Last summer in the Thousand Islands  area we had a fellow fisherman along that knew how to bone out northern pike.We went to a local eatery that would deep fry them and serve a salad for $9.00. The pike was as good as any fish I have tasted.

Pike= pickerel direct cousins ===I tried pickerel once before ,but failed to debone it properly which made for a troublesome meal. After watching several utube  how to vids, I put two more under the knife and did rather well. We deep fried them in House Autry med hot breading and they were real yummy.

 

I don`t plan to target pickerel to eat but once in a while they suck in a jerk bait beyond retrieval with out killing them, so I will now invite them home for dinner.

 

C22

They taste pretty good and aren't boney if you clean em right!

I'd say they taste just as good as panfish.

Much better than stocker trout that's for sure

I brought home a decent pickerel I caught this summer...Very good eating. I think pickerel are really cool, this is probably cause they are an extremely rare catch around here. I have caught 3 in my life, and I have a feeling I would hate them if there were many where I fish.