The Forestry Forum

Emily, Elam and I got to slip off to catch a few catfish yesterday. We didn't catch anything very big but there were plenty.  

All we caught were released including these two little guys.  

We fish Badin Lake with some regularity.  
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   While visions of hushpuppies danced in their heads... :D

    I'd have sure taken a few of those home for dinner. digin_2

Nice fishes.  We will be going to Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas next weekend.  I expect that we will catch white bass, largemouth, smallmouth and maybe a walleye.  At least I hope we will catch something.  Until next weekend its just a fish story.

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on April 16, 2022, 09:17:52 AM
  While visions of hushpuppies danced in their heads... :D

   I'd have sure taken a few of those home for dinner. digin_2

Those were ideal eating size but we have plenty in the freezer right now.  
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Going to the coast next week so I might need to save a little space for those fish too!  :)

Caught some Crappie the other day.
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That's some tasty fillets right there. 

Yes they were.... Have kiln do trade services to Poquo for fish.  :D

It is hard to find fish better to eat than crappie!  That's a nice cooler full!

Leaving in a week for Detroit River Walleye. Best fishing of the year. Definitely a World Class Fishery in the spring. 

Whiting! Or Kingfish, Mullet or Virginia Mullet depending upon where you're from :o :D :o :D :D
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Forget the fish, I am jealous of the shorts and flip-flops!

It was about 70° or so with a cool SE breeze about 10 or 12 mph.  The sun was quite bright all day.  

Fishing was slow until about 3:30.  Then we hit them pretty good!

I call them tasty!!

 
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 Sight casting for crocs!



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We caught Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish and Mullet along with a mixed bag of pinfish, sea bass, and puffers too small to keep. 

We kept two Spanish for supper tomorrow night. 

Caught another mess of Crappie and some Largemouth Bass.
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Noticed this on edge of the pond, I think it's a Praying Mantis nest.

Those whiting are among the most tasty fish.  For their size, they hit hard and fight like a Bulldog.  I prefer catching them than most other species out of the surf.  

Fun to catch, relatively easy to catch, plentiful and good to eat!  What's not to like about whiting besides the bones?  They are like crappies of the sea!

Got my Turkey and "The other White Meat" Walleye this weekend. Bird had 11 1/2" beard and limit of walleye in 3 hours for 4 guys 3 days in a row.  Mission accomplished, freezer is full.


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I really don't fish, but I will go to the mountain streams by the cabin.  She has been bugging me for years to take her fishing...so I did.  She was so proud of herself.  8)

@jb616 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=37766)  Awesome catching! And an awesome bird!  Did you buy a lottery ticket?  If you did, can I be your new best friend! :D :D

@snobdds (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=45948)   Way to put her on the fish!  

There's no one else I'd rather fish with than Emily.  She fishes with me often and has become quite serious.  She remembers going fishing with her Grandma.  Turns out that side of her family is full of fishing women including my two daughters!  

I haven't fished for whiting in years but back when I was a kid, before they started pumping sand from offshore in to renourish the beaches, we would dig sandfleas where the surf crashed on the beach and use them on gold hooks tied to light line on a cane pole.  Sandfleas are tough to find on a lot of beaches these days.  They were fun to catch and good to eat (whiting-Beenthere).  To me, they resemble a redfish (red drum) without the spot.  I think we used to also catch them on a Doc's Goofy Jig, which also works well for pompano.

QuoteSandfleas are tough to find on a lot of beaches these days.  They were fun to catch and good to eat. 

For a hot second I thought you were eating the sand fleas.  :D :D

You would if you had to. 

Sand fleas do make good bait for whiting and pompano.  We will sort through a hundred to find the 10 or 15 soft shell sand fleas.  

Never had any luck with the hard shelled ones.  Never looked for any soft shelled ones, but I will now. 

Great trip to downeast Maine with My 19yo son, and a longtime family friend.   Thanks Wayne!


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The grin, says all there needs to be said ! :)

Below is take from another day, 2 eaten right away digin1

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And I update my avatar with new fish pict, 23" first day fish !

Many memories made  sail_smiley

Alright, I will post the avatar pic, it was the best fish of the week but only by little bit :).


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Checking our set

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   JJ

 Nice Fish!  Nothing like fishing with family!

Some really nice pictures everybody! I told a guy I know this week good luck. He's sitting in 10th place in Alabama bass fishing tournament. He wants to finish in the top 9 and he will qualify to make it in the bass master tournament. If he does it will be his 4th time. 

Caught first Snakehead of the year and a few Largemouth Bass.
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The other day I mentioned  doing some pox therapy, I  a little done.   So Saturday evening  I went and tried

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Taken from the old Railroad bridge abutment  on  the creek that runs behind my quiet place.  It's down a good foot from what it needs to be to hold many fish but I got to fish for an hour or so with my youngest son and caught a little 10 inch Catfish.
Sunday we even got the boat out  on the and  river fished a spot for a while caught one 6 pound Buffalo, then weather was predicted to come in so we got out. It was a good first run of the season  and a little pox treatment.


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 Missouri River not far from Niobrara NE..

I went out trolling on Sunday at a nice cold Maine lake and got 2 Lake Trout. Not huge ones( one 14" and the other about 12") but still not getting skunked. I need to get a downrigger, then I can hopefully catch something I'll post pictures off.

@K-Guy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=35658) , have you ever tried jigging for the lakers?  It can be a ton of fun as long as you are on the fish. I have used either a 1 oz. glow jighead with white plastic or a fresh strip of white belly skin or a 2-3 oz jigging spoon. We use Jonah jigs in Michigan and you can probably get online in your favorite colors. 

I was actually hoping for Rainbow Trout but enjoyed it all the same. jb616 i haven't tried it but thought about it using baitfish.

My buddy has two slips across the lake from me (where he lives).  Two years ago had to pull the boats out early due to low water levels (every late summer/early fall).  Could have put in back in January 2020 but the lake was closed due to Covid ::)

Then in 2021, the water never came up enough for them to allow boats to be berthed.  Finally, this year we got some water and was able to put in back the end of March.  Went out 4 times so far.  First two trips got a few smaller rainbows and a small king salmon.  Third time just one small trout (full moon - don't go fishing!) that we let go at the end of the day.  On the 29th, we went out but the wind was blowing so a bit of chop/swell going on all day.  Plus the somewhat rude power boaters speeding by very close.

Anyhow, two short strikes in the first hour.  Then we found the sweet spot.  There are several "islands" that eventually gets submerged when the lake is full.  Traveling by the point of one going south, we catch a fish or two.  Traveling north, nothing.  That went on for about 3 or 4 hours.  I lost one at the boat, my fishing buddy lost 3 at the boat and 2 "long line releases".

We got our limits!  Can't quite see the 5th on my pinky finger.
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I had already cleaned two so we are each holding 4 here.
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Closed a lake due to Covid ?? No need to explain... 

Nice strings of fish there..  8)

Bunch of stingrays caught from the beach on my last trip to Hatteras....and a few decent red drum.


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@K-Guy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=35658) here's a video of how to use planers for trolling.  

Using a large planer with double snap swivels and rubber bands work great.  Easier to stow than a down rigger and less expensive 

https://youtu.be/B0mAGSvkSqA (https://youtu.be/B0mAGSvkSqA)

Catching Speckled Trout and Gray Trout before visitors start arriving this morning 


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I am even more jealous. 

We caught a few fiddler crabs and caught some sheepshead today.   We had a strong wind from the south that made the trout fishing a bit tough.  Although I did see a 5 pound 8 ounce gator speckled trout caught.  


Here are the first two in the live well. 

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Here is the proud angler who caught the big trout.  He's a mate on one of the charter boats out of Ocracoke. 


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Were you fishing in particular for the sheepshead?  I know that they are hard to catch.  What is the best technique?  Never catch them in the surf. 

Danny, I've never caught sheepshead in the surf but rather around bridges, docks and rocks. The easiest way for me to catch them is to cut live shrimp at the segments, put one on a small gold hook (like the size used for bream, #6 or so), a split shot about a foot above the hook and toss it out and wait for them eat it.  They will often swallow the hook so take a box of them.  Otherwise, you have to be pretty skilled at hooking them.  We used to catch some good sized ones on light spinning tackle during the springtime.

Folks sometimes take an edger and scrape barnacles off of pilings to get them fired up and even use them for bait.
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The darn things are about like cleaning talapia.  

Our second trip to Florida, SW coast we rented a house on a barrier island and it backed up to the inter-coastal.  At low tide 100's of fiddlers would be on the beach mud.  I'd scoop some up and toss them in a bucket.  I'd take one and pop off the big claw and put the meat on a hook.  Then I'd crush up a few and toss them over the side of the pier.  Drop my line and pull up a sheep's head.  Caught what I'd call an angle fish on steroids.  That thing was huge and put up a monster fight.

For sheepshead, I use a plain lead head jig baited with a fiddler crab.   I fish it close to the pilings.  At slack tide a shovel to scrape barnacles off the pilings brings them in!  

