I'm not sure what difference the pan would make, but in a cooking class, I was taught to put a light coating of oil (we used canola) on the fish before putting it in a hot pan (heavy stainless) that had been ever-so-lightly wiped with oil. This was a skinned piece of salmon & I don't know if your fish had the skin on, or if it would make a difference. Another trick was to not turn it until the edges looked like they were burnt - then it would release from the pan without becoming a mess.

Thanks for the post. Next day my hby went out and bought us a lodge brand beautiful cobalt blue enamel cast iron frying pan, which I am going to make veal shanks in tonight. Makes sense that you need to lightly oil the fish. Mine was just wet.

In Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain said basically that there are a few applications where nonstick is best and one of them is for a delicate fish fillet. I absolutely agree if the pan is heavy. If you don't want to use nonstick then first bring the fish to room temperature, then pre-heat a heavy pan until it's hot, then add the oil and pre-heat it. Coating the fish with oil can't hurt but the main points are bringing the fish to room temperature and pre-heating both the pan and then the oil. If the pan is really clean the fish won't stick. If it does stick you will have to wait until it releases and by that time the fish may be overcooked.

Well I just did a bunch of Tilapia tonight in a cast iron frying pan. Cooked beautifully, *no sticking*. I used to have a heavy disc-bottomed stainless pain, and it was a big improvement over my old aluminum junk, but it wasn't as good as this old cast iron pan that I paid $15 for on eBay.