Laker tasted great!

Having never fished for lake trout before and hearing some say they are not good eating, I was not certain what to expect of the 20-incher I took from a Muskoka-area lake. However, I baked it and it tasted amazing! Even my fish picky family enjoyed it! I found the meat light (not oily at all) and neither bland nor strong tasting.

So educate me on why lake trout get the bad rep? For example, does it depend on size, water body, cooking method, cooking timing (I always find freshly cooked fish better tasting than the ones I dig out of my freezer), something else?

Thanks!

I eat Carp, so should not comment lol

They can be very fishy tasting depending on their diet. If they eat smelt for instance, a large one will have a visible fat line that needs to be trimmed.

Usually this is only a problem in 5+ pound fish. I've never had a bad tasting laker under that size, and I've eaten hundreds of them over my life.

I ate a small one from Lake Rosseau the this past weekend. Flour+seasoning+oil and a fish fresh from the lake was absolutely outstanding.

All the lakers I catch from Lake of Bays have always tasted great never had a bad tasting laker.
The way you cooked yours is one of my favorite ways to cook them also try wrapping them in foil with butter and onions and seasoning to your likening.

My first love is lake trout fishing and through the years have caught and eaten many from a variety of waters in the north. There's lakes I won't even go to because the fish are too fatty or fishy tasting. As BS has said, its all about their diet. I've picked up a lot through that time and can now catch a laker and fairly accurately look at it and tell you how it'll taste. If the belly is snow white, the flanks are a silvery or greenish shade, the fins have that nice red/ivory leading edge then you have a fish with bright red or bright orange meat and decent tasting. If the fish has a gray or muddy colored belly its been grubbing in the mud, if the sides are yellow or black its been into the mud or feeding on fatty species such as smelt. I've caught them totally black, belly, sides and back. The flesh of that fish will be a pale yellow or even white and will taste like crap. Often the tail flesh will be a translucent shade, high in fat content. Horrible tasting stuff.
There's a few things you can do to help improve the taste though. Cut that white strip off the belly of your fillet, trim the fatty gray strip that runs along the top of the fillet (along the dorsal fin) and after skinning, scrape off that gray strip of fat that follows along the lateral line. The other thing, try not to store a laker for any length of time. Even if frozen in a bag of water the fat throughout the flesh will become rancid and give you an off-taste. I think lakers will always be a better smoked fish than fried in a pan. But fresh caught, red or orange meat is darn good table fare at any time.

People that yell you that lake trout aren't good eating just want less guys out 9n their laker holes. Lol

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I've caught approx 15 this year...and have eaten 4 of them. All 16-20" ers'. I catch them in a stocked lake, and the meat is a beautiful dark orange....they've been delicious....

I find laker's can be good or bad.
If the meat is orange it will be far better. Usually smaller younger fish. Eating plankton.
Larger fish with a fish food base will be a whiter meat colour.
Nowhere as good eating.

I would not have described the meat as orange, but salt, lemon-pepper, butter, onions and lemons baked in foil at 350 deg for 35-40 min made for great eating :)

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