Fish Recipes: 15 Great Ways to Cook What You Catch

We've compiled 15 of our favorite fish recipes from the magazine's resident Wild Chef, Jonathan Miles. Below you'll find all sorts of delicious ways to poach, fry, grill, steam, bake, and pickle your catch. Now, all you have to do is catch dinner.

Largemouth Bass Tacos

The best largemouth bass fishing I’ve ever encountered was at Lake Huites, a vast impoundment on the outskirts of the Sierra Madre Occidentals in Sinaloa, Mexico. In one tiny pueblo, we arrived in the midst of a festival: young men with guitars playing on the corners, the local Mayo Indians performing their deer dance, a thousand bats fluttering above the trees of the plaza, and street-food vendors everywhere, some serving fish tacos made with tilapia and bass netted from local reservoirs. Here is a recipe for my best imitation of those tacos. It works with any firm, lean fish.  FULL RECIPE

Hawaiian Fish Jerky

I first encountered fish jerky during a marlin tournament in Kona, Hawaii. It was steeped in the island flavors of ginger, soy, and pineapple. Here is my best approximation of that Hawaiian treat. FULL RECIPE

Wok-Steamed Striped Bass with Quick-Preserved Lemons

This dish, a riff on an ancient Chinese method for cooking fish in which the flavor of steamed whole fish is turbocharged by a drizzling of smoking-hot, skin-crisping oil, is great at home, but even better on the beach after a muscular day of surfcasting. All you need, besides a campfire, is a wok with a lid, a heatproof plate, an oven mitt, and a few packable garnishes. Any whole fish will do, so long as it’ll fit inside the wok. FULL RECIPE

Fish Sticks

For children, who are often unaware that their food ever existed outside its cellophane wrapping, there are few better lessons on the natural cycle of life than seeing a fish go from stream to table. One potential problem is reconciling that instruction with their finicky tastes. Here’s one solution: Turn your kids’ catch into that all-time childhood favorite, fish sticks. Nothing like finger food for teaching a noble and necessary lesson. FULL RECIPE

The Lake Erie Monster

Melt Bar & Grilled, in the Cleveland suburbs of Lakewood and Cleveland Heights, has one specialty: grilled-cheese sandwiches. The menu presence of 26 variations on that humble childhood favorite—there’s even one stuffed with lasagna—is just one indicator of how far and wide owner Matt Fish is willing to take a grilled-cheese. Another: the Lake Erie Monster, in which a Guinness-battered walleye fillet is swamped in a gleeful mess of melted American cheese, jammed between thick slices of toast, and served with jalapeño-spiked tartar sauce. This is fish camp cuisine taken to its belt-loosening outer limits. FULL RECIPE

Oat-Crusted Trout with Stovies

If you're trout fishing in the lochs of Scotland, your catch may end up like this: batter-crusted with that ubiquitous Scottish staple, oats; and served beside a generous mound of stovies, Scottish slang for stove-roasted potatoes. Round it off with a beverage of your choice to make your British Isles fish fry complete. FULL RECIPE

Pickled Pike

Pickled pike is a classic North Country treat, but it also boasts a practical aspect: the acid in the vinegar dissolves the dread “Y-bones” that make filleting pike such a chore. (For boneless trout or walleye fillets, you can skip the soaking in step one.) Pickled pike is fantastic served on toasted rye bread, with a dab of butter, but it’s equally good on some Ritz crackers accompanied by an ice-cold can of Old Milwaukee. One thing to note: Due to tapeworm concerns, it’s best to use pike that’s been frozen for at least 48 hours. FULL RECIPE

Grill a Whole Fish. Perfectly. Every Time.

The perfect way for an angler who loves to cook to show off his fish is serving it whole, fresh off the grill, with crispy skin and moist flesh. Problem is, that’s not usually how it happens. Here is how to grill a whole fish so it’s juicy, smoky, and beautifully intact. FULL RECIPE

Cedar-Roasted Char

When Jeff McInnis—the chef at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar in Miami Beach—isn’t cooking, he’s likely fishing. In this recipe, the Florida native combines his passions, creating a summertime symphony on the plate. At Yardbird, McInnis uses Arctic char, but any fresh fish will shine here, even a lunker bass. FULL RECIPE

Buttermilk Poached Trout with Bacon-Spiked Greens

For me, there’s something likable, but not quite lovable, about poached fish: the ultraclean flavor, the melt-away texture, the ease of the poaching process, the no-fat virtuousness. But the result is oftentimes bland—a little too clean and virtuous, like spa food. After a solid day of fishing, I’m craving something hearty. That’s where a jug of buttermilk comes in. Poaching fish in buttermilk—a technique pioneered by New York super chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten—yields the familiar luscious texture and pure flavor, but with a more sinful richness and a poaching liquid you’ll want to lap up with a spoon. Any fish will be splendid this way—especially trout and walleye. FULL RECIPE

Salt-Crusted Fish

Roasting fish that’s encased inside a salt crust is a centuries- old method of ensuring moist, ultra-flavorful flesh. The dramatic presentation is just a happy bonus. Nearly any fish benefits from this treatment, and feel free to adjust the herbs as desired. For an easy side, toss some cut potatoes in olive oil with salt and pepper, spread them on a roasting pan, and put the pan in at the same time as the fish. FULL RECIPE

Grilled Roasted Fish on the Half Shell

“You ever clean a redfish?” asks Donald Link, the chef and owner of the stellar Herbsaint and Cochon restaurants in New Orleans, explaining the origins of his technique for grill-roasting fish that he calls “fisherman’s style” or “fish on the half shell.” Redfish are tough to clean, with big scales, so Louisiana anglers, like Link, tend to forgo the scaling, throwing a “side” of fish onto the grill and roasting it from the bottom up. But the technique isn’t limited to redfish. FULL RECIPE

Ceviche as a Sushi Alternative

Ceviche (seh-VEE-chay) is a South American staple in which chunks of fresh, raw fish are marinated in citrus juices, then tossed with a variety of ingredients into a salsalike mixture that makes for a dazzlingly refreshing lunch. Sushi-phobes, relax: The citric acid firms up the fish so that, while still raw, it tastes and feels cooked.* Best of all, you can prep this the night before your trip: Squeeze the limes and lemons into one zip-seal bag, and put the chopped ingredients into another. All you’ll need to do then is catch the fish. FULL RECIPE

Trout On A Nail

Here’s a primitive but fantastic way, from Finland, to “grill” a fish: Butterfly it, then nail it to a board and cook it by the reflected heat of a campfire. The meat derives flavor from the woodsmoke as well as the blistering, blackening board onto which it’s nailed. Even better: no pan to clean. FULL RECIPE

How to Cook Panfish Chowder

Here’s a recipe for one of those lazy, sun-dappled summer days when the corn is high and the bream have been happily bending a cane pole. It’s a classic fish chowder that gets some extra summery sweetness from its “corn stock” base, made by simmering the cobs. This is a superb use for panfish, but you can substitute almost any other fish with equally satisfying results. FULL RECIPE