# Eating spot, croker, whiting



## Woodrow

My wife and I always seem to catch plenty of spot, croker, and whiting but have never tried cooking and eating them.

How to you go about cleaning and cooking them? Any particular recipes?


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## SmoothLures

Those are mainly fried in my experience. Whiting big enough to be filleted are fantastic but a bit soft. If they're not big enough to fillet I let them go or use them for bait in a pinch. We don't often get filletable sized croaker down here and I don't care for the madness of spot runs.


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## Gorge

Fillet and then skin the fillets. Dip in egg wash and then coat in your favorite crumbs/seasoning/panko and fry them up brown. Awesome eating.


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## Woodrow

Gorge said:


> Fillet and then skin the fillets. Dip in egg wash and then coat in your favorite crumbs/seasoning/panko and fry them up brown. Awesome eating.


So it is best not to eat the skin?


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## Gorge

It's a lot easier to slip the skin off the fillets than it is to scale the fish. The crumbs stick better to the flesh, than to the skin, as well. Just my preference. When I was a kid, I would scale, behead, and gut the pan fish and then fry them up whole. I never minded dealing with the bones. Later in life, married and with two beautiful daughters, I learned that it's gross to have to use your hands to eat fish. I never knew that when I was young and single.


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## andypat

Gorge, Now days people want fish with no bones and don't taste like fish. LOL!


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## NC KingFisher

I like whiting skin on personally, but pan fried fillets are terrific


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## gshivar

Scale, head. gut. Breader of choice, House of Autry is a good start. Deep fry at 375+ deg. Drain on news paper and paper towels. serve with white bread. Do not forget to eat the spot tails.


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## Guest

Writing also make really good tacos. Filet, skin, house autry........on tortilla with Cole slaw, Paul Newman peach salsa, and sour cream with a tad bit of sirracha in it.

We classify our writing as bait, one taco, or two taco size. Two filets per taco, big writing give you four!!


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## Gasole21

NC KingFisher said:


> I like whiting skin on personally, but pan fried fillets are terrific


100% agree, pan fried fillets are the best


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## Drake12321

I usually separate the fillet and fry it in breading, it is very tender so it can be difficult to cook


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