Pan-fried brook trout and fiddleheads on an outdoor grill. — Northern Ontario | James Smedley

Simple Ontario fish recipes and shore lunches

Ontario’s lakes and rivers offer some of the most exciting freshwater fishing experiences in North America, as well as some of the tastiest sport fish.

Shore lunch by the water

The following simple, yet delicious recipes are traditionally cooked over an open fire along Ontario’s wilderness shorelines.

Classic shore lunch fish fry

The traditional shore lunch began with fishing guides preparing freshly caught fish for their guests after a morning of casting on the lake.

At fishing lodges in Ontario, the tradition is alive and well. Perhaps the freshest fish you’ll ever taste is one you’ve caught yourself and filleted for a shore lunch.

This much-anticipated meal is usually prepared by a fishing guide, but it can also be prepared by the anglers themselves, using a simple shore lunch kit provided by the lodge. In fact, if you pack the essential ingredients, you can enjoy a shore lunch virtually anywhere you fish.

Many Ontario lakes have shore lunch sites with fire pits and grills. Cooking over an open fire is a skill that comes with practice. Maintaining a consistent temperature means establishing a bed of coals and adding small pieces of wood as required.

Shore lunch fish fry recipes vary but here are the basic steps and ingredients to feed four people:

Ingredients:

8 walleye fillets
2 quarts of cooking oil
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper

Directions:

Fillet four 15 to 16-inch walleye. Walleye is the fish of choice for shore lunch, but pike, bass, perch and whitefish work equally well.
Rinse fillets with cold water.
Build a fire and heat a deep metal frying pan with cooking oil.
Mix flour, salt and pepper in a bag. Add fillets and shake till evenly coated. Salt, pepper and flour is a traditional and simple mix but various seasonings can be added and many guides, lodges or anglers have their own custom coating mix. There are also numerous commercial coating mixes available.
Heat oil to 350 - 375°F. A hand-held infrared thermometer is handy for this but heating oil to when it just starts to smoke and then letting it cool slightly before adding fish is a good guide in a pinch.
Slide fish into hot oil. Have enough wood ready to stoke the fire to maintain a temperature of about 360°. Any hotter and the fish will burn, any cooler and the fish will absorb too much oil.
Turn the fillets with tongs after a few minutes to ensure they cook consistently. Fish does not take long to cook and fillets are done when they turn golden brown and an internal temperature of 145°F is reached. This will only take 3 to 5 minutes depending on the fillet thickness.
Remove from oil and let drain on paper towel, newspaper or cedar boughs.
The pan of oil can now be used to make fried potatoes. Other traditional accompaniments include cans of beans or creamed corn opened and set on the grill to heat, as well as bread, pickles, coleslaw and tartar sauce.

Spicy pan fry

Once you’ve enjoyed a fresh fish fry on the shoreline of a beautiful lake, you know how good food can taste outdoors. It’s remarkable how the privilege and pleasure of a morning spent fishing for your meal can build up an appetite, but not everyone is on board with deep frying.

Here’s a crunchy and spicy pan-fried alternative.

Ingredients:

8 walleye fillets
1/3 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce or similar cayenne-based hot sauce
1 cup cornmeal
½ cup cooking oil

Directions:

Place walleye fillets in the bowl and pour in hot sauce and mix so fillets are covered. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Put cornmeal in a bag. Shake off excess hot sauce from fillets and add them to the bag. Shake so fillets are evenly coated with cornmeal.
Add oil to a frying pan and heat over a medium-hot fire.
Add fillets and pan fry for 6 to 8 minutes per side until the cornmeal coating is a deep golden brown.

Pine portage walleye

Another alternative to deep frying. This method of cooking over a fire steams the fish within an envelope of tinfoil.

