Walleye cheeks

[OTIS]

Do any of you keep the cheeks from your Walleye, or don’t you bother with them?

[oakorchardfishking]

out of our group here, i get all the cheeks. no one wants to mess with them. me personally, i love them!

[OTIS]

Slipbob, do you cook them before you give them to your cats?

[eyedoktr]

There's no way that a dog or cat would get the cheeks from my walleye. I'd rather give them some of the fillet. The cheeks are for me !!

[rgfixit]

Feed the cats to the dogs, put the dogs out for the night and eat the walleye....cheeks and all....yourself
RG

[Spicoli]

you can just save all the cheeks and freeze them and when you have enough that makes one amazing meal.

[WVBoy]

Cheeks are the best part on most fish surprisingly.The cheeks on trout are excellent too.Not much there but they are tasty little morsels.

[PeRcHsLaYeR]

i keep the cheek meat, i think its pretty good

[Tip-UpTommer]

We ate the cheeks off of a 28 incher i caught yesterday because my friend heard that they tasted like scallops. i didnt think they tasted too bad. the meat has a different texture to it. its kinda dense, so to speak. i dont know if i would mess around with saving them on a small fish. like i said this one was 28 inches long so the cheeks were a decent size and easy to get off of the fish.

[OTIS]

We ate the cheeks off of a 28 incher i caught yesterday because my friend heard that they tasted like scallops. i didn't think they tasted too bad. the meat has a different texture to it. its kinda dense, so to speak. i don't know if i would mess around with saving them on a small fish. like i said this one was 28 inches long so the cheeks were a decent size and easy to get off of the fish.

After a couple of fish you'll be able to flip those tasty morsels out in seconds.  I keep them off of all our walleye 15 inches and up.

[powderburns]

For Tip-up Tommer:If you eat the cheeks off a 28incher, I suppose you also ate the fillets of it too. How did it taste? Did the taste justify killing a prime breeding stock walleye?

[Tip-UpTommer]

For Tip-up Tommer:If you eat the cheeks off a 28incher, I suppose you also ate the fillets of it too. How did it taste? Did the taste justify killing a prime breeding stock walleye?

The fillets tasted great. where i fish we don't catch 28 inch walleyes all the time. this is the biggest one ever not to mention the only legal size one that we have caught in the past 3 weeks. they have to be 18 inches to keep where we fish and most of what we catch are between 10 and 15 inches, so when you catch a legal size fish ( let alone a 28 inch fish) we keep it for sure. what makes you think that a 15-18 inch fish can't breed. according to the state younger females have higher fecundity than older ones even though the older ones produce more eggs.(a female has to be 3 years old and a male, 2) in the older fish many of the eggs will not be able to be fertilized successfully. The state of NY has put the size limit on this lake so that more fish can reach breeding age. if everyone kept the short ones then none would ever reach breeding age. i say keep the big ones and leave the 15-20 inch ones due to the higher fecundity.

[AdkIceman]

I think powderbuns should keep his mouth shut before he tries to talk fish management with two fish and wildlife management students. Tipuptommer is right, and keeping a 28 inch walleye is perfectly legal whether or not it is good breeding stock or not. He can do whatever he wanted to with that fish. So how does that powder your buns?

~AdkIceman~

[powderburns]

pretty good.Students lol.Of course it's legal to keep, but why not keep a smaller better tasting one to eat. I take it you don't practice catch+ release. Everyone is entitled to their oponion.

[Tip-UpTommer]

pretty good.Students lol.Of course it's legal to keep, but why not keep a smaller better tasting one to eat. I take it you don't practice catch+ release. Everyone is entitled to their oponion.

Of course we practice catch and release.... we throw back the ones that are under 18 inches. I can't help it that the only legal ones I catch are that big

[eyedoktr]

It depends on where your fishing also.On Lake Erie, a good eater is a walleye that feeds a family of four.

[big walleye]

Common guy's. telling people to shut their mouths is not called for. Hey that is great that you students can educate us. 8) 8) 8) maybe you should educate our children on catching and releasing  the big ones so that others will have the chance to catch the same. 28 inch walleye are not tasty.

