I'd much rather eat chain pickerel than black crappie :-*

The only drawback is two rows of Y-shaped bones called "whisker bones".

They can be cut-out but not without a loss of delicious flesh, or the fillets (fine bones included) may be ground-up for chowder.

I've eaten more than my share of pickerel fillets, and would describe their flesh as white, sweet and tasty.

BTW: That's a real nice pickerel you're holding there 8-)

Roger

[71Rig]

Smoke them with a light wood smoke like grape vine or alder.  When done, scrape the meat off the bones.  You can prepare this as a salad (like tuna w/mayo, onions, celery, etc) and eat cold or hot as in a melt on an english muffin.  Or whip it with some cream cheese and spread on a nice a big fresh bagel with a little salt and cracked black pepper.  This can also be done with other "rough" fish.  Takes the boneyness out of the equation.      

But smoking is your best bet as it adds some flavor.  As for he heavy metals and chlorinated compounds just take off the fatty tissues prior to cooking (bellies, pectoral fins) and keep consumption to a few fish a month.  

[WARMOUTH706]

YES and they are good if cooked correctly! Scale, dehead and gut the fish. Then take your knife and make a couple (depending on the size of said fish) of gashes down the side of the fish from the tail to where the head used to be. The gashes allow the hot grease to get deeper in the carcase and cook the small bones to a crisp. That way you eat bone and all and no worries about getting choked on them as they go down. I use louisiana brand breading and cook them in a deep fryer @350 till they float and they are done. There is another type of Chain Pickerel down here in Ga. that is called Redfin. It's size is not as big as a regular Chain Pickerel but twice as good. The meat is fine in texture and has a faint sweet taste to it. One perk of the redfin is u can actually scale them with the water pressure that comes out of your water hose(with nozzel of course)!

[SenkoBasser]

All set! I'll stick to trout, perch and crappies. No need to eat the trash fish. Too much trouble and for what? I'd rather acquire a small fillet from a panfish. Yall should try my black crappie fish-ka-bobs.

All cooked the same way. Wrapped in foil with butter, garlic salt, table salt, and pepper......... cooked on grill or open campfire with a side of onions prepared the same way.

[misfit1III8]

I see everyone's complaints about them being bony but the bones can be very easily removed. Once you do it once you will be a pro at it thereafter and you dont lose too much meat. In my opinion I'll choose to eat a fresh pike over a Walleye anyday..

watch this guy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcWyGrV0qao

[Sparse]

We eat a few pickerel every summer. I'd say if you have other fish that are easier to prepare then throw the pickerel back, but they taste like fish, and aren't too hard to deal with the bones. I watched one of those videos, while a bit complicated, I'm going to give it a try and I'd certaily eat more pickerel if there were less bones.

[rondef]

That guy makes it look way to easy to fillet the pike.

[Sparse]

Just for fun here's a picture of a CP i caught recently, little guy.

[Micro]

You can soak fillets in buttermilk overnight and it will disolve the tiny bones or make then so soft you won't know they are there.  Here's a wolf I caught a few weeks ago.  

[Bassnajr]

They also have a tendancy to take over bass ponds. They'll eat anything (baby bass, baby pickerel, etc.). My pond is so over run with them, the average bass size is between 1 and 2 pounds. As far as I'm concerned...EAT AS MANY AS YOU CAN!!!!

AJR

[Sparse]

Interesting ... I'm not good at figuring out how much a bass weighs ... what's the length of a 1 to 2 pound bass?

In our lake there is a very health population of CP's and Bass fortunetly for us we haven't seen any detriment to the bass population. Matter of fact, all of the pickerel we have eaten have mainly had crawfish in their stomachs.

[Bassnajr]

Two breeds competeing for the same food source. The more prevalent breed grows larger. My buddy caught a 3 1/2 pound CP in this pond. Biggest I have ever seen. I have yet to catch a 3 1/2 lb. LMB out of there. I didn't mean the pickerel are eating grown bass if that's what you mean. lol