For bream/crappie/walleye/small bass - MY GO TO: Flour/cheap beer/salt/pepper/CREAM OF TARTER (THE secret ingredient!). Mix the beer/flour/salt/pepper to a buttermilk consistency (dip your fingers in the batter and it should coat like buttermilk would; not too thick). ADD a semi-heaping teaspoon of cream of tarter. Fry in peanut oil. Slap your Mamma good! Additionally, homemade tarter sauce. Mayo/lottsa dill relish/cream of tarter to taste (can add a pinch of mustard powder or mustard, or a touch of hot pepper powder, if desired).

Trout - smoked/grilled - or see below!
Additionally - Poached.
slice 2-3 lemons thick (3/8" or thicker) - put in pan, covering the pan entirely with the lemon slices (a 'bed of lemon slices')/cover with water/stock. bring to a low boil
Bay leaves/spices as desired. Can add veggies too!
COVER and Poach at a simmer to very low boil til done
Dill lemon mayo sauce, or simple butter light garlic sauce is great!

Salmon - Grilled in my orange bourbon glaze! To die for!
Glaze:
Bourbon Glaze for grilled salmon!
½ c Bourbon
Orange Marmalade
2T maple syrup
2T brown sugar (to thicken)
2T Soy sauce
Garlic
Little chili sauce
Combine and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Simmer rapidly, stirring constantly. Bubbly/foamy/cook til thickened. Let cool.

A brine for an oily fish, like Spanish/atlantic mackerel. Steak the fish into 1-2" steaks
Prob 2-3 qts of water/to cover the fish. For the ratios below in mine, start with CUPS of each salt/brown sugar. Make sure that the amount of water will dissolve all the salt/brown sugar you use. If not, add water till it all dissolves – this is key!
Typically I use 1:1 or even 2:1 Brown Sugar to Salt. I am not a fan of very salty brine. But the salt DOES pull the oil out of oily fish. Also why I brine my oily fish for 2-3 days!
TIP: mix and taste til you can’t tolerate the salt. Start with a measure of brown sugar, and then ½ that much salt. Enough water to dissolve/taste/add salt/water to dissolve to your taste. Can add water to dilute the salt, then add brown sugar and more spices
2T Onion Powder
2T Oregano
Cup of bourbon or more to each 2-3 qts of salt/brown sugar brine above, once you have figured out your salt preference. As you can guess, I typically double this amount of bourbon!!! Also why I LOVE this brine!!!!
Add: Crushed bay leaf/Dried mustard (SECRET Ingredient!!!/Pepper)
Maybe garlic, but ironically, I usually leave it out of this brine!
Smoke the fish over mesquite or heavy wet hickory at 185 for ~2 hrs. If it gets hotter, you can simply just eat the smoked fish!

AND THEN!!!!:

Smoked Mackerel Dip
8 oz Smoked Mackerel
½ c whipped cream cheese
½ c hard cream cheese
2T lemon juice
2T Dijon Mustard
T chopped parsley
T chopped chives
2 chopped green onions
Chopped celery stock
garlic
2-3T Horseradish
Hot Sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Old Bay Seasoning
Salt and pepper

Another fav of mine - Kimchi fish soup!!! Small bass fillets, or... Homemade Kimchi (store bought is good too). Water or stock (chicken/veggie/fish). Boil the liquid, add small fish fillets and kimchi, and drop to a simmer. Somewhere b/n 5-10 min. Add hot pepper sauce/flakes, as desired!

and OF COURSE - simple blackened grilled fish!!!