fishing reports

No pictures unfortunately. I went out fishing mid morning after putting in a few hours at work on Saturday. The water was a bit cloudy and the trout were hungry. I was fishing a lower nondesignated stretch of a good trout stream. I caught small mouth bass, red horse, and brown trout. I usually catch a few brook trout out of there but didn't this time. Long story short, I walked down stream to where I usually start to fish and started to fish up. Fish were feeding well. I had several get off and also picked up a couple here and there as I moved up. I reached the nice hole that I usually turn around at and picked up a decent brown on the first cast. Made a few casts with nothing and then my rod bent over. I actually thought I had on a catfish or a walleye because the fish wouldnt come off of the bottom and I use a medium weight rod. The fish ended up being a 21" male brown. Next cast was another trout in the 10-12" range. Next cast again my rod bends over and a large trout erupts out of the water clearing its tail by a couple feet. It jumped a few more times but didnt put up as much as a fight as the big male did. Big female 23" right on the dot.

I figured that was enough for one day so I quickly released her and headed home with a big smile on my face.
 
bigbendmarine said:
Went out late April in hopes my favorite species to target had arrived, and thankfully it had! :emoji_slight_smile:

View attachment 13051

View attachment 13052

Fishing bud I took out on the same trip put this iridescent and toothy king on ice.

View attachment 13053

Also had this happen... check out the boil on the water a second or two after the goliath makes his first swipe at the small gag grouper. Wish camera had given the full view of the goliath that I had with my own eyes... it earned the "goliath" name.

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Nice Cobia!
 
A group of us went out again on Saturday night targeting catfish. Wind was really rough but we fought through it and landed over 50 cats. We kept a mess of the smaller ones (under 7 lbs) for the freezer. My wife actually landed the largest of the night, ~13 lbs and released.

I know that there are many that have never tried catfish or have had a bad experience with the taste. Preparation is the difference. Get them on ice in a cooler quickly after the catch. DO NOT use the pull the skin off with pliers method. Been there, done that. Instead fillet the fish and cut the skin off paying special attention to keeping the knife about an 1/8" above the skin. This will leave a great amount of the nasty red meat on the skin. Next cut out the remaining red "mud line" leaving you with two strips of clean white meat per fillet. I like to chunk these strips up into chicken nugget sized pieces. Soak chunks in milk for 24 hours before freezing. Use shore lunch cajun breading mix and fry them up. I prefer to pan fry over deep fry. You can tone down the heat a bit and add some crisp by using a 50/50 mix of shore lunch cajun and shore lunch cornmeal mix. I prefer to eat it as is without tartar sauce. No fishy taste whatsoever.
 
bueller said:
A group of us went out again on Saturday night targeting catfish. Wind was really rough but we fought through it and landed over 50 cats. We kept a mess of the smaller ones (under 7 lbs) for the freezer. My wife actually landed the largest of the night, ~13 lbs and released.

I know that there are many that have never tried catfish or have had a bad experience with the taste. Preparation is the difference. Get them on ice in a cooler quickly after the catch. DO NOT use the pull the skin off with pliers method. Been there, done that. Instead fillet the fish and cut the skin off paying special attention to keeping the knife about an 1/8" above the skin. This will leave a great amount of the nasty red meat on the skin. Next cut out the remaining red "mud line" leaving you with two strips of clean white meat per fillet. I like to chunk these strips up into chicken nugget sized pieces. Soak chunks in milk for 24 hours before freezing. Use shore lunch cajun breading mix and fry them up. I prefer to pan fry over deep fry. You can tone down the heat a bit and add some crisp by using a 50/50 mix of shore lunch cajun and shore lunch cornmeal mix. I prefer to eat it as is without tartar sauce. No fishy taste whatsoever.
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I would rather eat channel cat or flathead over bass (or most other fish for that matter)! I prep almost the exact same way you do, but I cut the tail off first and bleed them before cleaning. It's essential to get the red meat cut out. Great fishing trip you had, sounds like a blast!

Bigbend, I've only been fishing on the ocean twice. Once for halibut off the Oregon coast (Newport), and once for reef fish in the same area. I had a great time both times and wish I could go back. I have relation getting ready to move to Virginia, I wonder what the fishing is like there...
 
I am fortunate enough to live close to a large inland lake that has some really good fishing.
My youngest went out with a couple friends Wednesday evening after crappies and caught thirty plus nice keepers between 9"-13" in a little over an hour.

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My oldest is up on Lake St Clair right now and has been sending me pics like this all day;

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Put one of my friends on a few nice Florida bass tonight. :emoji_slight_smile:

072917 Joe Chen Bass 2.jpg

072917 Joe Chen Bass.jpg

After 3 years, finally decided to keep some of the smaller fish in the pond after noticing more smaller fish and some of the larger bass having relatively lean bellies in comparison to their large mouths. That said, if you'd told me as a boy growing up in the Carolinas that a mess of "smaller" fish in Florida looked like this, I'd have run away from home! :emoji_wink:

Nice Mess.jpg
 
You had a great evening on the pond! Good job
 
bigbendmarine said:
Put one of my friends on a few nice Florida bass tonight. :emoji_slight_smile:

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View attachment 14192

After 3 years, finally decided to keep some of the smaller fish in the pond after noticing more smaller fish and some of the larger bass having relatively lean bellies in comparison to their large mouths. That said, if you'd told me as a boy growing up in the Carolinas that a mess of "smaller" fish in Florida looked like this, I'd have run away from home! :emoji_wink:

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Looks like GREAT fishing! Also looks like your friend appreciated the trip. Good job.
 
bigbendmarine said:
That said, if you'd told me as a boy growing up in the Carolinas that a mess of "smaller" fish in Florida looked like this, I'd have run away from home!
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That's what I was thinking.... I would hate to see your BIG fish.

In Wisconsin, your small fish are as big as they get.
 
Picked up a few Walleye fishing lake Erie yesterday.

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Was out on Lake Wisconsin Tuesday night after work. I can typically scratch up a 2 or 3 keeper eyes and on occasion crappies up to 15" pulling cranks behind boards on the breaks and flats. This particular night was sheephead fest. I quit counting at 15. Had 2 short saugers and 1 keeper eye that went back to fight another day. It was a great night on the water and I just sat back and listened to the tunes, didn;t work real hard at it. I typically do better in the mornings so may get out this coming weekend.
 
Looks like your son had a great time!
 
Pond maintenance bass fishing round #2.

Backstory might help forum members appreciate the twisted humor of the share... have a good friend who asked if he could bring his 81 year old father fishing on my pond. I said yes and about a day later he asked if his Dad could bring / fish with an old friend of his. Again, I said yes, but that put me and the son fishing together in my canoe. Thought for sure the son would keep close watch on them to be sure they got on fish. Instead, what the video shows is exactly what happened... :emoji_laughing:

 
My youngest went out night fishing for a couple hours yesterday on our local river. He absolutely loves catching big cats...no really big ones last night but he did have a good time.

7 pound flathead
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15 pound flathead
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11 pound bowfin
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He caught another 7 pound bowfin and a couple decent channel cats...he let everything go last night.
 
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