[PackRat]

I have kept the cheek meat from every fish I can get them off of!! I LOVE THEM!! I just toss them in the fryer without anything on them..they're done in a matter of a minute and I just put a little salt on them and pop them tasty critters in my mouth!! Cheeks off of salmon ROCK!! You can make up some tasty Shiskabobs with them suckers!!

[WARRIOR_ON_ICE]

I think powderbuns should keep his mouth shut before he tries to talk fish management with two fish and wildlife management students. Tipuptommer is right, and keeping a 28 inch walleye is perfectly legal whether or not it is good breeding stock or not. He can do whatever he wanted to with that fish. So how does that powder your buns?

~AdkIceman~

Right on Adkiceman. I can't stand the people on this site that keep hassling us guys who God forbid, like to eat the fish we catch. Speaking for myself, I don't catch many walleyes, and would never release a legal one. I trust the DEC's wisdom in imposing the size limits, bag limits, and seasons for the various game fish in order to insure a sustainable fish population. A big part of our license fees pays for these types of studies. We should not be made to feel guilty about keeping legal fish that we will not waste.

[Tip-UpTommer]

Thank you dfuller for the support. your exactly right.

[AdkIceman]

Thanks Dfuller ...................

[killitandgrillit]

I'm all for C&R, and I believe in conserving the pigs...but I dont deem myself knowledgable enough to tell someone else what to do. I personally dont eat the slobs, but that's MHO. I'll join in telling powderburn to shut up. That was rude as hell- and our biology students are right- the small ones breed too. Where I live 28 inch 'eyes are common.

IMHO, it's worse to mount a monster than eat a mid sized fish- although I dont verbally scathe those that choose to mount either. This board is about sharing knowledge, not ripping the $h!t out of each other.

[Ashnohgrimbatul]

Cheeks are tasty, but I haven't and wouldn't keep a 28" to get some juicy cheeks off them, I'm with powder in saying that it is better to keep the smaller ones and let the biguns go, despite what the law says.  Sorry to bump but this topic was pissing me off.

[GEM_EYE_GUY]

I like cheeks better than any other part of the fish, but you need a walleye over 20 inches to get decent sized cheeks.

So . . . How 'bout those of us who like cheeks offer up a compromise?

Next time I catch a 28 incher, I'll cut the cheeks off 'er and release 'er still alive back into the water !!

Everybody happy now 

[fishuhalik]

but I really can't "see" what it is.

Mac
[/quote] oh geez.....

[the Wizard]

YOU TELL'em TIP UP TOMMER   wtg!!! If You only catch a few a year I'd keep a good one too....

[bigdave1018]

you guys that need a wall mounter ever heard of graphite reproductions? cheeks are yummy but a 28 in eye is priceless!!!!!!!!!! take the length and girth measurements and go graphite. and yes monster walleyes taste stronger then smaller ones but then again people eat sheepshead in here!!!!!!!!! noone can tell anyone in here what to do with any legal fish, just use your head and some of these comments in here were far from priceless.

[Reel Wet Ride]

I agree with whomever thinks the cheeks taste like scallops. And honestly, I think they are well worth the effort even from smaller fish. All you have to do is cut them out and you can just peel the skin off with your fingers. If you catch a limit of fish you can save them and throw them in with stir fry instead of shrimp. But they're hard to beat thrown in flour and pan fried in butter.

As far as the other discussion about keeping or mounting larger fish, well, I'm all for keeping a trophy. Without a doubt every angler has the right to keep a trophy fish to mount. We don't tell deer hunters they have to pass on the biggest buck they've ever seen just because it has proven genes to produce big bucks do we?  I'm actully in favor of slot limits for fish. It allows smaller fish to reach reproductive maturity and gives larger fish an opportunity to reach Trophy status. I think its a smart balance between right is good for the species and what is good for the anglers.

[Master Angler]

I don't find they taste like scallops, but the texture is the same.  Cheeks are way better than scallops. Not quite as strong of taste. Or maybe I've just never had good scallops.

[Baiter]

Cheeks on walleye are the best part, just like the cheek meat off a halibut.  Feeding cheek meet to ur cats ought to be a sin.