Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking by taste?

This may be in the wrong section but I'm not sure where to put this kind of question.
Has anyone done a poll on fish flavor? Which is best, worst and which has the most uses? I've eaten bullhead, and a lot of saltwater varieties, so I cannot say which species taste best myself.
jim Gilmore

1-2-3: BG/Walleye/YP. It's been too long since I've had fresh WE & YP for me to make a further split fairly.

Here is my opinion:
1-Northern Pike (I've only ate pike that has come from below 65* water, so my opinion may be different for warm water pike)
2-Bluegill/Green Sunfish/etc.
3-Yellow Perch

I love some fried up catfish. Love to fry and bake bass. Trout is also really good if you bake it with lemon. Perch and blue gill are great as well. I pretty much like all fish except carp

Well I learned this past year that it all depends. I use to think that I hated catfish - that they had a "muddy" flavor. Then I go to the conference (and after that the LL2) where I learned the proper way to clean and cook catfish and my entire outlook has changed. Nate cleaned the catfish into little strips (like chicken tenders) and then they were breaded and fried in peanut oil. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, so very good. So IMHO a huge key is how it's cleaned and cooked.

Since we are limiting this to fish we can stock in our fresh water ponds:

1. Bluegill

2. Catfish (using the Nately/Lusk preparation techinque).

My own experience is that no one species has a taste advantage over another.

Instead it has much more to do with water quality and feed, in my opinion.

I happen to love fresh trout and salmon. But the flavor of a trout from a summertime-warm, weedy, muddy pond in Massachussetts can't compare with trout I caught as a kid from pristine streams at 8000 feet in the Uinta mountains of Utah.

The Uinta cutthroat were eating freshwater shrimp from cold, clear, and highly oxygenated water. The flesh was a bright orange. The planted rainbows here in New England were eating, well, something else.

I've noticed the same with warmwater species. I've had farm-raised catfish that was excellent. I've caught the same CC species out of a warm and muddy farm pond, and there was that muddy taste. And I believed I fileted it properly to remove the dark/fatty portions, washed, and marinated it properly.

Now all that being said... Well, you also just have to like fish. Which I do. And develop your own favorite recipes!

Fried fresh fish.
Fish fried fresh.
Fresh fish fried.
Fried fish fresh.
Fish fresh fried.
Fresh fried fish.

Hmmmm.

I'm a Great Lakes area fisherman and around here Yellow Perch and Walleye are neck and neck as top table fare, I prefer the YP to the WE because of the texture of the meat and that subtleness of the fish flavor it provides. I have eaten them from as far north as Chibougamau, Quebec and as far south as Cincinnati, Oh and never noticed much difference in the taste, they are just plain good eating. After that most any bream, sunfish, or crappie will do. I have to try these catfish strips deep fried in peanut oil, they sound too good to miss.

This question is like asking which women or type of meat is best. Everyone has a personal preference which is why my dad always said "that is why we all did not marry the same woman".

Many fish from good water quality and prepared well have good flavor. IT is hard to choose a favorite.

YP, GL Salmon, Crappie

I agree with Jeff in that the handling of the fish after catching them is very important. In the summer we try to get the fish on ice as quickly as possible to keep them from spoiling. Fish in the summer can spoil in an hour or less and cause an otherwise good fish to become unedible. The water the fish come from and what they have been eating is also very important. But if I had to choose my favorite pond fish it would have to be tilapia. They are absolutely wonderful! I just wish I could catch more of them.

Im surprised no one has mentioned flathead catfish. I had it for the first time on the 4th of July and couldnt believe how good it was. It has to be in my top five. 1. yellow perch 2. bluegill 3. crappie 4. flathead 5. walleye

Ben, I think no one mentioned Flat Heads because if you stock them you probably won't have much else in your pond in a few years. Those things are a swimming mouth!



Joe we love hearing fishing stories but stop making up names.

Did you google it Jeff??? I mean, hasn't everyone heard of Chibougamau??

Is this the right Chibougamau?

Wikipedia on Chibougamau:

Chibougamau is a town in central Quebec, Canada, located on Lake Gilman. It has a population of 7,563 people (Canada 2006 Census), which makes it the largest community in northern Quebec. Because of its remoteness from the Lac Saint-Jean area (over 200 km south-east) and from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue area (over 250 km south-west), it serves as the centre of services for the few small communities surrounding it (Mistissini and Chapais) and for the regional resource-based industries.

Close by are Lake Aux Dorés and the vast Lake Chibougamau, after which the town was named. The name Chibougamau comes from the Cree language meaning "Crossed by a river". The nearby Cree village of Oujé-Bougoumou is a more traditional Cree spelling of the same name.

That is the place, in French, a Walleye is called a Dore, Lake Aux Dores is "Walleye Lake" or "Lake of the Walleye" if you hold true to the translation and my french hasn't gotten too poor to translate. That's not where I fished but they do have perch up there, funniest thing about them and all fish up that far north, is how rubbery and tough the skin is, I surmise it is the tannins in the water and the cold weather that make it that way. The water up there all has a dark root beer color to it, even the whitewater looks like A&W foam.

Yes sir you got my favorite is fried...

















...fish

I just got back from the Jordan Valley (no blatantly obvious wars going on down there) today and I log onto pondboss and I become spiritually enlightened. Man, what a great site. I just discovered there is an oasis on the Jordan/Iraq border that holds a 20-lb carp. I've never been a carp fisher but I need to do a little freshwater fishing so carp it will have to be while in Jordan.

Welcome home!

I stock fish for one reason and one reason only - sport fishing. It's not the fish in the fight but the fight in the fish.

Deep dark secret revealed - you northen boys go easy on me - I love to fish for BG but they taste "funny" to me.
I threw a half dozen or so big female BG on the bank this morning. Our neighbors don't want then either - they prefer crappie.

My favorite fish for the fight and for table fare is HSB
Just remember to take out the bloodline...

George - me to.

I eat BG and LMB as that is dinner on occasion. They are not my favorites. Often small LMB go on the bank.

CC and crappie along with WE and YP are much better IMO.

I prefer LMB. OK, I haven't caught a crappie in years and can't bring myself to slaughter a nice sized BG.