We are targeting sheepshead and black drum around the dock pilings with the fiddler crabs or sand fleas.  

Not much difference  :D :D :D :D


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Congrats!!  No one had to tell you to smile.  :)

Quote from: SawyerTed on June 14, 2022, 09:14:17 PMNot much difference

She's cuter but both of you look pretty happy!!

About a week ago, I took my 3yo grandson out to our pond to catch some tilapia.  He was able to catch them as fast as he could get his bread ball in the water.  This particular one was red, most were blue.  He had a ball.  
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This afternoon the wind laid down.  It would have been a good day to run out of the inlet for some mahi.  

But not to happen, my fishing buddy (aka wife) was under the weather.  

So I fished from the dock. Put a puppy drum aka red fish on the dock. 


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I see some blackened redfish in your future. 

That redfish was an inch and a half over the upper slot limit size. He went back in the water to grow to be an old drum. 

Is the upper slot 27" or 28"?

27"

Yesterday's afternoon catch, Mooselookmeguntic lake, ME

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Nice fat salmon on bottom, how many inch?
Is that a splake in middle?
I have only caught few of those things through the ice. 

  JJ

17 inches. From the bottom, salmon, salmon, brook trout salmon. These are landlocked salmon.

Now you can see that the picnic table is made out of store size two by sixes. :D

So Doc Emily has had a hard time catching sea trout.  She's been a little discouraged about fishing.  I can't have a pouting fishing lady.  So I made a plan.  

We caught 15 or 20 fiddler crabs today. I had to bait her hook because she won't put anything on s hook that goes "crunch!"  

I put Emily on the black drum this afternoon.  She hammered them!

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Awesome!  Those will be tasty!  Those rascals get big, real big.  But, yours are perfect for dinner. 

They get huge!   The NC Record Black Drum weighted 100 pounds 1 ounce!

 
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Okay, you guys drove me to it. Also I felt compelled tp stand up for the fishing rights of the little guys out there so I went out to the boathouse and changed out the #10 cricket hooks on several 10' fiberglass crappie poles with #8 and #6 long shank bream hooks. I even outfitted 2 new 13" telescoping fiberglass poles with 14 lb line, a #8 hook, bobber and a bb shot. I even checked out a couple of ultralight spinning outfits and put on jig spinners and greased my fly line and tied a new leader on. About that time my wife came out to check on me and I asked her if she was ready to go fishing. She decided that was a better than usual idea and went and got her camera and a sweat shirt while I took out my bag of frozen grasshoppers I brought back from Fla in May. I also took my cup of sawdust packed night crawlers I caught last night just in case. I guess I'd caught 15-20 of them. We threw some sodas and water in the cooler, loaded Sampson in my truck, hooked up the boat and stopped by a filled one 6 gallon tank with fresh gas. I guess we got to the local boat landing on Bluestone Lake about 4:30 p.m. The place was hopping with boaters, jet skis, swimmers, people fishing along the bank, kayakers, tubers, etc. Lots of pontoon boats and big bass boats creating lots of waves.

I ran across the lake and put a dead grasshopper on a couple of poles, gave one to my wife and I took one and started easing along the bank with my foot controlled electric motor on the bow. Our target species were hand sized bluegills. The big problem in this lake is getting the bait to them before their 2-3 inch cohorts grab it first. I got to a tree top and threaded my bait down and picked up 3-4 decent bluegills. You'd have to just hold steady pressure as the unwound themselves from the underwater limbs and eventually you could lift them out of the water. My wife caught a couple of throwbacks.  I decided to try some treetops down the lake so motored past some campsites accessible only by boat. The place I wanted was occupied by a pontoon boat so we went down the lake to about 1/2 mile above the big COE flood control dam forming the lake just below where the New and Bluestone Rivers merge and 1/4 mile above where the Greenbrier Rive enters the New River.

I was headed upstream along the high rock bank pitching grasshoppers and pieces of night crawler about 3' deep under overhanging trees and sunken treetops. We'd pick up a decent bluegill or other bream (Green sunfish, redbellies and something that looks like a shellcracker) once in a while. Suddenly my wife started screaming about the big one she had on. She was using one of the0 poles. The line was singing and she was yelling while the fish ran where it wanted. I figured she'd hooked a big carp and was not overly concerned. I grabbed the net and finally netted her 2 lb channel cat. They are strong fighters for their size and on a limber pole it was exciting. We caught several more keeper bream and lots of throwbacks. My daughter and her kids called on  a video call and we each caught a bream while they were watching. This was about the time we found a very productive treetop and the soda limit for Becky's bladder so we had to pack up and head back to the campground toilet and then boat landing. I guess we loaded up and left about 8:00 p.m. with plenty of daylight left to put everything away and start cleaning fish. Turns out we had the catfish and had kept 14 small to medium bream with the biggest maybe 12 oz.
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Just about a gallon of cleaned bream and catfish fillets. This will make at least 2 good meals for the two of us. We'll likely eat half tomorrow and freeze the others for a later time.

It was a very good, laidback fishing trip.

Pole fishing is the most relaxing fishing for me. 

Yep, crappie on a cane pole dipping along side logs and in tops.  Fun with kids, and has been too long since I had that fun.

  Yeah, this was pretty much the same way I fish for crappie. Ease along the bank pitching a piece of worm or grasshopper instead of a crappie minnow. Toss it under low limbs over the lake, find a sunken treetop and dunk the bait carefully between the limbs and try to pull it straight up to move it if not eaten in a minute or so.

   About as laid back as it gets. Even a small fish feels big on a limber fiberglass or cane pole. It is about the best way to start the fids fishing but be prepared to tie on lots of hooks and get a line out of the treetops every so often. My wife is not much better at it than the kids and my mom is as bad or worse but it is fun to see them get excited. My main function is to position the boat where they can reach a good spot to fish, to bait empty hooks and to remove any fish caught. Your own fishing has to be secondary to the kids, wife and mom.

WV, I was just thinking the other day that you have not posted any fish pictures lately.  I'm glad you were able to go.

   We pretty much gorged ourselves on half the catch today and I froze the other half for another meal. My wife was very happy with her catfish. She is like a little kid eating the first fish he ever caught - it is always the best fish they ever ate. Since retiring she gets bored so outings like this are great stress relief and mental health treatments for her. The fact it was pretty much spur of the moment helped.

My biggest fish this week was a 38" Muskie.  This is the biggest muskie I have caught.  I have never targeted them and caught this one trolling for whatever would bite on our first day in Canada last week.  It was right in front of the lodge we were staying at.
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I am giving you a thumbs up, too!

Nothing.

Went fishing with my son yesterday and never had a bite but he's doing a lobster imitation day. I told him I had sun block in my truck and we could go back for it just after we got on the water but he said he was fine. Hopefully the lesson was learned. Unfortunately his skin is like his mom's, very white and easy to get a sun burn.

My youngest burns so bad and so easy.  I made him wear long sleeves, pants, hat, hood, sunscreeen applied several times per day, but he still got burned on his chin and cheeks so bad that he blistered.  He looks dreadful now even though we' ve been off the water for 3 days.

The student showed the teacher how it's done!

She caught and landed the 28" "gator" Speckled Trout by herself this morning!

I got out fished! :D :D :D
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That is a nice catch!

       JJ

That is certainly the biggest speckled trout that I have ever seen!

Emily is getting it done.  I have enjoyed seeing your fishing pictures this summer.  This is the only summer in memory that I have not been able to fish.  We used to catch some monster sized trout on occasion while fishing for spawning snook in the passes along the west coast of Florida.  Fresh fried trout is tasty.

Back when JMoore and I were kids (15 and 16), we were fishing off of the Anna Maria City Pier one summer night when a tropical storm was out in the gulf.  The waves were coming up through the pier's boards and each wave was loaded with schools of sardines and they were being pursued by trout.  We were using spinning reels but there was no need to cast.  We just squeezed the trout after we would catch them and several freshly eaten sardines would squirt out of their mouths.  Those rods were covered with fish scales for years following that night. This was before bag limits on trout, and we caught trout until we started seeing the sun rise over Tampa Bay.  

When we turned around to look at our pile of fish, we were surprised to see how big of a pile we had amassed.  John, being 16 and having a driver's license, drove down to Cortez to get some ice while I started cleaning fish.  We caught 364 trout that night.  The oldster locals were accusing us of netting them.  We had fish packed in ice in garbage cans, coolers and whatever else we could find to transport them in the back of my '79 Ford.  John fell asleep at a traffic light in downtown Bradenton on our way home.  I deemed it safer for me to drive the 70 miles back home even though I did not have a license at the time.

Amazing trout experience.  I have had it happen once on Hatteras with bluefish chopping up the water.  The baitfish were jumping onto the beach. We caught hundreds in the 3 to 6 pound range casting metal spoons from the beach at Cape Point in the course of an afternoon.  The blues would drive the baitfish to the beach then the school would go back out only to return driving more baitfish into the beach.  Happened multiple times.  

