mastertangler wrote on Apr 10^th, 2014 at 1:30pm:

First off you must start with quality filets. That means diet. Some of the notably good fish I have had have been largemouth bass. Yes indeed! But they were caught from a gravel pit with a predominant crayfish diet. It is the reason that smallmouths are so much better than their cousins IMO. What makes fish strong is blood and fat. I remove ALL dark meat on my fish........that strip along the lateral line is often overlooked. Not by me. It takes a sharp knife and a willingness to not be overly fine. I waste some meat, I have a life and am busy so whisk, whisk. The scraps are fed to my 4 dogs which all love raw fish. Secondly you must freeze your fish in water (not salt water). The water must completely encase the fish. A vacuum sealer also works quite well......air is the enemy and freezer burn will soon develop. Thaw your fish under cold water. Hot water will cook them. And now the coupe-de-gracie'..........I soak my fish overnight in a mixture of milk and italian dressing. Perfecto!! Imparts a nice little flavor to them while supposedly pulling out any fishiness. Who knows? But it seems to work........(of course it is always nice to start out with fresh snapper and grouper  ;D ). I have converted many a person who thought they "didn't like fish" but were to polite to refuse the dinner invitation. I would only find out later when they were asking for seconds that they were reluctant to come to dinner when they found out I was serving fish. When you come to MT's house you know whats on the menu ;D

Quality Fillets / Diet: all are taken from the same body of water on the border of the BW. Walleye; SMB; and Northern.

Lateral Line: An area that could use attention. All the way from tip to tail; right?

Freeze in water: already being done; zero air exposure.

Thaw in cold water: Check; already being done. outside of the occasional full thaw in the fridge.

Soak in milk: did that with the last meal; but not overnight. No italian dressing though. dogs ended up getting most of that meal.

Seems that lateral line could be the worst offender. But why on some and not others; even of the same species?