Capt. Kenny Kreeger not only likes to fish and take people fishing, he also likes to eat fish.
“Oh yeah, I do like fish,” Kreeger said. “I eat them two or three times a week — broiled, fried, baked, trout amandine, courtbouillon. My wife Laura blackens (fish) often, too.”
And while he loves to catch speckled trout, his tastes are pretty broad.
“Lake Pontchartrain is known for its sheepshead. They can be used fried, broiled or (used) for making stuffed crabs,” Kreeger said. “They are one of the more-versatile fish.
“Some people don’t want to keep them; they call them trash fish. The truth is that they are too lazy to clean them. I use a serrated Rapala knife, and it walks through the scales. But I do go around the rib cage.”
But he and his wife differ on how to prepare the fish.
“I like to eat fish bone-in,” Kreeger said. “I scale, gut and de-head redfish, and cut them in 3- or 4-inch chunks and deep fry them. Sixteen- to 20-inch fish are best.
“Laura likes her trout fillets with the skin on; you get a better crunch that way.
Pretty much everything is on the menu.
“If you eat white trout fresh, they taste as good as speckled trout,” Kreeger said. “Every once in a while we catch nice croakers — not a lot of them like we used to catch in the old days, but we still catch some. To me, they are one of the best fish out there — moist and sweet.
“Flounder is my favorite. I like them filleted and broiled, coated with butter, parsley and garlic.
“Channel mullet — that’s what I call them — are what some people call whiting or ground mullet. I call them ‘good eating.’ I fry them on the bone, and even eat the fins.”
It’s a good thing that Lake Pontchartrain has a variety of fish.
