Freezing Whitefish

Don't know much about Whitefish. I have heard from several folks that they do not freeze well.

Any truth to that?? I hear they are good smoked, pickled and baked.

What's your favorite way to cook / preserve them??

LB's right, fresh is the best. Had some fresh smoked whitefish last week that was excellent. Wisconsinites have been eating commercially caught fish for a long time. Now that Green Bay has a huge sport fishing bite in the cleaner water under the ice, doesn't mean the fish taste any different now than from centuries ago. My fish ID book lists ; a 26 pound monster as a record size, netted fish! They have an adipose fin just like trout and salmon. The eggs are supposed to make excellent caviar.

Crappies are mushy as well but people love em....I wouldn't worry.  if you catch a lot of perch, walleye's and bluegills you'll know the difference.  if not,  you won't know the difference between a fresh whitefish or a frozen one.  it's the truth.

Pickled anything is the best.  you could pickle a butt hole and it would taste fine.  

I prefer a whitefish fresh,  catch it and eat it within 4 days and it's better than any whitefish you'll eat at a store or restaurant.  I catch 10,  clean and eat what I can and give the rest to my neighbor.  I won't freeze them.  I hate mushy fish and so does my kid and wife.

I like them fried or broiled or do a fish boil with them like in door Co.  All really tasty.  Any fish is good smoked or pickled.

If you do freeze whitefish freeze the fillets in water.  They do get a little "mushy" when thawing them out if they're left frozen for too long, but for a month or two they're fine (in my experience)

I've also had luck freezing the whole fish minus the guts and saving several until I have enough to take to get smoked.  The place I get them smoked has a 10 pound minimum, so I need about 10 fish to make it worthwhile, or otherwise I still pay for 10 pounds even if I don't have that much.

The backstraps are the best eating part of the fish for fish fries.  What my dad and I generally do is take the backstraps off for the pan and the bony parts get pickled.   Pickled whitefish is the best!