Grandson and three of his buddies fished out of Venice, LA this morning.

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Looks like they had a good morning.

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Not bad at all.  

Liams buddy came over tonight, so we drove down to the river on the mule.  Mr "I dont like to fish" catches a nice catfish on a crank bait.

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Grayling!

Channel cat.

Liam's buddy came over this morning and we went back to the river for the morning.  Liam didn't want to go, so it was just me and Connor.  Connor brought his catfish pole and put a bluegill head on it.  About 10 minutes later it was being pulled by something.  The biggest catfish I've seen come out of the river.  I know that walleyes live in the river.  One of these days I'm gonna try and catch one.  They are few and far between though.  I caught several fish including about a 12" smallie and this spot that was about 12".
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I did a little trout fishing in the rain this morning.  I fished about 4 hours and it rained the whole time.  Good thing I had ordered a new raincoat to wear for work and had it shipped to the campground by Amazon.  With my waders and the coat I stayed pretty dry.  This little creek in southwest MO has a strain of Rainbow Trout called the McCloud river strain from California.  They were stocked in the stream by the railroad over 100 years ago.  Apparently the railroad would bring trout back from California to stock into streams that could support trout.  They are very pretty trout with a lot of red.  I only took one picture due to the rain, but this was one of my better ones, about 12".  Lost a few much bigger ones.

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Back in the day we hunted every litte stream in that area, but concentrated on Jacks Fork, the White, and the Current.  Even some of the small tributaries held trout if the water was cool enough, a hunting type of fishing, "I wonder what might be in that creek" sort of thing.

The Jacks Fork is one place I haven't tried.  Too far away for a day trip.  I have fished just about every other creek in MO known to hold trout.  I enjoy hunting for trout too.  I did a lot of that when I worked summers in Minnesotat too.  I caught a lot of tiny brook trout, but it was fun.

We just came back from our Ft. Morgan trip on the Gulf Coast.  The boat was running well and the kings were thick and some of the biggest average weight we had seen in years.  Nothing we couldn't handle, except one.  My niece was running a light 20 lbs of drag and hooked a monster king that smoked 325 yards of line in what she claims was only "six seconds" and spooled her.  I know it was 325 yards because that's what I had to respool on the reel when we got back to the dock.  She said she forget to yell "I'm running out of line!!" and although I kept hearing the reel screaming in the background, about the time my metal alarm went off and turned around to see what was going on, I saw the last 20 yards of line unwind like a lightning bolt off the reel spool.  Pow!  Gone!  She will never forget that one.  Neither will I, that fish took about $50 worth of braided line with it, and a $26 Yozuri Crystal Minor lure.  DanG!

Here are a few we did get in the boat.
My nephew in law, Matt and my bother having to team lift Matts' king. 

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Here's one on my little amberjacks.  We were fishing over a wreck, and we lost 4 on 60lb mono, snapping them off or them diving and cutting us off on the wreck.  Only when we switched to 80 lb tackle were we able to start putting them in the boat.  We let these guys go, the season was closed on Amberjack, but were certainly found a good spot, and released most of the kings, also.  Once the cooler is full, it's full, and let the rest go.  My brother makes a mean smoked king mackerel that is really good, so a few went home with us.  That's him in the last picture.  

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Looked to be fun and successful!!

We were trying to combine a little fishing and a little sightseeing this week.  

Fishing has been slow on Lake Marion.  We have managed to catch a few catfish yesterday and today.  

Emily "out fished" me today with this 15 pound blue catfish.   
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I finally took the opportunity to go fishing on Friday afternoon.  There was once a time when I would go over 200 days a year but I've found things to occupy my time.  

My friend already had his boat in the water when I arrived.  The key switch was stuck in the run position and would not turn to start so we just used the electric motor.  We were fishing in and over eel grass and elodia in roughly 8' of water.  We ended up with a few specks and bass.  Generally, I'll keep a few of the smaller bass to fry and he'll take the specks but I ended up with all of them.  The water temperature was still a bit warm (78°) but the speck fishing should improve in the weeks to come.  They will be on the menu for tonight's family supper (My folks, three daughters, wife, two sons in law and grandson).  I'll batter them in yellow corn meal with some seasoning.

I'm going to attempt to go bow hunting on Friday and Saturday.  The friend I am going with was sending me pics this morning of wild pork scattering through the swamp while I was collecting dendro samples for a forestry practice.  He told me to bring a thermocell and rubber boots.
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Never heard that term.  I assume a speck is a black crappie.  Nice catch.

Speckled perch, crappie, black crappie, specks, regardless of what you call them, they are fun to catch and taste pretty good too.  We even had a little left over so lunch will be good tomorrow.  Tonight's menu included specks, bass, yellow squash, grits, cornbread, apple crisp, boiled eggs (none for me), cole slaw, and ice cream cake (youngest daughter turned 18 on Tuesday but she had the flu then so tonight we celebrated).  I think everyone ate a little too much.

Our grandson wanted to catch a few fish out of the pond when he came over this afternoon.  He'll be four before Christmas.  Most likely, he'll find a rod and reel under the tree.
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Sac-a-lait (https://www.thejump.net/sac-a-lait-or-crappie/)

   Where I grew up in extreme N. Fla they were called Chinquapins. My uncle down in Dixie County on the Suwannee called them Specs like Cavey does.

   We had a fish fry here Thursday with 10 of my wife's retired teacher counterparts and had fried catfish. Others brought  treats and we had stuffed potato skins, grits, baked beans, macaroni salad, tater tots, hush puppies (the frozen ones) and peach pie/cobbler. We had a great time and a great meal with lots of leftovers. Now I need to buy some more clam shell type take out boxes. They are handy to have on such cookouts for people to fix a meal to take home or for family and friends who could not make it.

   My favorite picture is the little boy with the bluegill. ;)

Caveman looks like you've got an up and coming fishing partner on your hands. It's great to see the little ones getting into hunting and fishing. 

At Lake Gaston this past weekend caught a nice Chain Pickerel and some Alabama Spotted Bass.
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How does a pickerel fight?  Looks like it would be a line stretcher!  

Pickerel fight real good, fast runs and direction changes. Watch out for the teeth!

For Pickerel, Pike & Muskie I used steel leaders as they can cut other line types. They are very aggressive and aren't scared of them.

   We used to catch pickerel in N. Fla. We called them Jackfish there. There were pretty fierce fighters and pretty good eating only very bony with lots of small bones. They tended to hang out on the surface like garfish and "I have heard" you could sometimes snag them with a treble hook set about 1' under a float.

   I used to use little bream for bait set a foot deep in a deep hole in a creek. I have seen a big pickerel suddenly just appear in a streak and be suspended directly under my float and my bait would be gone. I'd tighten the line and find they had already cut the line.

  They loved to hit shiny spinner baits in ox-bow lakes behind beaver dams and yellow seemed to be a preferred color.

   I caught one that weighed about 8 lbs one time with a landing net in a big gravel lake after watching him come up and tail walk slinging his head like a Bass throwing a Lucky 13 lure. I sculled the boat over to him expecting to find a broken lure in his mouth. Instead I found he had swallowed 1 lb crappie and could not swallow it and was trying to throw it. He failed and it was hung in his gills killing him. He received a proper cremation in a pan of corn oil with a corn meal casket surrounded by hush puppies.

We caught a few jackfish the other day when we were speck fishing.  They got tossed or kicked back.  They are bad about eating live shiners when we are using them for bait while fishing for bass.  Most of the time when bass fishing we use artificial baits but there is another level of excitement when a 12-14" live shiner starts fleeing from an aggressive, hungry bass.

They are called Jackfish in Manitoba also. I've been told people who eat them that they are good but must be caught in cold water. The bad part of them is a nickname for them in parts of Canada is Swamp Shark as they hunt in the shallow water where the minnows and small fry are.

My Grandfather used to take me Jack fishing when I was a kid, he favored a yellow spinnerbait fishing in dark water millponds in NE North Carolina.

First fish I remember ever hooking was a Pickerel, first cast with a new Zebco 202 reel and a red and white dare devil lure.  I was just a kid, and that thing jumped, lept, ran, danced, and did everything under the sun.  My grandmother was standing about two feet away in amazement, in my mind it would have been an entry into Outdoor Life for sure.  It all ended suddenly when he spit the lure out and that was all she wrote.  I don't think I got another bite that day. 

I've never caught a pickerel before.  I remember seeing one in an ozark river years ago.  It was not long after my first trip to Canada and I told my dad I just saw a Northern Pike.  He told me it had to be a chain pickerel.  I don't think I've seen one since.  That would have been 35 years ago.

   They like to hang out on the surface. I have never ice fished but I thought I read somewhere about people spearing them through the ice. If anyone has any experience spearing pickerel or pike or such I'd love to hear about it.

Wow, never heard of that, talk about being on thin ice.  :D

Quote from: Southside on November 11, 2022, 09:06:09 PMI don't think I got another bite that day.

