By Jonathan Miles

Pickled pike is a classic North Country treat, but it also boasts a practical aspect: the acid in the vinegar dissolves the dread “Y-bones” that make filleting pike such a chore. (For boneless trout or walleye fillets, you can skip the soaking in step one.) Pickled pike is fantastic served on toasted rye bread, with a dab of butter, but it’s equally good on some Ritz crackers accompanied by an ice-cold can of Old Milwaukee. One thing to note: Due to tapeworm concerns, it’s best to use pike that’s been frozen for at least 48 hours.

By Jonathan Miles

Melt Bar & Grilled, in the Cleveland suburbs of Lakewood and Cleveland Heights, has one specialty: grilled-cheese sandwiches. The menu presence of 26 variations on that humble childhood favorite—there’s even one stuffed with lasagna—is just one indicator of how far and wide owner Matt Fish is willing to take a grilled-cheese. Another: the Lake Erie Monster, in which a Guinness-battered walleye fillet is swamped in a gleeful mess of melted American cheese, jammed between thick slices of toast, and served with jalapeño-spiked tartar sauce. This is fish camp cuisine taken to its belt-loosening outer limits.

By Jonathan Miles

I first encountered fish jerky during a marlin tournament in Kona, Hawaii. It was steeped in the island flavors of ginger, soy, and pineapple. Here is my best approximation of that Hawaiian treat.

By David Draper

Among hunters of a certain age, George Herter is known as something of a mad genius, a marketer of sporting goods who obliterated the line between salesman and showman. Herter’s catalogs from the ’50s and ’60s were held in high regard by sportsmen for their over-the-top descriptions touting Herter’s products as without equal in the world, along with rambling essays covering such diverse topics as how to sharpen a knife to surviving a nuclear winter.