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fishing reports

matinc said:
Bill bluegill are excellent table fair. Second would be perch for freshwater. That said once you get above 9 inches you really have to worry about pfas.
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I can’t eat tuna in a restaurant any longer. Can’t even buy it at the store and cook it. I suspect many fish are the same. Once you’ve had it the day it swam you’re ruined.

Tile fish are becoming my favorite salt water fish so far. Ate some last week that we caught in August and vacuum sealed. Still good. Tuna only lasts 4 months sealed.
 
Bill said:
I can’t eat tuna in a restaurant any longer. Can’t even buy it at the store and cook it. I suspect many fish are the same. Once you’ve had it the day it swam you’re ruined.

Tile fish are becoming my favorite salt water fish so far. Ate some last week that we caught in August and vacuum sealed. Still good. Tuna only lasts 4 months sealed.
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My opinion, of course - people are often talking about what is the best tasting freshwater fish - is it walleye, crappie, catfish, etc. There are many saltwater fish better than the best tasting freshwater fish😎
 
SwampCat said:
My opinion, of course - people are often talking about what is the best tasting freshwater fish - is it walleye, crappie, catfish, etc. There are many saltwater fish better than the best tasting freshwater fish😎
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Most of the freshwater fish in the perch and sunfish families aren't significantly different on flavor or texture. When I did a side by side test, yellow perch won for flavor.

I also prefer saltwater fish, but it's about $100 per box to take it with me. Cod and halibut are my favorites, followed by haddock and pollock.

In a side by side taste test, I preferred rainbow trout over Atlantic salmon. I don't buy salmon anymore unless it's on sale.
 
I'll add that bass skin does have off flavors, so it's best to skin it, whereas you can scale perch.

Growing up, no one liked bass that much. I watched a CD that came with a filet knife my grandfather purchased, and it recommended skinning bass. It was a revelation. Now we generally prefer bass to walleye, so it's pretty much all we catch, also because they are much easier to catch than walleye, and the perch and rockbass have become hard to find due to the cormorants.
 
If I can't fillet it, I'd rather not eat it. No matter what it is. My brother took around 30 trout home from last weeks trip and said they were incredible. Just gutted them and pulled the gills (left the skin and heads on) then I vac packed them and we put them in ice.

I am planning a couple pompano trips the next few weekends and may actually keep some this year.
 
Redear sunfish are on beds, caught over 100 panfish today, mixed bag of redear and bluegills.
 
Last weekend I went to Port Saint Joe and fished Indian Pass, Cape San Blass, talked to others fishing in Mexico Beach and in PCB. In total I caught 1 pomp in Indian Pass and a good bit of Spanish and some blues off the pier in PCB.

This past weekend I went to Destin and absolutely wore out them and myself out. Fished from 5:30 to 4:30 and caught 60-70 pomps and gave a few to other guys that weren't catching them. I was not prepared so did not keep any for myself.



Caught a bunch of Spanish (80 plus) and give or take 40 lady fish.



Ate at the Shack in Ft. Walton and while it was great, Hunts in PC last weekend was better.



I have come to the realization that I am getting to old to get up @ 4am, work until 4pm, prep everything, load up, go to dinner with the wife, then get to bed around 8pm so I can get up @ 11pm to make the drive, start fishing when I get there, fish nearly 12 hours, go check out some other places before going to the room, get cleaned up, go to dinner and get in bed at 10:30pm two weekends in a row. I set my alarm for 4am, but when I hurt to bad trying to roll over to hit snooze, I decided to turn it off.

Finally got up @ 5:30 but was hurting too bad so I just went to the Okaloosa Pier. Nobody was catching anything, me included, so I wrapped it up @ 8:30 and headed home. Still hurting today and trying to decide if I will do it one more time this coming weekend.
 
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Kdog said:
Last weekend I went to Port Saint Joe and fished Indian Pass, Cape San Blass, talked to others fishing in Mexico Beach and in PCB. In total I caught 1 pomp in Indian Pass and a good bit of Spanish and some blues off the pier in PCB.

This past weekend I went to Destin and absolutely wore out them and myself out. Fished from 5:30 to 4:30 and caught 60-70 pomps and gave a few to other guys that weren't catching them. I was not prepared so did not keep any for myself.



Caught a bunch of Spanish (80 plus) and give or take 40 lady fish.



Ate at the Shack in Ft. Walton and while it was great, Hunts in PC last weekend was better.