Wash your hook after catching a pike, pickeral or muskie, they are very voracious predators and the other will shy away from the scent in the water.

Looked out the window at daybreak this morning and saw a boatload of striper fisherman chasing em.  It was 5 below zero with a stiff north wind.

They drifted around the bend before I could get my camera.

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I think only true Yankees could endure such bone chilling cold!

That's dedication I hope they caught some. 

Went Trout fishing on Wednesday, the water was a little cold.
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Very nice!!

I spent a cool day on the water with a couple of good friends.  I did not do my part of the fish catching, but they are on ice, and I'll fillet them tomorrow.  My longtime friend and teaching partner, Jimmy, won the local big speck of the week at the bait shop last week with a 2lb, 1 oz.  Today, he weighed in a 1 lb, 11oz.  The cool catch of the day was he caught a bass and a speck at the same time.  He was using a two-hook dropper rig with minnows for bait.  The temp was in the 30's this morning and stayed cool all day.

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We went back out there today.  I actually contributed a bit to the creel today.  The largest speck was 2lbs.  I did not count the fish and my neighbor brought them home with him, but we had a stuffed five-gallon bucketful excluding the 2 lb speck, which had to go to the bait shop to be weighed for this week's speck of the week contest.

We may go camp out on them tomorrow night in a pontoon boat and drop a few lights down.  The specks are few and far between, but the size is very good for our area.  The incidental bass have been running between one and three pounds.  The specks should be spawning next weekend, but I'll be working out of town and so will my friend.  The weather was much more tolerable today.   We had a light breeze and a temperature range from the mid 50's to high 70's.  The water temperature was 59 degrees, so a little warmer than earlier in the week.

WV, spearing northern pike through the ice is a very popular pastime in Minnesota.

 To set up, a rectangular hole is cut in the ice, approximately 3'x4', and usually in about 6' to 10' of water. The hole is typically cut with a chainsaw with no bar oil in it. Even if the spear fisherman isn't environmentally conscientious, any petroleum product will create a sheen on the surface and reduce visibility. 

 Once the hole is ready, the shelter (known as a "dark house" because there are no windows and typically having a blackened interior) is slid over the hole. 

 The fisherman sits on a small bench with his spear at the ready. The spear is about 10" wide, with 7-8 tines that are around 8" long. The spear itself is about 4 and a half feet long. 

 A brightly colored (usually white and red) weighted decoy, about 8" long, is lowered into the water on a string. It is worked in various patterns, these decoys are designed to move horizontally in the water as they are worked. 

 When a Northern shows up, they are coaxed into the center of the hole, and then the spear is thrown, aiming right behind the head. The spear has a cord tied to it for retrieval.

 I should say, it is amazing what you can see in the water from a darkhouse. It is like being right in the water.

 There are many other details, but honestly, I'm not a spearfisherman. One thing I will say it is more steeped in tradition than other forms of fishing. For instance, many hand carve their pearing decoys, often from a pattern that Grandpa had. Another is that spearfisherman are fanatical about any light getting into the darkhouse, as it causes glare and reduces visibility. 

 As I mentioned, I am by no stretch a spearfisherman. I've went with others before but for me it's too long of periods of sitting there waiting in boredom, which is the same reason I don't do well in a deer stand. 

 Now that spearfishing (it's also know as "darkhouse angling") has been described, I may as well come out and admit that I'm not a big fan of the practice. I think it is too hard on the resource, as it selects for the big fish. It takes a long time to grow even a 5-6 lb northern pike, and spearers on a small lake can eliminate the big fish very quickly. Pike are very aggressive so they respond very well to the decoys, making them easy to fish out. 

 A little about Northern Pike. Northerns, as they are commonly know (or just Pike), are very common in Minnesota waters both lakes and rivers. They are somewhat reviled by much of the angling community, which is typically laser focused on the Walleye. The reason is that many lakes tend to have a large population of stunted Northerns, fish less than 2 pounds. While Northerns are excellent eating, they are full of what are known as "Y bones". These bones are difficult to remove, and not worth the effort on fish less than 3-4 pounds. 

 Northerns commonly hit lures put out for Walleyes, but they have a few things they do that really get people angry. First off is their teeth. They have a mouthful of razorlike teeth. So often, the first thing that happens when a Northern hits is nothing, as they slice your line off. If you get a nice solid bite that immediately goes slack, you know what happened. Reel it in and tie a new lure on.

 Even a small Northern fights hard, and then when you have them next to the boat and think they are ready to be netted, BOOM! they always save one burst it seems. That breaks more lines. Then, when you finally get it in the boat, the fight continues as they hop, twist, and roll all over and coat the floor with their heavy slime (another nickname for them is Slimers). If you don't know how to hold them correctly, they are a real son of a gun to get unhooked and back in the water. All of that, for a fish that you usually can't keep, leads to a bit of disappointment for folks.

 Me, I don't knock the Northern. If you get a decent sized one, say 5 pounds, you'll never forget the fight. And you'll be rewarded with nice firm, tasty fillets, enough to feed a small family (some people, like my Dad, prefer Northern to the nearly religiously worshipped Walleye) Even the little guys provide some action on days when nothing else will bite 

 One traditional recipe that makes use of those small northerns is pickled fish. I've never made it (just ate it) but small Northerns are fileted and chunked, and put in canning jars. I know I've seen garlic, onions, and I don't know what spices in the finished product. I think vinegar is used. It isn't pressure canned, just allowed to pickle in the refrigerator. It makes a tasty snack when finished. Even the MN DNR has been promoting it as a way to deal with the Northern population on some lakes.

 Well there you have it, a little bit of the fishing lore from my corner of the world😊

We have a high sierra lake (Eagle Lake) that is known for their trout.  A number of years ago they found that someone planted some pike in the lake.  That started an all out war on them.  First they started electro-shocking the shallows to clean them out.  Then, the next year they poisoned the entire lake, but they survived.  Then they lowered the lake and poisoned it again, still they survived.  Then they had fishing tournaments where you had to immediately cut the head off.  Haven't heard much about it in the last couple years.  Maybe they were successful.  They were worried that they would make it down into the Sacramento Delta and affect the salmon runs.  I remember catching one when I lived in NY and thought it was a fun fight and a tasty fish.

barbender
Right on, with the fishing lore. And northern pickled is great!!  Or baked, and then eaten off the bones.

ljohnsaw, illegal stocking of non-native species has negatively impacted too many pristine fisheries. Yellowstone Lake was illegally stocked with Lake Trout, this has happened in other fine Cutthroat fisheries in the West, too. 

 I have family in Wyoming, they live near Lake Desmet, which has a great stocked trout fishery. About 15 years ago someone saw fit to stock Walleyes in that one, which have subsequently exploded in population. 

Barbender, 

Your fish lore brings back some great memories of spear and ice fishing some of the great inland lakes in the western U.P. and northern Wisconsin during the mid 1950's after I got out of the service.

Sunset Lake where Chet now lives was one favored lake. I still remember the excitement when a large northern or musky entered the hole after the decoy while we sat waiting in the dark shack. I agree that Northerns make some excellent fillets and steaks.

I guess no one has been fishing since December.  I'm taking my 12 year old tomorrow and Friday to try and catch some trout.  The weather is supposed to be bad with rain and storms both days, but I'm hoping for just enough dry weather to catch some.  He got an idea that he wanted to bake some trout from watching a cooking show on PBS.  Hopefully some pics of him or I with some fish will follow tomorrow.

Good luck!  Hope your son gets a monster!

I've not fished since before December but I have a terrible case of Fishing Pox!  

Gotta finish my current renovations before I can wet a hook.  Soon very soon!

I'm not doing well, I have severe withdrawals from a winter of not fishing. Watching the ice on the lakes hoping for a heat wave to melt them clear. The pain in my heart isn't as bad as the shakes I've got!  fishin-smiley  smiley_whacko

On page 1 of this thread jb616 posted a photo of a nice mess of walleyes. I'm not sure, but the one at the bottom of the photo looks like it might be a sauger; any of you guys know about them? There are a couple places in Western New York where our DEC is trying to bolster the population of sauger.

Sauger tend to be more of a grey color and they don't have the white tip on the tail.  Hard to say from that pic.  They also average smaller than walleye.  You can also catch sogeyes.

Today was a good day.  It hasn't rained yet, but supposed to rain a bunch tonight and more tomorrow.  Still hope to fish at least a little tomorrow.  I landed 4 nice rainbows and 1 brown trout.  Sean landed 3 bows.  Had numerous others on that threw the hook.  Toward the end of the day we were crossing the river and I asked Sean if he needed help.  No, he said.  Then he slipped and went down.  Filled his waders and I grabbed him by the arm to lift him back up.  Luckily we were right by the truck.  He had a great time and even enjoyed getting soaked.  Earlier in the day he said the water wasn't cold.  He changed his mind.

