togue, laker, lake trout, mackinaw, lake char

fishlessman

whatever you want to call it, how do i cook it. tried a few times over the years, strong oily fish. this ones soaking in milk and lemon juice right now for a deep fry attempt. next weekend ill take another and try something else. i once smoked it in a candy terryaky marinade and it wasnt bad, but it wasnt great, any ideas. burnt to a crisp this weekend, teeshirt weather, feeling the pain today.

PhilOsh

I've never cooked one on the BGE. We usually take the whole fish, season it with garlic and onion and pieces of lemon, and wrap it tight in aluminum foil for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Try to keep the fish standing on its back. When you open the foil the skin tends to stick to the foil and pull away from the meat and it's easy to remove the bones.

I've only owned my egg since christmas and haven't had one of those fish to cook yet. But, summer is coming. Just ignore the 9 inches of snow that fell yesterday.

Phil
Oshkosh, WI

fishlessman

anyway to make one taste good works for me. an old timer this weekend was telling me to boil it in salted water, changing the water once during the cook and then dipping the fish in butter. want to try several recipes as this fish is overpopulating the lake and eating all the smelt that feeds the salmon.

Slick

Best trout I ever ate was a real simple cook. Clean the innards out, remove the head (not necessary, but I don't like them looking back at me when I'm cooking them), season cavity with a little s&p, brush the skin with a little evoo, cook direct @ 350, turn once. Depending on size, may take 10-30 minutes. When you take it off, the skin will peel away and meat will separate easily from the bone. Good eats!

Slick

Little Steven

fishlessman,

We call them Lake Trout. Most of the lakes you get them in don't have much else in the way of trout but they seem to co-exist with salmon ok.

Steve

fishlessman

my favorite trout recipe is salt and pepper, rolled in flour and fried til the tail gets crispy, i leave the head on. different trouts have different flavors. i find brook trout to be just about the best, these lake trout are really the bottom for tastes for me, very oily overpowering flavor. i kept this one because its small, i hope that helps.

fishlessman

on my lake im seeing a decline in size and an increase in population. fish and game is increasing how many you can keep and also holding tournaments to help reduce the population. do you guys eat them up there or just cook them on a board and then eat the board. :laugh:

Little Steven

fishlessman,

It depends on the lake. If it is deep and cold they aren't awful battered and fried. I do prefer the plank at the best of times. And they are so much fun to catch too. I have hauled in logs that were more exciting.

Steve

Big'un

Food network's Chopped just had an episode with that on. A lot of pin bones involved. Most seared it and left the skin on. One guy cut the skin off.

fishlessman

definatly not too exciting to catch, once open season starts ill be back on the LL atlantic salmon again. 4 day fishing derby with big prizes will get me fishing for them. borrowed an underwater cammera to watch them bite the lure, was interesting watching how they react to different jigging methods

fishlessman

ill have to watch for that, havent been watching the foodnetwork in a while

Little Steven

fishlessman,

We have a hybrid here called splake. They are actually not bad. The get more size from the laker and have a taste that is more like a speck. Still not as good as a speck or rainbow. Nothing beats brookies IMHO.

Steve

Clay Q

We call'em lake trout. I've grilled them indirect like salmon, pan fried, baked. Excellent. One of the best I've had was a 10 pounder I caught out of Lake Superior, fileted and skin removed. Made a boat of heavy duty aluminum foil, layed the fish in it and dumped Italian dressing over the filets and cooked it on my cousins gasser. Outstanding if a little rich.
I'm thinking conditions determine flavor....like forage food, water condition, time of year, age of trout, stuff like that. Age is a big factor, the old ones are not as good as young'uns, gotta trim belly fat off regardless.
Sun burn? You'll fit right in with kids on spring break.

fishlessman

its strange how they are called different names in different places. you can draw a 50 mile circle on a map here, and know where someone is from if they say togue, lakahs, or lake trout. the curdled milk marinade and deep fry was delicous, kinda a cross between fried cod and clams. tried a couple combos for the batter and found a dusting of half jiffy corn muffin mix and half fine cornmeal with some salt was the best. this was only a small 3 pounder which was better than any of the bigger togue ive tried to cook, i think the smelt they eat probably add to the oily flavor you get with the bigger ones. dont know if it was the milk with lemon juice or the deep fry, but the bones i left in were all gone after cooking, i left some in on a couple pieces just to see if that would happen. after all these years of hating togue, i now love them, big fish fry this weekend