What does the inside look like?

And the reason you don't need it is when using something cornmeal or flour based for that matter which is the norm it sticks to fish without a batter. The initial layer of flour would only serve to stick the batter to the fish. Now, this applies to properly done southern fried fish. If you wanna start Yankee style stuff with heavy bread crumbs, Panko, crushed up crackers etc you are gonna have to probably gunk it up to hold it. Now if it was me I would mix up a little marinade of lawrys and tobacco with a little water and marinade for 8 hours, you can sub buttermilk to, this gets rid of any fishy flavor, then the Louisiana mix i mentioned above. We did our own Louisiana is closest I have found.

I bet it's pink in the middle.

depends on the dish