05/04/2026
What a great time, and thank you to the Ontario Steelheaders for a great family get-together tournament and dinner. So tasty! A whole bunch of fishery dedicated good people and friends. I even got me a nice steelhead for my fish fry the next day at home.
My crispy trout nugget recipe bellow for my 6lb steelhead caught on my in-shop painted fluorescent chartreuse 8mm CAC bead running a tandem above a Melnak yellow mesh tied with premium rainbow roe bag (around 8” distance hook to hook).
Clean the fish, remove scales, scrape skin till nice and clean, then fillet the fish, completely debone the fillets and slice down the center lengthwise and then cut into fillets straight horizontally into pieces and layer the nuggets from each fillet separated in a pan with paper towel and then cover with another sheet of paper towel and pressing gently downwards to dry the pieces and soak up the water (I cut mine around one and a half inches or so wide, but cut as you like, but too big takes longer to crisp).
In a large zip bag, add 2 cups white flour / 2 cups whole wheat flour, add choice spices (I add each a tsp of onion powder, oregano, black pepper, salt) and mix in the bag with the flour. Add all the cut-up fillets from one fillet side of the fish in the bag, seal it and gently manipulate the bag around till all the fillets are coated with flour mix. When satisfied with the coverage, open the bag and set it on the counter, opening wide to stay up and to be able to serve the pan with a set of tongs.
Then, in a large round clean frying pan (I use a 13” wide ceramic-coated non-stick), add about 1/4 cup of frying oil (sunflower oil or avocado oil are my preference, but even vegetable oil works great as these oils are non-burn for frying). Turn the burner on to high and bring to temperature around 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and have the exhaust fan on full as well.
Once the pan is at temperature, with the tongs pick out each filet from the bag and gently place it in the pan flat (skin-down) in a circular order around the pan from the outer edge to the center. This will maintain the temperature of the pan and fry evenly and not drop the temperature loading the pan.
Once the pan is loaded and full, frying has started; recheck the nuggets for the best position not to crowd each other, and then just let fry. Keep an eye on the heat level of the pan and check them from time to time by lifting a few around the pan and even reposition some from the inner to outer edge and vice versa, aiming for a nice golden brown skin. Feel by gently scraping the skin with the front edge of the tongs for a nice crispy sound while maintaining the heat of the pan. If the pan seems to be starving from oil, carefully add another spoonful of oil or as needed, starting from around the wall-edge of the pan to run down to the fillets.
Keep frying and when all the fillets' skin feels crispy and hard, and you are satisfied with the crispness of the skin, gently flip all the fillets over to the flesh side with the tongs, pressing down on the fillets to lay them flat once more. When all are flipped over, keep frying and after checking them to gently lay flat and crisp up on the flesh side. After 5 minutes or more, reduce the heat to medium and pay attention that the pan stays hot and maintains heat to keep frying till the fillets are done and crispy and bouncy in the pan.
When all the nuggets look nicely golden and fine on both sides, with a salt shaker gently shake on a little more salt (optional) all over the pan, and then shake the pan flat around in a circular motion to move the nuggets around and absorb the salt. Next, add two tablespoons of Greek extra virgin olive oil all over the nuggets and carefully shake the pan flat and manipulate to work the olive oil into their taste. Wait a couple of minutes and maintain heat, and then, as the last step, add the juice of one to two lemons. You will hear the lemon juice raise the moisture level of the frying oil all over the nuggets and gently manipulate the pan and nuggets around until the frying stops or subsides. Shut the heat off and start taking out the nuggets and place them on a paper towel-lined clean pan or plate and serve (I always add some more lemon on the nuggets even after they are plated).
Discard the remaining grease or fluid from the pan, wipe dry clean with paper towel, and repeat the above for the next batch.
Enjoy your steelhead nuggets!
Jim Maragos - CAC