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^{Bill, you always look so serious! :D Good fishing. I'm glad you could grab sean. I was about 12 and trout fishing with my Pop (downstream) and Uncle (upstream). Both of them were out of sight and I went down, my waders filled and I got 'carried away'. Fortunately better instincts took over and I pointed my toes at the sky, layed on my back and floated until I got to a bridge and could get out. Plus, I never let go of my rod, but my worm can was open and I lost them. I will say it was pretty dang scary for a young guy because when your waders fill, you got nuttin'.}

Great trip and a memory you and your son share.   "Dad, remember that time I went under trout fishing .. ? That was a good trip!"  

He will likely tell his kids about how Grandad saved his life!   :D

Tight lines!

Sorry Tom, I will smile tomorrow.  Lol.  Luckily my elbow is feeling a lot better almost 2 weeks after my steroid shot.  Of course I still would have lifted him, but boy that would have hurt.

By no means a wader expert, but aren't you supposed to have an elastic belt around the top to prevent the waders from filling up if you fall?

Yeah, I would have been beaming if I had that fish in my hands!

Quote from: KEC on March 23, 2023, 11:25:40 AM
On page 1 of this thread jb616 posted a photo of a nice mess of walleyes. I'm not sure, but the one at the bottom of the photo looks like it might be a sauger; any of you guys know about them? There are a couple places in Western New York where our DEC is trying to bolster the population of sauger.

No Sauger in the Detroit River that I know of....Anyone that wants to participate in a World Class Walleye fishery, head down to the Detroit river from the middle to the end of April....There are plenty of videos out there and probably the best are by Lance Valentine. Message me if you want any info. 

He is wearing waders that were my mother's.  She doesnt wade fish anymore.  They are just a bit big around on him and the strap doesn't tighten enough to keep all water out.  As it was they didn't fill up, but there was probably 3 gallons of water in them.

It rained hard all night and the main section of the river was way, way high and could not be fished in.  The spring branch at the park does not flood and so it was fishable.  It was being fished by everyone at the park this morning.  We managed to catch 3 fish in the short time that it was not raining.  I got two and he got one.  Brought two home.  Gutted and headed them at the park and then finished filleting when we got home.  I've never filleted a trout before, but it was just like doing a walleye.  I never liked eating trout before, because they were always full of bones.  I may like these tonight.  I may be the only one who eats it at home.

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jb616, thanks for the info. 

I went in to detail in the other thread so this is short.   

The four days and thee nights to Dry Tortugas was productive followed by a half day of peacock bass fishing.  

Pictures below are groupers, king mackerel, mutton snapper, mahi, cero mackerel, yellowtail and others. 

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I bet those peacock bass are fun to catch.  From what I've seen watching it on tv it looks great.

   I caught a few peacock bass in Ecuador in 2008 but I had medium tackle and 14 lb line and never landed one over about 3 lbs. Before I got my drag properly adjusted several broke the line on the strike. They are very fierce fighters.

My son and I floated my newly rebuilt canoe on the local river this past week.  He caught a nice largemouth and I caught several nice smallmouth for this river.  The canoe did well.  His buddy came with us and was solo on his kayak.

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Nothing earth shattering but it has been a drizzly dreary few days around here and I decided to go catch a mess of bluegills to have with some catfish tomorrow. I used a couple of fiberglass crappie poles and home caught night crawlers. When I finished with that I pitched rubber legged ant on a fly rod and caught a couple more. I prefer surface bugs and this one was a slow sinker. 

Nice catch!

 
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I got a leisurely start today to go catch a mess of bream. When I got to the lake I found we had a big mayfly (I think in Louisiana and such they call them willowflies) and the lake was so full of dead mayflies and shells you could hardly get a hook in the water. If you bumped any overhanging limb you'd get swarmed by them. Of course the fish were still popping the surface of the water eating them. I caught a few bluegills on my flyrod with a little rubber legged fuzzy ant. The problem was there were so many little ones it was hard to get an eating size fish. I got out my brim poles and used up the last 5-6 nightcrawlers I had left over. I caught one decent crappie on a piece of worm so I put a rubber minnow/grub on a pole and tried jigging it under low limbs and in brush piles hoping for more crappie. I did catch one nice bluegill doing that but no more crappies. I went up the river and tried another spot then my electric trolling motor died so I came home with these 10 which is plenty for lunch for the 2 of us. I guess about half of them had roe I saved.

 I saw one osprey in a tree and twice I saw what I am sure is the same adult bald eagle. The last time he flew off his perch carrying a fish. I saw several big blue herons, lots of geese, several anhingas, and one grumpy looking green heron on a log.

 It was windy at the landing and I was well pleased with the modifications to my side bunks on my trailer which forced the boat right into the center between the runners. That was time and material well spent.

 These guys above are in the skillet now so I better close.

   Yuumm. We had fried fresh fish, tater tots, baked beans, cole slaw and nuked plantains. I think there are 3 pieces of fish left after we ate our fill so I had about the right amount.

   I took the trash with the old fish bones to the garbage then went to check on the trolling motor. I was afraid it was going to take major repairs or maybe a total replacement but once i turned the switch back to the On position it worked fine. I evidently bumped it while freeing my fuzzy ant fly from a piece of tie rope left on the boat and moved the switch to the off position. ::)

  I plugged my battery in to recharge and repaired a small landing net we use for crappie and such. I have a much bigger one for catfishing needs. Now I should be set for my next trip.

Those were some nice gills.  We went out on the river a few days ago.  I caught a few small smallmouth and a bunch of small sunfish.
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So far this year has been a real bummer for me. Most of the days I could go fishing, it was raining. When I do get out, the fishing is slow for everyone at the lake I chose. Then last week, I had a rock takeout a taillight,  a U-bolt holding one end a bunk broke coming back and I had to leave the boat a friend of the wife till I can get it fixed. The tail end of the boat is sitting on a trailer rail, so going further was out of the question. Not an expensive fix but due to it being 1 1/2 hours from my place, a pain in the butt.

The good part of this is that I have been able to get out on the water some and my worst day of fishing is still better than my best day at work.  ;D

I'm going to go to Michigan next week to get a new to me canoe.  The White River is there and I'm going to stay a day and see if we can catch any brook trout.  My two boys and one of their friends are going with me.

Enjoy that time with the boys before you are reminded of the song "Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin.

Yes, a good song. Tough one to listen to in some ways, thinking back all that has happened since the first born was 1961. So many good times, yet so many missed opportunities.. too busy. 

Harry Chapin - Cat's In The Cradle with lyrics - Music & Lyrics - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrHqAQQfNwA&t=1s)

The Doc caught this speckled sea trout this afternoon.  She says she caught it but let me hold it, clean it and cook it.   :D

The fishing is beginning to pick up a bit. 


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Yeah, my oldest is 16, but can't borrow the car keys yet, because he hasn't taken his driving test yet.  Maybe i'm preventing him from doing that to delay his growing up.  No, not really.

 
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EDIT/ADDITION: You can just barely see the top of Abbie's head in this pix to help see how close we were to the young eagle.

Our #2 GD (15 Y/O) is spending a couple nights with us so I took her to the local lake this afternoon to try to teach her how to fly fish. I had her set up with a rubber legged cork bug with about a #12 hook. I showed her how to make a back cast and keep the line in the air and how to place the bug so it landed last. She made a few casts and was still a long way from the bank but with the recent mayfly hatch the fish are feeding further out under the trees hanging over the lake. Suddenly she looked up and said "There's a bird" and I saw a big swirl where her bug had been floating so I yelled at her she had a fish on. She did everything she could to lose him but it would have taken a proctologist to get the bug out of the bluegill so he wasn't going anywhere. I got him off and in the live well and got her line back out then looked up and she said "Look at the bird", I looked up and this young bald eagle was sitting on the dead tree just above the water level watching us and about 10-15 yards away. I snapped a couple of quick pictures and we eased away using the electric trolling motor. The eagle never moved. I don't know if it hatched in February or February of last year. I almost think last year because the feet are yellow and I think newly hatched eagles have black feet and beaks. It will be a couple more years before this guy starts to get a white head and tail and is the reason so many people around here do not recognize them as eagles and think they are a big hawk, a buzzard or sometimes they think they are golden eagles.

It was pretty windy and we had lots of boat traffic and Abbie was not enjoying the flyrod too much so I decided to move up the lake to a more secluded spot and fish with worms. I'd left home without my night crawlers so I stopped at a local bait shop and Greg saw me and immediately said "I owe you some money.' That is always good to hear. He sells plants and such and I'd left him a couple of raised bed planters and he sold them yesterday. He paid me and I bought a dozen night crawlers.

 We motored up the lake to a cut-off from the main river and fished a few hours. Most were too small to keep but we did catch and keep the 19 below which included one little catfish Abbie caught and even one small bass I kept. This will make 2-3 good feeds for us and I had a great time on the lake with my granddaughter. She caught most of these. We found one good spot by a fallen tree. I'd position the boat, she'd land a decent bluegill and we'd drift away while I removed it then I'd reposition us and she catch another and we'd repeat. I guess she caught 6-8 nice bluegills in that one spot. She was using a 10' fiberglass pole so even a hand sized bluegill felt like a monster.

