cold smoked bass or striper???

Did you get that whitefish in Westfield and the smokehouse along the dock? My mother grew up on a farm in Portland, NY (halfway between Dunkirk and Westfield). When we visited her father, we would always get smoked whitefish in Westfield. It was the only thing that could get my father to even go there.

I have eaten hot smoked whitefish, but I have never seen it cold smoked. Whitefish is pretty good, no matter how you cook it. Striped bass and largemouth bass aren't in the same league in my book. Crappie would be about the closest thing you could find around here to whitefish.

If you do anything with striped bass, be sure to cut out the red meat that runs along the backbone before you prepare it as it will give a strong taste to the finished product. Largemouth bass in my opinion, isn't as good as catfish, let alone crappie. I have had smoked catfish at Ugly John's Rest. at Grand Lake and it was O.K.

I always try to use fresh fish as freezing increases the fishy taste and makes the flesh more rubbery. It doesn't seem to matter how you freeze it as it has something to do with the freezing and rupture of cell walls. I won't even bring back Walleye from Canada anymore because it doesn't even compare to fresh. We have tried freezing it in solid blocks of ice, milk, with salt, etc. but it never tastes like the fresh version.

Good luck if you try smoking some fish, let us know how it turns out.