TOPIC:

I am curious to see what the general consensus is here. I am surprised by every person I hear that actually enjoys this fish. Maybe I am in the minority here.

I voted no......but one of the first times I brought one home I deep fried chunks and believe it not it was decent.........

Dirty wrote:

I voted no......but one of the first times I brought one home I deep fried chunks and believe it not it was decent.........

Somewhat related...the first salmon we ever caught when I was a kid was a 6lb coho. We took it home and beer battered it up like it was a Canadian shore lunch of Walleye.
It was a memorable meal, just not in a good way.

I think we also have bias, we have king and coho. Enough of both to give 90% away so lakers take a back door. If its all we had would we feel different?

I voted yes but wanted to specify that I only keep <24" lakers and highly prefer them out of the smoker.

I love smoked fish. And along time ago I ate my fair share of lakers. They were the Macintosh variety I believe they were called. Not as oil and greasy as the lakers of today.

With that, I thought a couple of years ago to smoke a few lakers. Afterwards I ended up having to scrub down my smoker til clean, really clean, and then run a bunch of smoke wood thru it to get rid of the stench left behind. Never again.

Why play with hot dogs when you have steak. I love the cohos eating them in different ways and they are great smoked.

Funny this topic came up, on Friday 2 separate longtime charter guys called me, and another the previous week called to talk. All of them independently brought up that their customers want to eat lake trout more and more. One of them specifically said he has some clients that think they taste much better than they used to.

I like small lakers (25 and under) just about any way you'd cook salmon, besides frying. Not that I ever fry salmon.

Grilled or broiled they are tasty. Smoked is my favorite. But again, only the smaller sized fish

Like Ed said though, if you have a big load of them go thru your smoker, especially if they are bigger fish, ugh. Nasty.

A few more Laker eaters than I would have expected. The only Lakers I usually see being cleaned, besides Bill, are from the Charter boats.

Yes, it makes the rotation.

Here is a good way to cook them. Put the fillet on foil. Cover the fillet with Creamy Italian Dressing, put mozzerella cheese over that, crumple potato chips over that, wrap it all up and grill or bake for about 25min depending on size to ccok through. Take the chips off they will absorb the oil and usually end up along the edges. The dressing mellows the fish and taste, try it, you can post on it later.

You can also use Ranch Dressing, I use that on Salmon. Chips whatever you like or have around I have used everything from BBQ Lays to Jalapeno Doritos.

I have never Smoked a Laker but do Salmon and Browns.

The other way I cook them is can them. Tried it a couple years ago when I was running short on Salmon and cant taste a difference between that and canned Salmon. Oils cook out and you pour it off before preparing.

I have a friend that has a special batter for the Coho that isn't bad when deep fried.
I like a little smoked salmon if its smoked right, besides that I get enough walleye and perch to keep me Happy.
I'll leave the rest for you guys.