FISHING FOR SALTWATER STRIPER AT WEISS LAKE WITH STEVE POPE

The Steps to an Unforgettable Recipe

EDITOR'S NOTE: Steve Pope from Centre, Alabama, guides for crappie from February through the middle of May he guides for crappie. During May through the hot time of the summer, Pope guides for stripers or bluegills. I've discovered on this striper trip with Pope at Weiss Lake that you'll have exciting fun fishing for stripers. On Friday of this week, Pope will give you the secret to cleaning, storing and cooking stripers that will make you leave your crappie poles at home and go out and buy striper tackle for these delicious stripers.

QUESTION: What do you do to make sure that the stripers your customers catch provide some of the best-eating fillets of any freshwater fish that swims?
ANSWER: I carry plenty of ice with me (about 12 bags average). So, when a striper comes on-board, he immediately goes in the icebox and is covered with ice. A saltwater striper, unlike a lot of other freshwater fish, can spoil really quickly. So the faster you get him iced, the better tasting the meat will. I believe that striper are the best- eating freshwater fish that swim if the fish are properly cared-for and cleaned. To clean the striper, I use what I call my three-step fillet tactic. The first step is to fillet the fish like you do any other fish. Cut the fish free from the backbone; then cut the fillet free from the skin, and cut out the rib cage. The second step is to turn the fillet over and trim off all the visible red meat. This red meat is where the strong taste comes from in a striper. So make sure you get rid of all the red meat. The third step is to cut the lateral line out of the striper. Then you are left with two long strips of nothing but white meat.

QUESTION: How do you store your fillets?
ANSWER: My wife and I can only eat about a quart of striper fillets at a meal. I put enough fillets for one meal in a Ziploc bag, add a pinch of salt and a twist of lemon and fill the bag up with water. I make sure I get all the air out of the bag when I seal it. I really can't tell you what the salt and the lemon juice does to the fillets while they are freezing and when they are frozen, I just know that my fish taste better when I add the salt and lemon juice. Using this process, I can keep striper fillets for up to a year.

QUESTION: How do you prepare the fillets when they are fresh or when you un-thaw them?
ANSWER: Striper fillets can be cooked any way you can cook any other fish. However, my favorite recipe is to saute the fillets. I start by cutting the fillets into thumb-size chunks. I dry the fillets with paper towels and sprinkle them with Louisiana Cajun seasonings. Next, I put the fillets in a large Ziploc bag and sprinkle in Paul Prudhomme's low-salt vegetable seasoning. I shake the bag up so that the fillets are lightly coated with both seasonings. On the stove, I heat up just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan. I lay the small chunks in the hot oil and saute them about a minute and a half to three minutes on each side (or until the meat turns flaky). While the fillets are sauteing, I squeeze a half a lemon over them. When the fillets are done, I serve them hot from the skillet. To me, this is the finest way to prepare striper. This recipe is low in fat, low in cholesterol, and I think after you try it, you will swear that striper is some of the finest eating fish you've ever had.

For more information about striper fishing, call Steve Pope at (256) 927-6617, e-mail him at
clp-pope@tds.net, or visit his Web site, lakeweissguideservice.com. His Web site has up-to-date weather for the lake as well as a photo gallery of what Pope is catching at Weiss each day.