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Caught 8 or 10 smaller gray trout aka weakfish this afternoon.  The limit is one 14" or longer.   This one counts!


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It was 100 deg today, but we went out on Lake Taneycomo today with my dad.  With the water temp being about 50deg it didn't feel like 100.  It still felt hot.  We caught a few, but not a lot.  Sean caught a big one on his second cast and then nothing else.  I caught this one and another not as big.  Dad had a really nice one on, but it went on a drag pulling run, jumped and threw the lure.  He caught a couple smaller ones.  

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>
Got this one today.  52 inches long, somewhere between 50lbs and 60 lbs.  Late August fishing starts to see schooling and heavily feeding fish, and today was a good day.  A bunch of topwater bass, a few deeper, and this beastie.  All were released to have as good a day as I had.

Here's a short 60 second video of me catching it, I filmed it with my iPhone in one hand while fighting the fish with the other.  So it's kind or jumpy.

Epic Catfish on Secret Bait at Guntersville Lake - YouTube (https://youtube.com/shorts/kKa-0i__-fI)

Wow! That looked fun!!!

That's a line stretcher!  Nice catch!

 
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Grandson pulled this 54 pounder in yesterday.  

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It's one of 5 fish that weighed a total of 201 pounds.  A good day.

Awesome pictures!

Lynn.

   How are they fishing? Trotlines, limblines, jug-fishing, noodling or rod and reel? Nice fish there!

Mississippi River trot lines.  He said that it was the best trip that they have ever had.  They regularly catch fish and big ones, just not that many.  I think that I am seeing more than one species from the looks of their tails.

It's amazing how good those fillets are.  My original thought was that they would be strong but not so.  

EDIT:  He just sent me a message saying that they were White and Blue cats.

Those were nice ones.  

I caught mine on 14 lb line, and I follow Ray Scott's example of landing nets are strictly forbidden in my boat.  So I got to hand land this big one.  

With my live sonar I can "see" underwater and this particular stump is on a river ledge and had a big school of shad and a few bass on it.  I had thought I had imaged a catfish but I couldn't tell for sure, it might have been a drum.

Either way, it was a lot of fun, and I have talked to more than a few of the big time tournament cat fishermen who travel to these parts to know there are a good number of 80 pounders in these waters.  As much as I'd hate to admit it, I may have to try a little more of this.  

I'm not much of a fish eater, except snapper, so this guy had a free pass to go home.  

Snapper is near the top of my menu.  As much as some people like to toss them back, I really love bass (my favorite freshwater fish).  I'd eat fish everyday if it was still an option.  I don't get to fish as much as I used to.  That was quite some catfish.  MM's people landed some good ones too.   Cold fish for breakfast is one of my favorite leftovers.  

If catfish jumped a little .... I wouldn't leave 'em alone.  They kind of fight like a sluggish shark with a lot of head shaking, a few runs, and a mouth full of teeth.  

My three biggest catfish have all come the exact same way.  Fishing artificials on deep stumps covered with schools of shad or other baitfish.

My fourth biggest, an 18 lb flathead was caught on a deep spinner bait during a night bass tournament.

I can't to eat flathead or yellow cats.  I grilled fillets off one once, and the meat was soft, mushy and mud yellow.  After a couple bites, I tossed the meat back into the river and grilled burgers.

I like channel cat, but flatheads tastes like a big, muddy, cotton ball.  No bueno.  

 



 

The flesh from these is pure white.  Quite often I will carry a cold filet sandwich to the sawmill for my noon lunch.

Local treatment for big cat fish out of the rivers here is to put them in a clean stock tank for a few days and let clean water run in at a trickle to get the muddy taste out.  I think it helps, probably much easier if you have livestock. I had a friend use an old bathtub the same way, worked well until the raccoons found out ....

some big fish!

I just "caught" this thread. Great reading last night! Tight lines everyone 8)

Robert,

   I don't know what is up with your flathead catfish. We greatly prefer them to channel or blue cats. They won't hit anything but a live bait while a blue or channel will eat a bait that would make a buzzard puke. I had a dead bream on a bush hook on a cypress limb in the Flint River near Albany Ga that was absolutely fuzzy and stinking so bad I decided to just let it fall off and left it on there 2-3 more days then came by one morning and a 7 lb channel cat was on the line and beating the limb in the water. A flathead would never have eaten that bait.

That is a great "line" oh WOC!

@tule peak timber (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=25190) you always seem to get "reel" when it counts.  "eye let" you make these puns since I hate to be a "drag".  What I myself, felt I meant, ("monofilament") was I thought I might take a "pole" without "baiting" anyone, is what kind a car does you all like to "rod" in?   :D :D :D smile_banjoman

Doc, you really have the "lines" this morning. Very hard to "catch" up with you. You're really fishing for laughs. I guess I'll have to settle for catsup on my fried potatoes at lunch. 

WV,
I have no idea why the flatheads I've caught or tried taste so bad and the meat looks worse.  I've tried them more than once, and the fillets come off the fish with a distinctive mud yellow color, like a Manila envelope, and have an unmistakable odor.  I keep hearing about how good they are, but even Martha remembers the "river" incident and she wouldn't even touch the meat, said it stank up the grill.

At first I thought maybe all big catfish tasted like mud, but I've caught a few smaller channel cats in the 5 lbs range that had white flesh, like in a restaurant, and were good to eat.  I've even raised some in my pond that were good.  The only big cats I ever catch are flatheads, mainly because they take lures and the very few I've cleaned were just big blobs of soft yellow meat.

After the river incident, years later, I caught another one and started to fillet it, and as soon as my knife hit the meat, all I saw was yellow.  I hate to say it, my stomach flipped, but I finished cleaning it anyway and gave it to my brother in law.  I don't eat yellow chicken and I sure ain't gonna eat yellow fish.

I'd be interested to see what color meat your flatheads have straight out of the river?  We have lots of shad here, maybe that's why the fish stink.  I know the one I released the other day, I assume a blue cat, pooped all over my boat, definitely "Ode de Shad" and it stank so bad, I had to pressure wash the boat when I got home.  Even the house cats were throwing up when they smelled it.  The funny thing was I was having a bad day the next day and even texted customsawyer (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1861) to whine a little bit and said something like "and why do I still smell like catfish!!??, I can't get this slimy stink off me!"

One of life's mysteries I guess.  

This may answer some of the questions:  Flathead Catfish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flathead_catfish)

Impressive cat fishing going on!   

When we keep catfish we only keep blues.  I, too, find other species either muddy or strong tasting.  

Hannah Barron would be proud 

Robert,

I wonder how the channel and blue catfish caught in the same areas compare to the flatheads you are describing? Our flatheads here typically have a very pink to reddish flesh. I get 4 fillets off each plus the cheeks off the heads. I skin the fish, rip the belly open and gut them then cut the belly off first one then the other side then I fillet the sides off. I have a dear friend I usually save the belly fillets for off any fish over about 15 lbs as he loves them. I slice them into about 1/2-3/4 inch thick fingers and fry them brown in a seasoned corn meal/flour coating and fry them brown in corn oil. We are particular about undercooked fish so make sure the cooked flesh is firm.

I saw in the article from MM the flesh is one of the preferred catfish so again I wonder what your fish are eating and the conditions where yours are raised. I have never seen any yellow fillets off any of my fish. The flatheads are pink and the blue or channel are white although the belly fillets on channel or blues may have a little thin black lining.

I thought it was interesting in the article about the flatheads not being a good candidate for aquaculture because they are so cannibalistic. My son once pulled up a 5 lb flathead that was skinned by the larger flathead who had swallowed it. I don't know how big that one was but I want him! He fought real hard then spit out the 5 lber. He was never hooked - just holding the other fish in his mouth/belly.

EDIT/ADD:-ON:

I have friends who said they fried some bone-in flathead catfish steaks that had a strong taste but I have always filleted them and I see from your earlier post you mention fillets so the presence of the backbone should not be a factor.

 When I was a kid we never filleted the catfish we caught. I remember Dad freezing and taking some to our local butcher to cut into steaks on his band saw. They cooked easily and the bone popped right out. When I moved here and started catching much larger fish I started filleting them to save freezer space and I still wonder why we never filleted them earlier as it is not that hard to do.

That flatheads I've tried to eat were generally from impoundment on the Tennessee river, such as Guntersville, Elk River, Wheeler.

They are always put in live wells and cleaned immediately.  

I have been doing some reading today that yellow meat in catfish is fatty, and has a strong taste, and I watched a couple videos where they said to cut all the yellow meat off catfish because it tasted muddy.

Some of the videos showed very white meat, and definitely not what I've seen.  Maybe or Alabama flatheads are just fat and so have a yellow meat.

Robert,

  Yeah that is real different than the color of the meat off our flatheads. It sounds like where you've caught them has plenty of fresh running water and not stagnant so that should not be the cause. Our flathead fillets are never white like the channel or blues and always have a pretty pink color. Are the channel and blue cats from the same area good eating?

