To Brits only trout are not coarse?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the imrpession that Brits erroneously regard all fresh-water fish except trout as coarse species that may caght for sport but then released. Excepting all the cyprinoids (bream, tench, carp, crucean, roach, bleak, etc.), in America pike, perch, walleye, all the basses crappies, bluegill) , catfish, etc. are considered good eating, and they really are.

It's not a question of perception amongst anglers, Pol3, it's a question of rules. My dad was an avid fisherman back in the day (20 years ago) and he picked up rainbow trout but also some other fish which he was allowed to keep. That all changed with the advent of new regulations. In came licensing in a big way which restricted his options. Also, he was confined to a certain weight limit in order not to deplete the stock of fish.

Please outline your take on the American position to see if a similar thing happened.

In the North of Scotland we dont get


we do get
Freshwater -
Salmon, Pike, Artic Char, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Sea Trout which are all common freshwater fish and are edible although I wouldnt eat Pike.

Catch and release is up to the fisherman and is really just common sense.

Saltwater -
Sea Fishing from the shore, common fish are Cod, Mackeral, Dogfish, Pollack, Coalfish, Conger Eel, Ling, Dogfish and all sorts of flatfish and flounders.

You can eat them all but I would give the Eels a miss.

We are a bit spoilt for choice and generally turn our noses up at farmed fish and would have to be really hungry to eat bottom feeders like catfish, carp etc

Each of our states has its own fishing and hunting regulations. Usually there are catch limits on gamefish and none of small panfish. The latter (perch, sunfish, rockbass, bluegills, bullheads) are usually the first fish caught by kids using worms as bait.

I wonder how many Europeans are aware of the North American 'super-pike', the
muskellunge (opposite coloration the northern pike, ie dark spots on lighter body).
A valiant fighter caught on various frog and fish-resembling lures as well as live-fish bait, specimns of 20-25 kg are not uncommon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskellunge

What is the Pollack doing in the water? ;) ;)

There was a major clampdown around 20 years ago. The permit system was highly regulated and the fines for non-compliance were stiff.

Indeed, of the fish that exclusively dwell in freshwater habitats, I think it is only trout that is not considered to be a coarse fish. Don't ask me why, but it is said that these other species just don't taste very good. Do carp not require a cleaning process whereby they are kept alive for some time in clean fresh water? I know that farmed snails similarly require a clean run of bran or similar through their digestive tracts before they can be put to culinary use.

But what about the grayling, the lady of the stream?

Good point, Osioł. Another complicated one is blowfish (fugu). This requires even more precision to remove it of poisonous elements (tetrodotoxin). It's a tetraodontidae.

Sorry, Pol3, carp struck me as being coarse. The bones were like mini-swords and the texture was rough. Not like soft fish such as ling or coalies. Coalies are similar to the Pollack so I think you have to be careful about where you put your brackets ;) ;)

It looks, from the title of this thread, that P3 is trying to say that trout should be considered to be a coarse fish.
Do trout have bad manners? If so then they are coarse.

Sad to say, the grayling disappeared from Michigan waters about three decades ago. They require only the purest of H2O, and that is in increasingly short supply.

BTW, while we're on about fish, is the small-mouth and/or large-mouth black bass known in the UK and elsewhere in Europe? I understand in Poland they go under the misnomer of okoniopstrąg (perch-trout) wielkogębowy and małogębowy but I have never heard of anyone in Poland actually catching one.

I believe that there are a few American species of freshwater bass, whereas around Europe we're only familiar with what we call Sea Bass which is a seafish whose range extends only as far as estuaries rather than actual fresh water. I've tried Patagonian Toothfish, which is a South American sea bass which is not much better than a local sea bass other than having a cooler sounding name.

The Japanese call bass 'suzuki' and I had it as sushi. I'm glad that they didn't have carp there :) :)

I think that most Brits don't regard any freshwater fish as edible other than trout.

I've heard adventurous people in Britain who *tried* carp describe it as 'fishy cotton wool full of needles'. I don't think they knew how to prepare it.

I think these fish are seen as 'survival' food more than anything else.

I can appreciate that boney, muddy-tasting cyprinoids can cause misgivings, but pike, pike-perch (walleyes, zanders), perch...these are delicacies in America, Poland and elsewhere,and only the weirdo Brits seem to have some inexplicable hangups on this score!

Can be caught in canals, certainly thrown back as they are certainly not edible. Trout is quite nice though.

But as Sheep said, anglers are required to catch and then throw them back - its more about the sport than getting a catch to take home for dinner - for most anyway.


We live on an island and have a choice of fish...come on...give you a choice between fresh water trout or fresh wild salmon which are going for? We dont have to eat the bottom feeders...we have a choice and we chose to eat nice clean tasty fish :D

Fish of the perch and pike family are not bottom feeders by any means but predators and true game fish. Walleye from the Great Lakes are far superior eating to trout, BTW. If you haven't tried it, don't knock it.

In my experience, the filter-feeding Carp are the best tasting.

I think in Polish this is the topega?

We are not weird just because we choose not to eat a certain fish, we are surrounded by what is supposed to be one of the most richest fishing grounds in the world but after all the over fishing by the EU trawlers i doubt the waters are up to much these days.

Being an avid fisherman for many years i have tried many fresh water and salt water fish that you would find in and around the british isles and my verdict would be as follows in regards to fresh water fish.

Perch is not to bad but the species doesn't grow to any great size here because our inland lakes are a fraction of the size of the lakes you would find in north america, pike is nice if it is rolled in seasoned flour but it has to be de-boned properly, Eel is very nice if it is smoked and we do infact sell quite alot of it to the european mainland, trout is nice but it must be fresh and it is classed as game so you must have a separate licence if you wish to fish for it, salmon is nice but i think it is better if it is cooked infront of an open fire as in my opinion smoking it makes the flavour to strong and again it requires a separate licence if you wish to fish for it, grayling is suppose to be o.k but the stocks are way to low and i would seriously harm someone that i saw killing one of these beautiful and rare fish, carp= dont go there and the rest i haven't tried and are not worth trying. If you wish to eat carp then don't try and steal any from the lakes or rivers because if a club member doesn't break your legs then the bailiff will, get yourself onto google and you will find that there are some fish farms that are now farming carp specifically for the polish shops in the uk.

de-boned properly at the table while you are eating it!

Seeing Poles tuck into pike with gusto and me having such a hard time figuring out how to eat it without getting a mouth full of bones was an interesting experience.

Eating these fish can be a very industrious process! I was very impressed at the Poles for this ;)

Sometimes I wondered if there might be a Polish form of Russian Roulette; where you have a bottle of vodka and a plate of pike.

The idea is that as you get progressively more drunk, you run the risk of being careless with the bones!!