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When I was a child, we would frequently have canned sardines in mustard. Loved them, even the bones. We would have them on soda crackers. My mother was amazing at making us think we were eating some fancy delicacies, when she was out of food money at the end of month. Sardines, and also frozen smelt that she breaded and fried.

I am quite picky about fish...I cannot stand fish taste or fish smell. But I ate those sardines!

And when we were kids, my mom (a mix of Italian and Armenian) would batter and fry up smelts, which I loved! (I got them recently at a restaurant, mostly out of nostalgia, and they tasted...fishy!)

Don't eat salmon, but I LOVE Halibut and Cod. And the best...

I caught this early last Fall:

Striped Bass...caught it off the rocky coast of Southern Maine, and DAMN! That was some FINE, AWESOME fish!

I don't fish much, but my buddy and I chartered a boat...THIS one I had to throw back-it was TOO big. Apparently, you can only keep them between 29 and 32 inches, and this one was 44 inches! I threw back TWO of them like this, and a couple of smaller ones, but my old Navy buddy and I did catch one smaller one we could keep, so we each got a nice thick filet out of that one!

You must try fresh smelt, fried of course, it’s a taste sensation. So much better than frozen.
We used to go to the rivers into Superior, north of Duluth, and net garbage cans full of them at night. Usually the run is around the middle to third week of April. Big bonfires on the beach, it was a blast!