Ingredients:

3 pieces of tinfoil about 20 inches long by 12 inches wide
¼ cup of butter, softened
8 walleye fillets
1 medium onion sliced
1 lemon sliced with peel removed
1 cup of fresh or canned tomato
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Double up two pieces of foil and place on a flat surface, spread the butter evenly to within an inch of the foil’s edge.
Lay sliced onions evenly on top of the buttered surface.
Place the fish fillets on top of the onions in a single layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place one or two lemon slices on top of each fillet.
Place one or two fresh tomato slices or pieces of canned tomato on top of each fillet.
Put the third piece of foil on top of the fish and carefully make two quarter-inch folds along each edge to create a sealed envelope of foil.
With the tip of a knife make six small incisions in the top of the foil to allow steam to escape.
Carefully slide the foil envelope onto a grill over a hot fire. A flat board is handy for moving the envelope to and from the grill.
Cook over a hot fire for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the envelope and place on a flat surface. Slowly slice open the top of the foil pouch, being careful not to get burned by escaping steam.

Housekeeping resort or backyard barbecue

Complicated recipes are not required to bring out the delicate flavours of Ontario sport fish. A traditional shore lunch involves cooking over a fire in a remote outdoor setting and even though recipes tend to be simple, the results are delicious. The same goes for preparing fresh fish back at a lodge or housekeeping cabin barbeque - simplicity is key.

Here are some easy and delicious recipes for the backyard barbecue:

Barbecued salmon or trout

This homemade barbecue sauce can be produced from condiments found in most refrigerators. It may not sound great. But it is.

Ingredients:

2 pounds salmon, brook trout or splake fillets with skin left on

Barbecue sauce:

1 clove garlic crushed
¼ cup unsalted butter
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon American-style mustard
½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of Sriracha or similar hot chilli sauce

Directions:

Mix all barbecue sauce ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for two minutes. Let sauce cool and spoon over fillets.
Slide fillets onto a preheated barbecue grill on medium-high heat.
Close the lid and grill until flesh is no longer opaque and flakes easily, about 12 to 16 minutes depending on the thickness of fillets.

Bass on the half shell

This simple cooking method uses high heat to singe the skin and impart a delicate charred flavour to the fish.

The charred skin becomes the “shell” and is part of the plated presentation. The fillet is served skin side down and the moist and tasty fish is removed from the skin as “bass on the half shell” is eaten.

Ingredients:

4 smallmouth or largemouth bass fillets with the skin left on.
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Squeeze lime juice onto fillets.
Combine chilli powder, salt and pepper and sprinkle evenly over fillets.
Place fillets on hot barbecue grill, lower lid and cook until flesh is no longer opaque and flakes easily, about 15 minutes.

Cedar-planked maple brook trout or salmon

This classic cooking method combines the rich and unique flavours of Ontario Maple syrup with eastern white cedar to enhance the reddish flesh of Ontario salmon, brook trout or splake.

Ingredients:

1 cedar plank about 6” x 12”
2 pounds of salmon, splake or brook trout fillets, skin removed
¼ cup maple syrup
½ teaspoon each of salt-and-pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Pinch of cayenne pepper to taste

Directions:

Using a weight submerge cedar plank in water for several hours.
Mix maple syrup, brown sugar, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper into a paste.
Place salmon or trout onto cedar plank and cover with the maple syrup mixture.
Place on preheated grill and close cover.
Cook on medium heat for 15 or 20 minutes depending on the thickness of fillets. The cedar plank will dry out and may start to char and smoke. If it catches fire extinguish with water and lower the temperature.

A group of anglers enjoy a shore lunch.

Ontario fishing lodges that offer a shore lunch

Many northern Ontario fishing lodges offer a shore lunch experience for their guests, as well as the opportunity to cook a fresh catch on the barbeque.

These include:

Last updated: April 2, 2024

On this page

Simple Ontario fish recipes and shore lunches

On this page

Shore lunch by the water

Classic shore lunch fish fry

Ingredients:

Directions:

Spicy pan fry

Ingredients:

Directions:

Pine portage walleye

Ingredients:

Directions:

Housekeeping resort or backyard barbecue

Barbecued salmon or trout

Ingredients:

Barbecue sauce:

Directions:

Bass on the half shell

Ingredients:

Directions:

Cedar-planked maple brook trout or salmon

Ingredients:

Directions:

Ontario fishing lodges that offer a shore lunch

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