Once the corn tassels, it seems the last of bit of summer quickly slips away. To finish out the warm weather, I am opting to hit the farm ponds and reservoirs for a little fishing, and maybe schedule our annual canoe ride on the Big Flatrock River. Packing a fishing pole for our canoe excursion could well add some nice rock bass fillets.

This year, I probably cooked more fish than I can ever remember; two instances of especially high volume come to mind. As a sincere “thank you” for the Department of Corrections inmates who helped rescue the beams and timbers of the Moscow covered bridge destroyed by the tornado, I fried up 47 pounds. At our annual Jimmy Buffett party, I cooked another 27 pounds, along with five pounds of alligator.

That’s a lot of deep frying, and a lot of batter mix. When I fry fish, inevitably, someone will say, “This is great ... what kind of batter do you use?”

Most people expect me to call out a well-known brand name and are often surprised when I tell them I make my own. I have seen a lot of good fish ruined by some of the commercial batter mixes on the market.

Commercial mixes are expensive and many are too spicy, too salty or just bad, while others can bring on a classic case of indigestion. Just reading the long list of ingredients on some of the commercial brands will make you wonder if the formula wasn’t concocted by a mad scientist.

My batter recipe is based on the premise “less is more” No anti-caking additives, no anti-clumping additives and no preservatives, as I keep it premixed and frozen in plastic bags in the freezer.
When I mix up my basic dredge and batter mix, I usually mix a total of 10 pounds. To make sure I get everything equally blended, I use a stainless steel whisk and mix small 6-cup batches in a large stainless steel bowl.

Jack’s Fish Batter
3 cups of enriched flour
3 cups of enriched cornmeal (white or yellow)
4 teaspoons of garlic powder
4 teaspoons of onion powder
3 teaspoons of finely ground salt

When picking out the seasonings, I stay with my “less is more” approach and choose seasonings with little or no preservatives or chemical additives. Once the ingredients are blended, the batter mix is packed in plastic bags and stored in the freezer. The mix has an almost indefinite shelf life.

For most fish, I simply dredge the damp fillets in the batter mix and fry to a golden brown in canola or peanut oil. Use a couple of cups of dry mix in a bag; drop in the fillets; shake and fry.
I use a thermometer, and I keep the temperature of the oil at 350 degrees. The trick to good frying is not to crowd the oil with too much fish. If the temperature of the oil drops too low, you will have greasy fish. Don’t let the heat get too high or you run the risk of burning the oil.

Most small panfish fillets will be done in only 2-3 minutes. Thicker fillets like bass and catfish will take slightly longer. Once the fish flakes easily, it is done.

The fish doesn’t have to come from your favorite farm pond. I will “troll” through the local supermarket and use commercial fish for large gatherings. A trick for frozen Pollock (one of my favorites) is to thaw the fillets and squeeze out the surplus water. Pollock is a very moist and open-grained fish and will fry to perfection in 4-4.5 minutes.

The basic dry mix can also be used for a thicker batter, by using 2 cups of the dry mix, an egg and adding water or beer to reach the desired thickness. Dust the fillets or shrimp in a little of the dry mix, dip in the wet batter and add directly to the fryer.
When it comes to really good fried fish, the secret is to keep it simple and keep it coming.

Surveys

No two northern Indiana natural lakes are the same and may show stark contrast in fish populations – and the results of two recent fish surveys conducted by the Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife show just how different they can be.
While sampling at Skinner Lake in Noble County in late June, biologist Jed Pearson captured 787 bluegills in only 45 minutes with his electro-fishing (shocker) boat. The catch translates to 262 bluegills per 15 minutes, or three times the average number of bluegills collected during a typical survey at most lakes in the area.
In contrast, biologist Neil Ledet, during the same time, caught only 63 bluegills in one hour of electro-fishing at Big Long Lake in LaGrange County. Ledet’s catch rate of only 16 bluegills per 15 minutes was less than one-fourth the normal catch rate.

According to Ledet, bluegill anglers consider Big Long Lake to be one of the better fishing lakes in his area, despite its overall scarcity in numbers. “What Big Long Lake lacks in number it makes up in size,” he said.

Not so at Skinner Lake. Although 787 bluegills were sampled there, only three were larger than seven inches, and none were eight inches long.

“Ninety-two percent of the bluegills we caught at Skinner Lake were five and six inches long,” Pearson said. “The biggest one was only 7.2 inches long. What Skinner Lake has in number, it lacks in size.”
A lot of area anglers, according to Pearson, do not fish at Skinner Lake because the bluegills are too small. So why is there such a marked difference in bluegill populations between the two lakes?
Neither Pearson nor Ledet knows for sure, but the number and size of largemouth bass may be the key. Ledet captured bass at a rate of 87 per 15 minutes of sampling at Big Long Lake. Most of them, however, were only 8-11 inches long.

“Although bass were everywhere we sampled, we could hardly find any legal-size (14-inch) bass,” he said.

Pearson, meanwhile, had trouble catching bass and caught only 14 per 15 minutes at Skinner Lake. The largest was 18 inches, but 15 percent were of legal size. That’s a sixfold difference in bass catch rate between the two lakes and a significant difference in bass size.
The differences might explain why their bluegill populations vary so much. Bass typically eat bluegills. Where bass are abundant, they help keep bluegill populations in balance by thinning out small bluegills. If bass are scarce, too many bluegills survive and outstrip their food supply.

Ledet thinks the high number of small bass in Big Long Lake is keeping its bluegill population in check, allowing bluegills to grow rapidly. In contrast, Pearson thinks not enough bass are present in Skinner Lake to reduce its high number of bluegills, preventing them from growing bigger. Ironically, both lakes have a 14-inch minimum size limit on bass.