Cooking large fish

I caught a large mackinaw today. I’m concerned that cooking it whole might not work out right. If t was trout size I’d throw it in the bbq whole wrapped in foil. Am I better off filleting it instead?

Steaks?  Cut in half and cook?
Really depends on what you want to cook with it and cooking method.

I'd still season the whole thing, wrap in wet paper, then wrap with foil, and bbq it.

I caught a large mackinaw today. I’m concerned that cooking it whole might not work out right. If t was trout size I’d throw it in the bbq whole wrapped in foil. Am I better off filleting it instead?

Oven baked salt crusted with a lemon burre blanc is my favorite way to serve lakers. 

I guess I should check to see if it will fit in the BBQ. 

Now that I think about it...
It’s bent into a U so I could fit it in my ice chest. It will be tough to fillet unless I can get it to lay flat again.

Now that I think about it...
It’s bent into a U so I could fit it in my ice chest. It will be tough to fillet unless I can get it to lay flat again.

Ken, bend it back and fillet it. You can do it easy.
 Also what Crash said about Beurre Blanc. Easy sauce to make. Just make sure the butter is very cold or your sauce will break. I cube my butter into small pieces and put them in the freezer before adding to the reduced wine. Add the juice from 1 Meyer lemon and a teaspoon of ginger juice from grated ginger root. That's cooking 101. I cheat mine with a little added cream for stability if I am not serving it right away or if I made a large batch for a restaurant application.
 Also there is Beurre Rouge or Beurre Noisette both work great with seafood.
David

It surprised me. It was still flexible. Unfortunately I massacred it. I need a longer knife. Sounds good on the recipes.

Fillet big lake trout, cut the fillets into appropriate sized pieces for you and your friends and/or family, and vacuum pack and freeze the pieces which you can't eat fresh.

When whacking up a big fish, try cutting the fillets off the backbone with an electric carving knife.  It's real effective, and with practice you will leave very little meat on the backbone.  Then use a fillet knife to remove the ribs.  When I fillet lake trout, I also use my fillet knife to remove a thin "V" of meat with the pin bones, which makes the lake trout fillets easier to eat.  If you lay the fillets skin side up when vacuum packing them, the "V" of meat you removed with the pin bones will close up.

The vacuum packed fillets shown below illustrate the effect of different diet on lake trout.  The orange fillets are from a 26" lake trout caught in Lindbergh Lake in Montana, the light yellow fillets are from a 25" lake trout caught in Flathead Lake in Montana.

Nicely done and thanks for the storing tip!

Try smoking lake trout!  It's tasty smoked.  Here's some pictures I took while smoking five lake trout a month or so ago.

Wow! Do you get tired of eating so much fish? 

It all looks great btw!

In Steve Rachlin's "How to grill,"  he goes over how using a piece of foil wrapped cardboard for a whole fish, keeps from falling apart. Use the cardboard like an oversize spatula. this allows you to set down, roll fish over, and lift it off the grill with little fuss.  Remember to coat the foil with some oil.

I have tried it and it works, I just don't have much call to cook a whole fish for the two of us.