# Man, is there anything better than fried Crappie???



## tree md (May 29, 2010)

Doing a little shore lunch today. Went fishing this past week and caught 18 Crappie 10" or better, one 2# Bass and one 2# Catfish. It's been so long since I caught a good mess of Crappie I am just ecstatic. Crappie are my favorite fish to eat but I haven't had a good place to fish for them (or the time to really look for one) in years. I usually catch mostly Catfish, which I love as well, but Crappy is absolutely my favorite. Glad I found a spot to fish for them!

I froze up half of my fish but left 9 Crappy and the catfish out for the weekend. I just fried up three of them with some hush puppies, french fries and homemade jalapeno coleslaw. I am in heaven and the best part is, I still have half of my Crappy I left out to cook fresh and eat this weekend!!!


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## Greenthorn (May 29, 2010)

:censored::censored#?**#@,
Or bluegill is right up there!


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## tree md (May 29, 2010)

Yep, I like me a good mess of Bluegill fried up crispy as well. When I was a kid we'd camp out at Deems Lake in Southern IN and my grandmother would fry up our fish in camp. I can't ever remember eating better fried fish.

My cousin fishes Patoka a lot. He is gonna be camping there for a week next month. He told me he catches some slab bluegill out of that lake.


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## barneyrb (May 30, 2010)

Crappie are my favorite fish for sure. I have started cooking them a little different and they are very good in fact, I like them better than fried.

Here goes,

Take some larger size crappie (bass works well also) and when you filet them, leave the scales and skin on the side (just take the filets off the fish). Remove the ribs from the filet.

Take a stick of butter and melt in pan with a clove of minced garlic. The goal here is to make some brown garlic butter. 

Lay the filets scale side down and pat meat dry. Sprinkle with Cajun seasoning (Tony's, Zattarins, etc) and coat liberally with the garlic butter.

Build a good fire in the grill, I like charcoal but a gas grill works too. Lay the seasoned filets scale side down and cook until fish is flaky, be careful because it is easy to overcook and wind up with very dry fish. When done the fish will slide off the skin and scales with zero effort. 

Now don't get me wrong, I live in the south and frying is one of the better ways of cooking but this way ain't bad either. At our house it is the preferred way.


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## tree md (May 30, 2010)

Yes, I have grilled Salmon like that many times. It's delicious and the skin keeps the fish from charring as well as holds it together. Never thought about doing Crappie like that but I bet it's good. 

I soaked mine in salt water for 24 hours then rinsed it off. Crappie has very little fishy flavor (if any) as it is but soaking it in the salt water seems to give it an even better taste. No fishy flavor at all.

I was talking to a guy at the marina when I was fishing and he had an interesting idea. We were talking about cat fish and I had told him about how I soak my fish in salt water. He said he does the same but said he soaks his catfish in 7up for about an hour before he fries it. Said it takes all the fishy flavor out of it. Sounds like a pretty cool trick. I think I'll give it a try next time I do catfish.


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## stihl sawing (Jun 1, 2010)

There ain't no better eatin than crappie fried or baked or grilled. And to think all i have is a microwave dinner to eat now. Really blows.lol


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## sbhooper (Jun 2, 2010)

Crappie, walleye, bluegil, white bass-they are all great fileted thin, breaded and fried.


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## Josh777 (Jun 2, 2010)

tree md said:


> I froze up half of my fish but left 9 Crappy and the catfish out for the weekend. I just fried up three of them with some hush puppies, french fries and homemade jalapeno coleslaw. I am in heaven and the best part is, I still have half of my Crappy I left out to cook fresh and eat this weekend!!!



Everybody's eating fish this week, lol. I had bluegill this weekend and that jalapeno coleslaw sound like something I could eat the crap out of! Make sure to send some this way!

-Josh


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## tree md (Jun 3, 2010)

Hey Josh, just mince up a little less than a quarter cup of jalapenos and add it to about a pound of coleslaw. Don't forget to throw a little slash of pepper juice in there as well. It will really kick it up a notch, I guarantee you!


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## CrappieKeith (Jun 3, 2010)

You bet fish fry's for crappie are awesome!
We had one this last weekend...










Talk about crappie.....
Watch this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1FLQhMoqow

Here's a short vid from Memorial Day Monday...
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1495463508674&ref=mf


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## tree md (Jun 3, 2010)

Now how did I know we would be in agreement on this topic Kieth??? 

Nice slabs in the first vid!

Couldn't see the second one, I'm not a facebook member.


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## luvsaws (Jun 3, 2010)

sbhooper said:


> Crappie, walleye, bluegil, white bass-they are all great fileted thin, breaded and fried.



:agree2:


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## luvsaws (Jun 3, 2010)

crappiekeith said:


> you bet fish fry's for crappie are awesome!
> We had one this last weekend...
> 
> 
> ...



mmmmmmmmm


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## Arrowhead (Jun 3, 2010)

Had me some Bluegill fillets and homemade hushpuppies over the weekend....


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## KMB (Jun 3, 2010)

A couple of friends took me out night fishing for Crappie when I was in Missouri 2 weekends ago.They filleted and fried some of our catch from the first night fishing. Was my first time eating fried Crappie fillets...PERFECT! They sent me home with 58 fillets for the freezer . I didn't catch that many of the Crappie...still learnin'.

Kevin


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## CrappieKeith (Jun 7, 2010)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1499760216089&ref=mf
check out the latest...


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## boostnut (Jun 18, 2010)

MMMMM, crappie, gonna have to take some out of the freezer for dinner on fathers day. 

So, whats your breading preference? Andy's cajun can't be beat if ya ask me.


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## tree md (Jun 18, 2010)

I can't remember the exact ratio but I like to mix corn meal with regular flour, a little more corn meal than flour. To tell the truth, I like it just like that with some salt and pepper but I have added Tony Chachery's and it's pretty good too. Hard to mess up good Crappie.


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## yooper (Jun 18, 2010)

tree md said:


> I can't remember the exact ratio but I like to mix corn meal with regular flour, a little more corn meal than flour. To tell the truth, I like it just like that with some salt and pepper but I have added Tony Chachery's and it's pretty good too. Hard to mess up good Crappie.



try finding corn flour to mix. I use what is called me sa ca I am not flues in mexican but maybe that corn flour. I have found it much better than corn meal.


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