I am wondering if its because te fish I get are in warm water but every damn fish no matter now cooked seems mushy to me. Shellcracker and bluegill are much firmer.

Is this normal for Speck/ Crappie?

I fished in Southern Illinois for 6 years during college.  I too found the bluegill and shell crackers were firm compared to crappie.  I pulled the crappie out of deep cold water and warmer temp shallow and they were still a bit mushy.  I'm moving to Florida and looking forward this fall and look forward to fishing.

WHere in FL. If below LAke O. Crappie are pretty rare

Poke here:  http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=1188139

It's the ARF of bass boats/fishing.  (Ignore the 'BBC'... freaked me out at first as well).

LOL I clicked with great hesitation.

I ice em immeiately. Still mushy. Caught in Winter - mushy caught in summer - mushy. I guess I am just too used to firm meated fish like Grouper, Mahi and Snakeheads. To me the Spek are like mashed potato texture. I guess thats just how they are but I love catching them.

I know that this is an old topic but my college fishing buddy made the same complaint.

Either ice them immediately after catching or after you pull them out of the livewell/off of the stringer. I let them sit on ice for a couple of hours. If I’m not in a big rush, I keep them on ice overnight. The flesh will firm up and be much easier to fillet. After rinsing them they go back into at least a fridge. If I am going to cook them later that evening, I spread them out on a baking sheet on paper towels to dry, in the fridge. If I am going to fry them, a quick dip in beer, making sure to drip most of it off, and then into the breading. I set it aside after breading for a few minutes before frying. Then into the oil. Never have an issue with mushy crappie.

Same process if I am going to blacken them and they come out firm, even after being in the freezer for a bit.

I think that the biggest issue with mushy fish is not necessarily icing them, though that is standard practice for me, it is more about letting them dry out as much as possible. Any excess moisture to get the batter to adhere or in the fillet itself and the fish will steam rather than bake/fry. I tend to use several paper towels to make sure that the fillets are as dry as possible.

I will try to dry them a bit. I love catching them. I just want to love eating then too..

My buddy flips his lid when he sees me tossing slabs back in the water lol.

We catch these in august and bring several bags home for the freezer…



And just blackened some up on the blackstone a week or two ago…anything but mushy.

That looks pretty damn good