Quote Originally Posted by walleyewhitetailpro View Post
I agree with you guys on letting the females go, especially when you can easily catch a limit of jacks. Quick question though to the guys who don't like the taste of big females? Say later in the summer you catch a big female who is all spawned out and you keep her. Before you throw the fillets in the fryer, do you trim the red meat off of the fillets? I have found that by taking a little extra time to trim this meat really improves the flavor. I personally can't tell a 17" jack from a 30" female when tasting it after. I even feed it to the girlfriend who claims she only likes perch hahahaha.
I release pre-spawn females as well, but I like to jig rather than troll, so not much of a problem.
As for cookin up the late season big fish. I cut up the fillets for fying. First I cut along the length, near the rib bones, in order to seperate the thinner lower portion of the fillet from the thicker upper portion. This keeps a consistent thickness. Also trim away the lateral line / red meat. Just a small cut along the length. Takes away a lot of the overpowering fish flavor. Then I cut the long into shorter pieces which helps me fit in my pan better.