  Dad said one time he stayed at a fish camp at the mouth of the Suwannee River and put out bush hooks and Mom was with him on that trip. He said the catfish they caught (all blue or channel) were very fat and Mom complained about that but he could not figure a way to just catch the skinny ones.

EDIT/Add-on:


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These are flathead fillets on top from a recent catch.

I've cleaned bass, specks and even some channel catfish that had an orange tint to their flesh.  These fish came out of really tanic water from the Withlacoochee River or barrow pits in the Green Swamp.  The fish tasted like they should have, good.  The skin on the bass and specks was almost black.

I've used lemon juice and toothpaste to try to get some fishy smells of my hands. The slime of the sail cats (saltwater species) is the snottiest, nastiest slime of any fish I've ever encountered.  Tarpon and sharks will eat them-everything is bait. 

The Grandson and his buddies went back to The River yesterday:

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The largest in the center weighed 62 pounds.  The other two were in the 40's.

I just read in the "Trappers Post" magazine about a beaver trapper who skins out beaver tails to sell the tail skin to be tanned. He also cuts the fatty grisle into small pieces to use as ice-fishing bait on jigs.  Any of you guys ever heard of this? I wonder if catfish would go for it. 

   I am fishing for Flatheads and they will not bite anything but a live bait so beaver tail is out for me. I catch channel and a few blue cats as they like live bait too and they might bite it.

    I have seen Tom Oar on the Mountain Man TV series make knife sheaths out of beaver tail skin but I had never heard of any other use for it.

Video of skinning out a beaver tail.
Beaver Tail to Beaver Leather, How To. - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpl2H2KUGn8)

Once in a while, when I want to learn a new area, I hire a guide or book a charter. 

Yesterday we learned about the lower Neuse River and mouth to the sound.  

Our target was big drum.  It wasn't meant to be so we fished for sea trout and "puppy" drum (NC vernacular for slot limit drum). 
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The trout were 16-19".  The drum, on top, was 20" of so.  

Fished today, caught nada, zero, zip...but enjoyed the day until we were caught in a storm.  

We found a dock on a creek off of South River, tied up and waited under a vacation cottage until the storm passed.

The run across the river was 6 miles.  We made it back before the next storm hit but it was a cool ride. 

It poured rain until we got to our condo. 

Got away to the coast for three days of Speckled Trout fishing with two cousins I've not seen in many years.  We are all within 18 months in age.  

It took awhile to find some fish.  Once we did there was nonstop catching!   We caught 300 fish in 3 days.  Only thing is 270 were shorts.  


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I took dad to a creek I've been to before, but a spot I hadn't gone to before.  At first it looked like we wouldn't catch anything.  Then dad had something on and lost it.  A moment later I had something on and landed it.  It was about a 15" Rainbow.  Dad caught one a little smaller.  I ended up catching 3 more.  All of the fish were caught in the same pool.  We didn't find anything anywhere else.  Dad was not able to walk in the creek very well and was very winded when we walked back to the truck.  I suspect that will be the last time I will take dad stream fishing.  I'm glad we went though.

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Nice!

My long-time teaching partner retired last year.  He guides fishing trips at an exclusive resort and fishes recreationally on most of his days off.  He has been asking me to go with him most days this week to fish for specks.  They smashed them earlier in the week.  Today we went to a different lake than they have been fishing.  We caught a good mess, but we did not murdercate them.  We will have fish for supper tomorrow night.

I walked out of the house this morning wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.  It was comfortable and I even ran the AC in the truck on the way to the ramp.  It was cloudy and foggy for a good portion of the day, but we had to put on our sunglasses around 10 or 11.  The ski boats and the skiers were annoying, but the water was 70° so we really could not blame them for being out there jumping off the ramp, running the slalom course or working on their tricks.  

We caught a lot of bass, but this lake has historically had a bunch of small bass.  The ones we caught today, roughly 20, were too skinny to mess with.  I only brought one home for supper.  

The lake we fished today used to have only a few houses and a citrus grove around it.  This morning I got lost and wound up at a Publix supermarket when trying to get to the lake.  I have fished and hunted here for over 35 years.  I put the ramp into my phone's map app and was able to find the lake.  There are now warehouses, apartments, houses and so many other changes that it was like I was in a foreign land.

I do not know where the money and people are coming from, but I don't consider it progress.  
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That's a nice mess of "specks".  Sweet!

I did not get to go on this trip.  My son in law took my grandson on a couple of hour long walk into the swamp (it is much drier than normal for this time of the year) to a pond he found at the headwaters of the Hillsborough River.  They fished for a while and caught some bluegills, a speck and a good bass.  My SIL said a big mudfish kept trying to eat the fish on the stringer.  He had to make a fence with small logs in the water to keep it away from them. 

I am glad they had the opportunity to get out in the woods together.   

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    Great picture but I guess you know very few of us here on the Forum are "cultured" enough to know what a mudfish is.  ;) :D

I've got a couple of good SIL's, but this one went way up on the list.  Taking a four-year-old on a several hour hike to catch fish, knowing he'll be carrying him out on his shoulders is commendable.  I've hunted this area years ago, but I did not find this water hole.  I hope to be able to go in there with them one of these days. 

We are quite a bit drier than most years, so it is a bit easier to access this spot.  I need to get another picture from my SIL, some of those cypress knees were nearly 4' tall. 

So, what-the-heck is a mudfish?

Looking at the area, I'd guess some big fat catfish?

Locally a mudfish is an species of small galaxid. It's called a Mudfish because it's one of those "water optional" fish. It lives in swampy areas, and if things get a bit dry it wriggles into the mud under an old log, and just waits for it to rain. Totally unrelated to this thread, but one of those interesting "did you know" sort of asides.

Brown mudfish: NZ native fish (https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/freshwater-fish/mudfish/brown-mudfish/)

Here 600 miles from mr caveman, a mudfish is a Bowfin. 

Ted is right.  A mudfish is a bowfin.  I never have been hungry enough to eat one.  I used to catch them when fishing for something else, usually bass or panfish.  I'd smack them with a paddle and hang them by their gills on nearby cypress knees.  They are aggressive and will readily eat other fish, cut bait and about anything else.

Bowfin are aggressive and eat about anything that moves in the water and some stuff that doesn't.   It doesn't take much effort to hook a hungry one.  Here they get 15 pounds of so.  They have a swim bladder that allows them to breathe air out of water. 

Some people think they have caught a snakehead when they catch a bowfin.  In northern areas where burbot or eelpout are common bowfin get confused with them too.

They do look a bit weird, prehistoric and are related to gar. 

https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/bowfin-vs-snakehead/?amp

 There are few disappointments in life as great as thinking you've finally got that 10 lb walleye that will give you great esteem among your fishing buddies, only to pull an 8 lb bowfin (dogfish as they ate known here) out of the dark water. I could hear every fisherman on the lake groan over that one 😂

One of my buddies was getting into snorkeling a bit, and one lake he went to there was a dogfish that he got to know a little bit. Every time he went snorkeling at this spot, that dogfish would come greet him and follow him around. It seemed to have enough intelligence or curiosity to want to know what he was up to🙂

I wouldn't know how to tell Eelpout (burbot) and bowfin apart without looking at pictures or something, they both ugly in the same way. Eelpout is good eating though, at least in part. I've only tried it once, much of the flesh is mush but the tail is very firm, white meat. I would compare it to the cheek meat of a walleye, if anyone has tried that. Firm, somewhat chewy without the grain that most fish meat has.

 I never did document our trip out West this past fall, but one highlight was getting our son out for a bit of fly fishing.

I don't know why I love fly fishing so much, it would be a heck of a lot easier to catch fish with an ultralight and spinners, but it's just not the same.

It can be pretty frustrating, with fly line tangled in sticks and willows, back casts in the willows, that kind of stuff. But one evening, we found a gem of a beaver pond at the head of the Wind River up by Togwotee Pass.


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They weren't big. At all🙂 But that first trout on the fly is a milestone, no matter the size-


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We ended the evening by getting into some native cutthroat. Again, not big (trout especially look bigger when you catch them, and then shrink for pictures😁) The trout were feeding aggressively, we were having a blast!

 
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I was born in Sheridan, Wyoming. My Mom's side of the family is all out there, and I got to spend a lot of time out there as a kid. Part of my heart has always been in the West, I almost moved out to work for my Aunt and Uncle when I was 19. If I would've, I doubt I would've ever came back. I love Minnesota too, but fishing mountain streams, the big game hunting, the beautiful mountain views...it gets in you!

 
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    Dad grew up in central Fla around the Suwannee River and down there they called them mudfish so I knew what Cavey was talking about. Where I grew up in N. Fla people called them a Cottonfish because they were supposed to taste like cotton. Over in Mississippi and Louisiana I think the the Cajuns and such call them Cypress Bass or Choupique (Shoe-Pick). Most people considered them trash fish because they were very bony and lived in pretty stagnant water where more desirable fish can't live. I have heard of people grinding them up to make fish balls out of them. During the depression and such Dad said people would eat them or anything else they could get.

