Easter bonanza for fishmongers

WA's seafood suppliers will have one of their busiest trading days tomorrow and Good Friday as Easter holidaymakers stock up on fish for the long weekend.

Partridges Seafood owner Matt Beagley said the week before Easter was the busiest time of the year after Christmas Eve, with retail sales expected to be about 10 times typical weekly takings.

"Easter is a big time of the year for seafood sales. And the trends are entirely different to Christmas," Mr Beagley said.

"Whereas at Christmas it's all about prawns, Atlantic salmon, oysters and crayfish, Easter is about line-caught white fish - pink snapper, red emperor, gold band snapper and rankin cod," he said.

"People are very busy in the lead-up to Christmas, so they tend to bake whole fish for the family."

Theo Kailis said his Leederville fish shop would have its second busiest week of the year this week, with sales peaking tomorrow and on Good Friday.

"We get massive sales on Friday as well as Thursday - about four to five times trading numbers. Whereas Christmas tends to be about high-dollar items like shellfish, sales this week are mostly fish," Mr Kailis said. "It's the last hurrah before winter, the barbie is still out, the weather is good, and people like to cook fish over Easter.

"People are more adventurous about the way they cook these days. Fresh Atlantic salmon - either whole sides or fillets - are still incredibly popular and our customers are telling us they cook with the skin on and many are cooking with the scales on, too, which keeps the fish moist." Mr Kailis said the white fish varieties were equally popular, with snapper and Spanish mackerel the favourites.

Perth celebrity chef Don Hancey said the trends this Easter indicated that people liked big, easy-to-cook family dishes.

"Whole baked fish, traditional fish pie, chowder and paella all make for easy cooking over the holiday weekend and cater for lots of people," Mr Hancey said.

"Easter is a great opportunity to ask your fishmonger to fillet a whole fish, keep the bones for stock and make a chowder or seafood pie. If you can't be bothered making a flaky pastry for your pie, top it with a creamy mash instead and bake until golden."