I have come to the realization that I am getting to old to get up @ 4am, work until 4pm, prep everything, load up, go to dinner with the wife, then get to bed around 8pm so I can get up @ 11pm to make the drive, start fishing when I get there, fish nearly 12 hours, go check out some other places before going to the room, get cleaned up, go to dinner and get in bed at 10:30pm two weekends in a row. I set my alarm for 4am, but when I hurt to bad trying to roll over to hit snooze, I decided to turn it off.

Finally got up @ 5:30 but was hurting too bad so I just went to the Okaloosa Pier. Nobody was catching anything, me included, so I wrapped it up @ 8:30 and headed home. Still hurting today and trying to decide if I will do it one more time this coming weekend.
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Great trip. What did you catch the pompano on.
 
All were caught on goofy jigs with teasers with a few coming on egg head jigs (didn't throw the egg head jigs that much). I am used to a slower bite and typically throw a double teaser rig, but after several doubles and one triple, I went with the standard single teaser rig. I really do not think color matters but I caught most on a pink/orange or orange/pink combo with a pink/chartreuse or orange/chartreuse not far behind.
 
There are still catfish in the Minnesota River. This was my first time out this year.

7193beb15c65b26f85cd9d0151e11e4a.jpg

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oh it’s starting. My son always sends me his first fish out in the stream behind his house.

A few more weeks our ocean opens…

IMG_7552.jpeg
 
It's been may years since I have fished, but my friend from deer camp, who is an inductee of the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, reached out to me this morning, and said now that I am retired, he wants to coach me in science and art of fly fishing ( which I have done, but with little success). Hopefully before long I'll be posting a few pictures of my own for this fishing reports thread.
 
This happens a couple times a year. Throw a bait up on a mat of floating vegetation and drag it to the edge of the vegetation, ease it off and let it sink down in the water. Vegetation like that in the background. The bigger gators usually spook when you get close - you often dont see them in the mats of vegetation - and they can scare the crap out of you and splash water on you. The little ones are often less concerned - laying hidden in the vegetation - until you unknowingly pull a bait - black and blue jig in this case - anywhere near them. These small one have a hard time laying off. I have even caught a few bullfrogs like this.

Much bigger than this one and you often lose your bait. Ones this size doesnt put up much of a fight once they are in open water. They dont seem to be too aggressive when you are trying to grab them - across the back of the neck. But once you get ahold of them, they go to writhing and twisting. Not that I did it with this one, but best to let someone else hold the rod so you can two hand them. I have broke quite a few off - but a lot of these new baits cost so much you hate to give them to the gators. Their jaw is tough and typically, you need a pair of pliers to dislodge the hook.

The small ones like this can be very aggressive around noise making baits - I often have to move to keep from catching them. This one was released - hopefully to be taken by an alligator hunter in the future. It was the only bite we had.

IMG_9854.jpeg
 
SwampCat said:
This happens a couple times a year. Throw a bait up on a mat of floating vegetation and drag it to the edge of the vegetation, ease it off and let it sink down in the water. Vegetation like that in the background. The bigger gators usually spook when you get close - you often dont see them in the mats of vegetation - and they can scare the crap out of you and splash water on you. The little ones are often less concerned - laying hidden in the vegetation - until you unknowingly pull a bait - black and blue jig in this case - anywhere near them. These small one have a hard time laying off. I have even caught a few bullfrogs like this.

Much bigger than this one and you often lose your bait. Ones this size doesnt put up much of a fight once they are in open water. They dont seem to be too aggressive when you are trying to grab them - across the back of the neck. But once you get ahold of them, they go to writhing and twisting. Not that I did it with this one, but best to let someone else hold the rod so you can two hand them. I have broke quite a few off - but a lot of these new baits cost so much you hate to give them to the gators. Their jaw is tough and typically, you need a pair of pliers to dislodge the hook.

The small ones like this can be very aggressive around noise making baits - I often have to move to keep from catching them. This one was released - hopefully to be taken by an alligator hunter in the future. It was the only bite we had.

View attachment 92266
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That an Xpress?
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
Spent hundreds of hours staring at that gunnel!
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Funny trivia tidbit about the gunnel. It's actually spelled gunwale, because it was a reinforcement for ships that carried guns. "Gunnel" is a female name in Swedish.

In the same vein, a bowline knot is pronounced "bo-lin", and there's at least half a dozen ways to tie it.

There are a lot of nautical terms that have preposterous spellings compared to their pronunciation in English. I learned most nautical terms, including knots, in Norwegian when I worked on the sea. I learned the English words from the internet, and I ended up mispronouncing a lot of them for a very long time. I said "gun whale" and "bow line" for years until my boat-builder uncle corrected me.
 
When in the BVI's I learned to splice the mainbrace and drink extra Pussers Painkillers.
 
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