It’s spring in south central Wisconsin. That means a lot of things – warm weather on Saturday, snow on Sunday, for one thing. The beginning of road construction, mosquitoes, and the need to mow your lawn twice a week.
It also means the beginning of the spring fishing season. Fishing is a year round thing here, and it’s something I love to do three seasons out of the year. I’ve never seen the appeal of ice fishing, but once the lakes thaw and it’s warm enough to be outside for more than ten minutes without freezing I try to get out once or twice a week fishing. We have a ton of lakes, rivers, and streams here in the Madison area and a bit outside of it. We have access to catching a bunch of different fresh water fish – bass, trout, pan fish, and the highly prized walleye pike.
If you’ve never had walleye, it’s absolutely delicious. You can catch them in most of our lakes and bigger rivers, and buy them in most of our grocery stores (though the grocery store variety frequently comes from Canada). They’re a fun fish to catch – they put up a good fight, and they go for a variety of different types of bait and fishing tactics. I’ve caught them on jigs from a dock, and trolling from a boat.
Last summer I took my kids on a chartered fishing trip on the Wisconsin river with 3C’s Guide Service (www.threecsguideservice.com). If you’re in southern Wisconsin or northern Illinois look them up. Nick Celeste, the owner/operator, is fantastic. He’s super passionate about fishing and clearly loves to engage other people in that passion, and he’s great with kids. And his service is very reasonably priced for the market. We spent about four hours with him on the river and brought home a number of fish, including three walleye.

Walleye are, like most fresh water fish, a white fleshed fish. But the meat is firmer and more robust than a lot of fresh water fish. It’s much less delicate than trout or perch, for example, it has a great flavor and stands up nicely to high heat cooking. I like it with scrambled eggs and a side of sauteed mushrooms and onions (hence the title of this article). This is also a fairly common weekend breakfast special in diners in my area.

For the mushrooms and onions you’ll need one onion rough chopped, and a pound of crimini or button mushrooms washed and cut in half (or quarters if they’re big).
Heat a heavy pan (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon of Olive oil and heat it until it shimmers. Then add a tablespoon of butter and let it foam and subside.
When the butter subsides add your mushrooms to the pan and toss them around to coat with the oil. When they start to give up their moisture add the onion and toss.

The trick to cooking mushrooms and onions is they’re not done when you think they are. Cook them until the water is all out of the mushrooms, and they start crisping around the edges. Add a bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper at the end. Throw the whole pan into at 200 degree onion to keep warm (or better yet, put them in an oven safe dish and use the same pan for the fish) then start on the walleye.
For the walleye you’re going to want a whole fillet per adult. A fillet usually runs between .5 and .8 pounds. You can cook them with or without the skin. When I catch them I skin the fillets because it’s easier than scaling them. When I buy it from the store they’re scaled and I leave the skin on.
1 Walleye fillet per adult (my 8 & 10 year old kids share one fillet)
1 Tb olive oil
1 Tb salted butter
Sea salt and black pepper
Again, use a cast iron pan if you have it, and don’t crowd it if you’re cooking more than one fillet. You might have to cook them one at a time, depending on the size of your pan.
Set your burner to medium and heat 1 Tb olive oil until shimmering, then add in a Tb of butter and let it foam and subside.
Add the fish to the pan, and sprinkle it with some sea salt and twist on some pepper. Once it’s in the pan DON’T TOUCH IT. Just let it cook.

Watch the edges. When they start to discolor and the side facing up starts turning more white it’s ready to flip.
Use a fish spatula for this. If you don’t have one, get one. They’re tremendously useful (something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Winco-FST-6-6-5-Inch-Blade-Spatula/dp/B003HEOLXI/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3MLK7FD7TN1MX&dchild=1&keywords=fish+spatula&qid=1589735798&sprefix=fish+sp%2Caps%2C402&sr=8-3)
Gently insert your spatula under the fish. Take your time with this so that if it’s a bit stuck you can loosen it. Just go slow and you should be fine. Then gently turn the fish over (this is a robust fish as fresh water fish go, but it will fall apart if you’re not careful). I actually like to use a cooking tongs in my other hand to hold the fish and allow me to lower it back into the pan without dropping it (and thus not splashing hot grease everywhere). Once it’s flipped, add a bit more salt and pepper. Then DON’T TOUCH IT. Just watch. When the edges start to brown and look crispy it’s done (I can’t tell you how long this will take, it depends entirely on your burner and your pan).
Move them to an oven safe plate and put them in the oven with the mushrooms and onions while you cook the eggs.

For scrambled eggs, see my recipe here – https://yetanotherfoodblog.com/2019/05/31/scrambled-eggs/.
Plate the eggs with a fish fillet and the sauteed vegetables on the side.