So I hit Cisco beach with the masses this morning. They were running great, and our party of four had a fun time netting our limits. Then, we joined the other ice city at the rockpile. Nothing going on there for us (or anyone we saw) except lots and lots of cisco being snagged.
My question to you all, is what is the best way to clean and cook the cisco. I am keeping afew for bait, but wanted to try a few for tablefare.
Thanks
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If you google "how to smoke cisco" you might find out. (Not a smart-azz answer.)
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Use scissors to snip off head and open entire gut cavity. Gut out and then take a butter knife and scrape off each side. You don't have to get all the scales. I get about 80% of them and leave the rest. Rinse fish. Drop fish in a mixture of equal parts of dry pancake mix, flour, and cornmeal seasoned with seasoned salt and pepper. Then drop cisco in hot oil and cook in a cast iron frying pan until they are crunchy and light brown. Eat the whole thing. Bones will be cooked out as well as scales. I do this every year and it gets rave compliements. Simple too.
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I'll vouch for Bearlakefishguys method of cooking those cisco. We had them today at the Cisco Disco and they were awesome. I've got to write it down myself, so I can try cooking them with that method, after I smoke my first batch[
].
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