Walleye Taste vs Northern Pike Taste?

[Allen]

Northerns are great eating, just so long as they don't come out of warm water. Also, their lateral line can be more robust than that found on a 16 inch walleye, so take some time to get rid of the darker flesh.

As for comparing them to walleyes? To each their own, both are great table fare, the walleyes are just easier to clean and cook which gives them an edge.

For smoking though, it's northern or nothing for me. Smoked pike are awesome!

 

[svnmag]

I don't like fish and I eat both just fine.

 

[MSA]

my most favoritest ND native table fair would be pike, drum, ling, and bluegill. my 2nd favorite fish by taste would be perch walleye, salmon, & trout

 

[muskelllunge13]

Allen is correct you must cut out the dark meat on the skin side of a nice pike surrounding their lateral line. Also in Northern pike make sure you bleed them!

 

[BGH]

Nothing wrong with a northern that is cooked right!

 

[KDM]

Most people can't tell the difference between walleye, northern, drum, or many other species of fish that have firm, white, flaky meat when cooked. I have several friends that claimed they could tell the difference between walleye caught from Canada, DL, Sak, and MN. I just so happened to have walleyes from each of those locations on hand at the time so I challenged them to a test. I cooked all the fish and labeled the bottoms of the plates with CAN, DL, SAK, and MN respectively and they then voted. It was a lively discussion, but in the end they all agreed as to which walleye came from each location. Well, they were all wrong. There wasn't a single walleye fillet on the table. I served them all fillets of redhorse sucker caught from the Sheyenne river in early spring. They all ate 'til they could hardly take another bite and raved about how good walleye is. I quietly smiled to myself. To this day, they still don't know they ate suckers instead of walleye. There is very little difference to me whether the fish in the pan is walleye or northern pike. If the bones are all out of the flesh, it's ALL good.

 

[raider]

when i grew up, walleye was gold, and not attainable to us with our schedule... it was pike only, and only out of the coulies by the farm... we ate it up like thieves, thankful for every mouthful, but always fought the bones...

now, walleyes are plentiful, and are easy to catch and clean without the slime in the boat... guess i'm spoiled for now, but would have no problem going back to pike if the eyes take a hit...

fwiw, we rarely eat fresh eyes... we soak them in ice water in the fridge, changing water every day, for 3-5 days... really firms them up...

i am thankful for what the waters of this state provide, and could easily live on non game fish as well... we are truly blessed...

 

[Kickemup]

I grew up eating pike and catfish both are great to eat bit now only keep eyes and pan fish just cause I don't want to deal with the slime and bones.

 

[Gator]

Remove the dark meat if you don't like the taste. Boil the northern with some celery and onions for three minutes and sprinkle papareka and garlic butter on them and broil for three minutes. It reminds me of baked cod. Nice thing about pike, nobody cares if you pull a ten pound pike out of the lake and clean it, you don't get mobbed when you net one, you know when you have one on, and they will bite just about in any condition. Fish lake sakawea you can eat them all year.

 

[Sum1]

IMO pike have a better flavor than walleye. I just can't stand cleaning them slimy bastages. Pike flavor maybe better but it's not that much better to where I'll go through the hassle of cleaning them. Walleye are just so clean and hassle free. They make life easy and taste good. Pike, bass, Muskies, are for fun. Walleye, salmon, and perch are for eating.

 

[Gator]

I agree they are cumbersome to clean. The black nitryl gloves you can get at a automotive store are great, so is a rubber squeegee, to des lime. I typically fillet all of them first, rinse everything, then debone. I can clean a limit in about a hour and a half, twice the time as walleye but usually twice the meat. It took a lot of fish to get into practice on deboning and getting set up with the right knives and such.

 

[MSA]

Most people can't tell the difference between walleye, northern, drum, or many other species of fish that have firm, white, flaky meat when cooked. I have several friends that claimed they could tell the difference between walleye caught from Canada, DL, Sak, and MN. I just so happened to have walleyes from each of those locations on hand at the time so I challenged them to a test. I cooked all the fish and labeled the bottoms of the plates with CAN, DL, SAK, and MN respectively and they then voted. It was a lively discussion, but in the end they all agreed as to which walleye came from each location. Well, they were all wrong. There wasn't a single walleye fillet on the table. I served them all fillets of redhorse sucker caught from the Sheyenne river in early spring. They all ate 'til they could hardly take another bite and raved about how good walleye is. I quietly smiled to myself. To this day, they still don't know they ate suckers instead of walleye. There is very little difference to me whether the fish in the pan is walleye or northern pike. If the bones are all out of the flesh, it's ALL good.

HAHAHAHA....that's awesome. I did this once before with some friends, only I used channel cat...same results. we didn't get as in depth, I just said it was walleye until everyone was done eating.

 

[Kurtr]

Me and buddy did that with white bass once every one ate the hell out of it and said how much they like walleye. We told them after the fact and some refused to believe us. With the right breading i believe you could deep fry a turd and it would taste good

 

[FishReaper]

We had a fish fry last week, took out 3 vacuum sealed bags of fish, 1 walleye, 1 channel cat, and 1 Northern.
My father and mother in laws are " Walleye Snobs" and they couldnt tell them apart. Im pretty sure my father in law ate more channel cat than anything else.

 

[Holmsvc]

I think northerns taste good in the winter and spring. I just hate putting the slimy things in the boat.

 

[---------------]

Most people can't tell the difference between walleye, northern, drum, or many other species of fish that have firm, white, flaky meat when cooked. I have several friends that claimed they could tell the difference between walleye caught from Canada, DL, Sak, and MN. I just so happened to have walleyes from each of those locations on hand at the time so I challenged them to a test. I cooked all the fish and labeled the bottoms of the plates with CAN, DL, SAK, and MN respectively and they then voted. It was a lively discussion, but in the end they all agreed as to which walleye came from each location. Well, they were all wrong. There wasn't a single walleye fillet on the table. I served them all fillets of redhorse sucker caught from the Sheyenne river in early spring. They all ate 'til they could hardly take another bite and raved about how good walleye is. I quietly smiled to myself. To this day, they still don't know they ate suckers instead of walleye. There is very little difference to me whether the fish in the pan is walleye or northern pike. If the bones are all out of the flesh, it's ALL good.

How do you de-bone a sucker? They were always my dad's favorite to eat but I remember them as being the only fish with more bones than a northern X 10. Maybe I am just remembering wrong? It's been a lot of years ago.

 

[KDM]

You take the fillet and remove the rib bones. Then you have to worry about he "Pin" bones that run down the center of the fillet. I just cut the top portion of the fillet off and then the bottom portion. The center or midline of the fillet is where the bones hang out. After that, it's batter, fry, and Bon Apetite.

 

[MSA]

gonna have to try some shorthead redhorse next time I catch one.

 

[KDM]

Keep in mind that the "pin" bones sit very much like the Y bones in a pike. They aren't straight. It's not hard to get them out, but it will take a couple of tries to get it down. Once that's done, the meat is quite good when cooked just like you would a walleye fillet.

 

[squirrel92]

White bass is delicious. Just ate a big one last night. Shorthead redhorse and white sucker in the spring from the river are great as well, I agree.