Islands N Island 3/19 - cooked Whitefish

[FurdFergason]

3/17: Good looking bait out of SD Bay, easy water, fished the windward side of N Island for most of the day. No sign of YT on the echo or my line. Only sign of life were Rockfish which are always appreciated.

3/19: Went out on The San Diego. Light load, great looking bait, clean boat. Great crew worked hard and SEARCHED for YT. Put us on plenty of bottom fish. I have nothing but positive things to say.

Tonight I ate one of the smaller Whitefish and here's what I did:

I've never cooked a Pacific Whitefish before and I was curious about how it would cook in different ways. I wanted to see how it would cook whole in an air fryer but also wanted to check out fried fillets. I ended up just doing half and half.

I scaled it and cut it in half at the marks. The back half was fillets. I fried the fillets in light olive oil with salt garlic and a small amount of butter. The front half was just thrown in the air fryer with some salt, minimal butter, garlic and some calmansi.

The texture and flavor of the fish were good to excellent. I'm definitely pro-whitefish. The only things that bug me are:
1) I over salted the fillets (they are kinda delicate)
2) These fish have some tiny little pin bones that are kinda annoying to deal with. The bones were so small that they were undetectable in the back half fillets of the small fish I ate so that is kinda interesting and sort of a pro for keeping the smaller ones.

I've got 4 more of these things to eat so I'd love to hear how otherr people cook them.

 

[Hismosa]

The pin bones can definitely be a bit annoying and don't leave you with much filet on the smaller fish. But some awesome tasting fish, especially in ceviche.

 

[Cactus Chris]

San Diego is a great boat and crew! They really work hard to get you on fish. I really lucked out a couple weeks ago when the yellows were biting and got two

 

[Cactus Chris]

The pin bones can definitely be a bit annoying and don't leave you with much filet on the smaller fish. But some awesome tasting fish, especially in ceviche.

Yeah we usually just cook the smaller ones whole and eat around the bones because you lose too much meat trying to cut them all out

 

[stuman]

They say the whitefish near kelp don't taste very good. The ones off structure taste better.

A couple weeks ago, I deep fried my Coronado whitefish - they tasted great - malt vinegar and salt. Yes some of the pin bones were bothersome.

 

[eat'm_raw]

They say the whitefish near kelp don't taste very good. The ones off structure taste better.

A couple weeks ago, I deep fried my Coronado whitefish - they tasted great - malt vinegar and salt. Yes some of the pin bones were bothersome.

Not always true, but definitely sometimes! I've been catching them for almost 40 years, and they've always been great EXCEPT ONCE - a batch I caught off of San Nic had this crazy bitter aftertaste. I'd never heard of it before. Looked it up, and sure enough, as you say, sometimes the shallow-water ones caught off kelp beds are really unpalatable. Rare, but supposedly that's why there isn't a commercial market for them.

 

[Fishhunter3403]

Not always true, but definitely sometimes! I've been catching them for almost 40 years, and they've always been great EXCEPT ONCE - a batch I caught off of San Nic had this crazy bitter aftertaste. I'd never heard of it before. Looked it up, and sure enough, as you say, sometimes the shallow-water ones caught off kelp beds are really unpalatable. Rare, but supposedly that's why there isn't a commercial market for them.

I’ve heard the only commercial use for them is in cat food

 

[pacificscout]

I’ve heard the only commercial use for them is in cat food

 

[Halibut Howie]

To eliminate the pin bones on a white fish filet.
1. filet the fish both sides.
2. remove the skin on each filet
3. feel each filet for the pin bones running halfway down each filet in the middle.
4. cut the pin bones out of each filet, basically dividing each filet into two smaller, skinnier filets. Both boneless. The belly side filet is much smaller than the topside filet. Thus the smaller WF are not worth fileting IMO. Great eating however in tacos cuz of the long skinny filets from this method of fileting a WF. I once won a JB with a 12lb WF.

 

[Fishing for Memories]

One of the many underrated fish in our local waters. Good Eats.

 

[the SLIDER]

Whitefish make great breaded tacos. I usually only keep the ones 15" or greater in length so they have some girth.

If you can cut straight with a knife, the pinbones are obvious indicated by the red stripe through the middle of the filet. Very little waste if done correctly.