   My old mentor told the tale of high water flooding a field and when the water went down a bunch of fish were stranded in a low spot. The neighbors got together and met up with hoes and rakes and some poultry netting and such and they muddied the water to make the fish come to the surface and they seined them out. They got a lot of bream, a few catfish and bass and one big Bowfin. There was a preacher in the group who was new to the area and he kept bragging about how pretty the bowfin was. They made equal piles of the fish and drew names to see who got which pile but set it up so the preacher would get the bowfin. When he got it he was so excited but they said later on when he cooked it and tried to eat it the longer he chewed the bigger it got. When he got done he looked around and told the folks around him and said "Well, when I read the story in the Bible about how the Lord fed the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fishes I wondered what kind of fish he fed them but now I know."

I used to love mountain trout fishing.   A good number of our streams in NC are hatchery supported/stocked streams.   Even here in Stokes County we have a "put and take" section of the Dan River. 

It wasn't unusual to leave after teaching school and fish the river until dark.  Many a limit of trout came home with me On those afternoons. 

Often my wife's 70 something uncle was my fishing partner.   

On one occasion he wanted to fish Price Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway on opening day of trout season.  We got up early and drove the 2 1/2 hours west to be there when legal fishing hours started.

It was cold and spitting snow and sleet. But we caught fish.  Uncle Drexel caught his limit first.  He was cold and headed back without his stringer.  I was another half hour finishing off my limit. 

So as I was walking out to the truck, I met two game wardens.   Of course h was carrying two stringers of 7 fish each.  They did what they do, detained me, questioned me and fortunately listened to my story. 

One walked back to my truck to verify my story.  The officer spoke to Drexel who sitting in MY truck.  Drexel looked me up and down and told the officer he had no idea who was! 

They both turned and looked at me the both burst out laughing.   Apparently Drexel knew the guy and they set me up perfectly.  They said the look on my face was priceless!  :D

PatD and I set a couple of trotlines out in the Mississippi River backwater and after we finished baiting the 2nd line we ran the first line.  Wow, about a 10-12lb Channel cat so we knew that we were in for action.  When we went back to run and pull the lines we could see the lines tightening and jerking. 

Both lines were loaded with Bowfins, except we called them Jack Grinnels.  No catfish.  Surely someone would want them so we started stopping at houses.  ::)  I was thinking that we would have to put them under our corn seed when we planted like the Indians did, but we finally found a taker.  We later found out that no one leaves the river with Jack fish.

Lynn,

   I assume what you are calling Jackfish is a Chain pickerel. Is that the case where you live or are you calling a bowfin a Jackfish?

   At least that is what we called chain pickerel in N. Fla.. I always thought they were fairly tasty except they were very bony. Bowfin are like possums IMHO - times ain't got bad enough I ever tried to eat one.

   I caught one in a big gravel borrow pit one time because it kept tail-walking like a bass and I thought it had a broken off lure in its jaw it was trying to throw. It was exhausted and sculled over and scooped it up with my landing net. Turned out it had about a 1 lb crappie hung in its throat and could not swallow it nor could it spit it out with the fins spread like they were.

I referred to the Jack Grinnel (Bowfin) as a Jack fish.  I have no idea where the "Jack" came from, local I guess.

There are many names: Bowfin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowfin)

    Yeah it is funny the different local names people have for the same fish and a bowfin has about as many as I can think of. Where I grew up a crappie was called a chinquapin. I never heard them called that anywhere else. Further South in central Fla in Caveman country they call them Specks which I think is short for speckled perch. Where I was raised a Speck was a speckled trout from the Gulf.

    We used to fish with bush hooks on the Suwannee River in central Fla for catfish and Dad used shrimp for bait. If we ran out of shrimp he'd buy mullet and we'd use it for cut bait. We'd catch catfish but also a lot of what we considered trash fish like bowfin (Mudfish there), gars, eels and turtles. We caught more trash fish with mullet than shrimp but maybe more catfish if the truth be told. Dad found out about using soap (Camay or Ivory) and only channel catfish and blue cats would bite that and no more "trash" fish so he was hooked on soap after that. I won't use soap here as I also would not catch flathead catfish on it as they want a live bait and are my preferred catch.

   I put some bush hooks (limblines) out in the headwaters of the New River in Jacksonville NC and was running them in my canoe. The water was up and I was mostly fishing the back water. I started with mullet and caught lots of catfish and trash fish. I'd keep a trash fish every day and cut it up and use it for the next days bait and it worked as well as the mullet.

    We never ate them but the meat off the eels was a pretty as any channel cat and I'd cut a gar open at the belly, cut the ribs to expose the backstrap which was a long boneless roll of meat as pretty a chink of meat as I ever saw and I'd use that for bait so my fishing was self sustaining. That worked good till either I ran out of freezer space or the water went back down to normal levels. I'd catch a few fish then but nothing like in the backwaters. I remember when the water went down I'd have to get out of my canoe and walk up on the bank and untie/retrieve lines that I had caught fish on the day before.

    We had a fish fry here yesterday for the retired teachers group my wife worked with and had a great meal and a good time. Everybody took a take-out box (Clamshell) full of fish and grits home and I should finish the leftovers at lunch today.

Another is the "Freshwater Drum".  We call it a: Gasper Goo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_drum)

Here they are considered a trash fish.  We slice the top of their heads open and get the rocks out. 

Freshwater Drum are called sheephead around here

Freshwater drum were once common in the rivers of SW NC.  There's only one indigenous population left in the French Broad River IIRC.  The Wildlife Commission has a plan to restock several of those rivers.

The Dan River and Kerr Lake on the Virginia boarder has a population where some big ones are caught.  Those are non-native fish.  I'm not sure what that means - introduced or stocked.

The record here is 22 pounds.   

It was a long grind today to catch a mess of specks and a few bass.  The biggest speck was 2 lbs and the bass was a touch over 4 lbs.  The weather was perfect, and I really enjoyed spending time with one of my good friends.  We will enjoy some fish and grits either tonight or tomorrow. 
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That's Interstate-4 and an Amazon warehouse in the background of the top picture (male speck).  Not too many years ago all of the land around this lake that was not swamp was citrus groves.

Glad you are getting some "speck therapy'.

I went speck fishing with a friend and his son this afternoon after the rain stopped.  We caught a good mess but did not murdercate them.  We did catch a few mudfish and no bass while filling the livewell.

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We ate some fried fish that we caught Tuesday tonight.  Bass are my favorite freshwater fish, but the specks we had tonight were about the best I've ever eaten.  I hope to be retired this time next year.  If so and my health holds, there will be some fish in trouble.  This is a lake that JMoore and I have fished since we were kids.  A huge development is going in on the south and west sides of this mostly secluded lake.   Things are changing here rapidly.  I don't know where all the folks are coming from, but they sure keep coming.

Spent some of the Forum downtime at Santee SC on Lake Marion.

These catfish are from Thursday.  The big guys didn't show themselves.  These are 8-22 pounds.


My cousin is holding the 22 pounder he caught.  I'm in the background in the other photo - on the boat.

That makes sense, Ted.  If you only caught the small fish, you should be in the background! :o ;D :)

JMoore painted a trailer we built for him and his family at my place this morning.  A couple of my other friends called and asked I wanted to go with them this afternoon to go try to catch a few fish.  John was invited but his honey do list was lengthy.

I met my neighbor at his place at noon.  We head the 10 miles or so to the boat ramp, which is 1/8 mile from the Detroit Tigers winter ballpark.  They were having a 1 o'clock game today so we spent quite a bit of time getting form his place to the ramp.  I think they were playing the Braves, which is always a big fan draw.

We started slow, catching an occasional shellcracker or bluegill out of the lilly pads.  We had crickets, jumpers (freshwater shrimp) and worms for bait.  We caught a few big (5 lbs or more) Tilapia, which we call Nile Perch and a bass or two.  Later, probably around 4 o'clock we started getting after some big bluegill and a few shellcrackers.  I did not take any pictures.  The fish are on ice and we'll clean them in the morning. 

The sky was blue, and the air was hot, close to 90 degrees.  I have a fresh red neck.  We had a lot of fun as we always do when we are fiddle fart fishing.  I used a bamboo pole I've had since the early 90's, which my friends ragged me a bit about, but it put a lot of fish in the boat today. 

Today was also the first time that I've ever fished out of a pontoon boat.  That thing was like fishing off of a mobile bridge or pier. One of my friends who was among us today guides bass trips at a local resort.  He usually fishes on his days off too.  On the corporate trips he guides that have more than two guests, he uses a pontoon boat.  He's been telling me for months how convenient they are to fish out of when he has several guests/clients.  I suggested that we strap a 10-12 step ladder on the deck and shoot Nile Perch with our bows from the top of the ladder.
Amended the post.  A picture before we cleaned them this morning.
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