The fridge is almost empty and I didn’t want to do some big lengthy river float or even load a small kayak into a local lake. Being a bit broke right now I didn’t want to buy any smelt or worms for bait either. So I just loaded all my tackle boxes, rods and reels into my rig and headed for a local irrigation reservoir that is chock a block with yellow perch and northern pike. I put a large jig head streamer on and tossed it a few times and whammy ! My first ever Pike. I’ve never been very patient so I don’t go fishing, I go fish hunting! I rarely stay in one spot for more than 5 or 6 casts and I switch lures every 3 casts or so. I then moved 25 yards down the earthen dam from where I was fishing from and tried a humongous red and white duck billed diving crank bait, on the second cast I hooked another pike. Both fish were about 19 inches long. Now I just have to figure out to carve a few decent sized fillets out from among all those bones !
Don’t know about the rice. Have
never tasted pike. Nice thing about trout and catfish, not much worry about bones.
Nothern pike
Rickers, we have Chain Pickeral here in eastern NC. I think it is the smaller cousin to your Northern Pike. I haven’t caught one in a while, but I do remember how much fun they are to catch. I know people around here used to eat them, but haven’t heard of it in a long time. Sounds like you had some real “fisherman’s luck”, as well, to go along with your fishing skills.
I am still stoked !
The Northern Pike is a fresh water barracuda sort of, like the crawdad is a small fresh water version of the lobster. They have Tiger muskies here also, a cross between a muskie and a pike !
My next "peak to bag" will be a walleye, and I may have to travel east of the divide to find those. Today I'll be shore fishing at Thomson falls, (named after David Thomson the Canadian cartographer). There is a jail there that looks like it belongs on the set of Gunsmoke ! It's a stone one room cell and was still in use until the 1980s! I am revising my relocation plans again ! Now we are looking to move from a town with less than 400 people to, or near a town in Idaho with about 50 people ! Google Avery Idaho and the Saint Joe River. I did a craft show in this town and I was the only handcrafter that showed up. We didn't have enough money to get home and we thought we were screwed ! then folks started showing up and we were doing over a hundred bucks per hour for about five hours straight ! Idaho fishing blows Montana fishing away big time !
Never caught a walleye.
A friend in Canada says they are sorta like reeling in a log, but taste great.
Yup I hear that they fight
like lg. & sm. mouth bass. I just googled Avery Idaho and looked at the wickapedia site. I’ve been to this town several times and I still am amazed. The towns main attraction is the trout tank that they sell trout food at. The trout will jump for the treat like a puppy jumps for a biscuit ! The photo of the town shows the true vibe of this place. Not much there but a river !
pike
here in NW montana we call pike, poor man’s lobster. I like the taste, but hate preping them.
I’m in Northwest Montana
for about 10 years now and I’ve always heard Burbot referred to as “poor mans lobster” ? Are you in the Flathead area ? I’m down here in Hot Springs. Bowman lake is great unless you forget to bring the bug spray, I caught a 26 inch long brook trout at the Quarter Circle Bridge once and a ranger told me it was the biggest brookie he had seen in the park. We go down the Clark fork a lot as well as all of the forks of the Flathead. This year I want to go from Polebridge to Big creek. A couple of years ago I got to see two canoes go over in Fool-hen rapids. What a glorious sight it was !
Caught two 6 lb blue catfish, a two
pound blue, and several barely legal channel cats today. Now that’s something to stink up the grease with, no bones to cut out.
A catfish ?
I’ve heard they are very good to eat. I caught one in some lake near San Diego once and when I started cleaning it it bled so much I got so grossed out I had to bail on it ! I’m a major wuss when it comes to looking at blood and guts !If I ever catch one again I’ll get some hungry neighbor to help me with it. It’s tough for me to even clean a trout but somehow I manage to get those clean. I like fish that you don’t do anything but cut a fillet off both sides and your done !
That’s how I clean catfsih.
Fillet cut down the side, flip the fillet and cut the skin off. No cutting the belly or head off or skinning, let the knife do the work. Except that catfish have big heads, like trout, they pack a lot of meat and few bones.
I was older and way more stupid
back then ! I’ll give catfish another try. Now I just need to find some catfish ! Not real common in my neck of the woods.
Today I’m going to one of two lakes here that has crawdads up to nine inches long, according to the Mt. dept. of fish wildlife and parks ! I wont mind cleaning those dads !
Pike
I have not done a pike in a very very long time but they have to be the worlds slimiest fish. I f my memory serves me right, get the slime off or try to. They are easier to cut when chilled down. Slice along the back down to the first set of bones then fillet back out along the bones for the first chunk. follow the other side of the bones you just cleaned and cut down to the second set. Fillet back out for the second chunk. Repeat on the other side. Get the skin off the chunks. They are actually pretty good eating.
Snake river seems to be one place.
I’m guessing lakes at lower elevations should have catfish.
The pike I caught
had a real nasty fishy smell and lots of slime.
Give me a pan size German brown trout any day. now that is a real tasty fish.