Wonder if preparing them like sardines, another oily fish, would work. Growing up with grandparents who knew how to make things like head cheese, we had the occasional pickled fish (we had several other dishes that most folks these days would not even force-feed to terrorists, but I like them very much).
The first one involves deep fat frying the fish (smelt size pieces or fillets - if whole fish is used make sure the size is no more than 1/2 inch thick) just long enough to cook the flesh, then making a marinade pickle sauce. If you fry a pound of fish the following sauce should be enough marinade:
Saute 1 small finely minced onion, 2 T finely minced carrots, and 4 whole cloves garlic. I would use about 3 T olive oil for this. Add 2/3 c wine vinegar and 1/4 c water, a small bay leaf, a sprig of fresh thyme, salt to taste, and 2 small red hot peppers, simmer for 10 minutes. Pour sauce over cooked fish in shallow pan. Refrigerate 24 hours. Serve with crackers.
There are other recipes for this. In South America they do this with fresh raw fish. In Spain they poach the fish first before marinating. But the premise is the same. Marinade in a pickling sauce of some kind for a few hours and then serve with crusty bread or crackers. Following are two more recipes for marinades:
2 c lime juice
1/2 c finely chopped onions
1/4 c chopped green chilis
1 c chopped, peeled and seeded toms
2 t salt
some cayenne pepper to taste
1/8 t oregano
Mix together and refrigerate for 4 - 5 hours then pour over 2 lbs cooked or raw fish and refrigerate 4 to 5 hours. Serve with crackers. This marinade is not cooked so it will not keep for more than a day or so.
Cover 2 lbs cooked or raw fish cut into chunks with lime juice and marinade over night.
Drain and add to the lime juice:
2 T finely chopped onion
1 T finely chopped parsley
2 T finely chopped green pepper
3 T olive oil
other seasonings you might like
Serve as a dipping sauce for the fish. This marinade is not cooked so it will not keep longer than a day or so.
All of these recipes are best served on a platter sitting on crushed ice with toothpicks nearby. Any crispy cracker or light very crusty bread is great.
I forgot to add that a fast preparation involves adding chunks of cooked fish to jars of pickled olives, artichoke hearts, asparagus spears and other antipasto combinations. Chill for a few hours. Serve as above.