fishing reports

[Troubles Trees]

Haven’t been on in awhile, life’s been busy! I have a friend with a camp on Skaneateles lake so we fish every weekend. He’s certified to teach scuba diving and has a few sets of tanks. What a trip that is
Anyway, although that lake is well known for Lake Trout, it’s also one of the few large bodies of water that doesn’t have a native baitfish population. The only food for predator fish are rock bass and perch, no bluegill, sunfish or crappy similar to local waters for some reason. The DEC deemed Walleye there to be an “invasive species” (despite walleye being in most large lakes around here) so there’s no bag limit and since nobody fishes for them, the walleye are now plentiful and getting big. On average we pull in 5-6 fish in a 4-5 hour window. Average size is 20-22” and the biggest I caught last weekend at 28 1/2”. We cut open every stomach to see what it’s eating and so far this year out of 40-50 walleye, only 1 had a small rock bass in the stomach. Odd.
We troll worm harnesses and occasionally a Rapala or 2 for surface fish.

This was the 28 1/2”er

 

[Bill]

Good luck! What's the target?

Yellow Fin. No signal out there so I'm just seeing this. We didn't do great but didn't get skunked.

 

[Bill]

Good luck! Does the boat have sleeping? Or just going to fish all night?

It has a little mini sleeper mattress down below in the bow. But that's covered in tackle and clothes, water, food etc. bean bag chairs on the deck or in the helm for a nap.. we take turns.

 

[Bill]

I have a friend with a camp on Skaneateles lake

Never fished Skaneateles. But as a kid my uncle took me to fish Cayuga one night with his buddy's. I remember we caught some large small mouth bass on the troll and they drank a lot of Budweiser . I was a kid maybe the bass weren't so big. But a lot of Budweiser is accurate...

 

[Bill]

Here something I've never seen. After dark we just float baits and drift waiting for twilight in the morning. At night the squid come up to feed. That I've seen. We saw 100's of thousands. So many that my depth finder thought they were the bottom.

Accurate 328 feet deep.



Thinking the squid were the bottom.



Two tone dolphin were smashing them all around the boat. It was really a sight to see.

 

[goatman]

Overnight trip. Couldn't keep lingcod or yelloweye rockfish.

 

[Catscratch]

I'm so jealous of you guys right now!

 

[Mortenson]

Dang. I've never fished like some of you guys have fished. So awesome.

Chris walked home with some keeper creek chubs this afternoon. Fried up they're really good. I wanted to smoke them since the smoker hadn't been fully cleaned after the 4th's meal... maybe next time.

 

[T-Max]

Dang. I've never fished like some of you guys have fished. So awesome.

Chris walked home with some keeper creek chubs this afternoon. Fried up they're really good. I wanted to smoke them since the smoker hadn't been fully cleaned after the 4th's meal... maybe next time.

View attachment 66034View attachment 66035

Tell me more about cooking creek chubs. Bought buckets of them! Never kept a single one…


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[ruskbucks]

Tell me more about cooking creek chubs. Bought buckets of them! Never kept a single one…


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My kid saw some video on line about eating them. We get some decent size ones while fishing for trout. He wanted to try some. I have to say.they.were actually really good.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

Do you just fillet the creek chubs and fry them up or do they have a bunch of bones that need to be picked out of the fillets?

My grandma used to talk about catching and eating chubs from a small creek near her house in the 1930's. I just figured meat was hard to come by so they ate anything, but she claimed they were very good. I've never tried them myself, but maybe I should sometime.

 

[Mortenson]

We just take the head and guts off and then bread and fry them. The really big ones have bones bigger than I care to eat, but anything smaller chews up fine, eat it all. The closest thing I think they compare to is a crappie.

 

[T-Max]

We just take the head and guts off and then bread and fry them. The really big ones have bones bigger than I care to eat, but anything smaller chews up fine, eat it all. The closest thing I think they compare to is a crappie.

View attachment 66080

Yeah, I’m trying that.


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[ruskbucks]

Do you just fillet the creek chubs and fry them up or do they have a bunch of bones that need to be picked out of the fillets?

My grandma used to talk about catching and eating chubs from a small creek near her house in the 1930's. I just figured meat was hard to come by so they ate anything, but she claimed they were very good. I've never tried them myself, but maybe I should sometime.

I did the same gut, scale and cut the head off. We didn't have a breading so we just pan fried them in butter. After they were cooked we were able to pull the meat away from the bones. I was surprised how good they were. Catching them from a cold stream probably helped with that.

 

[Mortenson]

I did the same gut, scale and cut the head off. We didn't have a breading so we just pan fried them in butter. After they were cooked we were able to pull the meat away from the bones. I was surprised how good they were. Catching them from a cold stream probably helped with that.

Yes make sure to scale them. I forgot to say that. I saw an article recently where they breaded bluegills in pancake mix before frying. I might try that for something different.

 

[Catscratch]

The kid caught this one yesterday. Size 12 shoe for reference.

 

[Bill]

The kid caught this one yesterday. Size 12 shoe for reference.
View attachment 67010

Small feet?

That's a big bass..

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Daughter’s first trip to Lake Michigan!!


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[Ben.MN/WI]

That's a huge salmon. I'm guessing smoked salmon will be served often at your house this year.

 

[Bill]

That is a big fish!