Smallies

Filleting and Skinning always

– Last Updated: Jul-02-08 8:08 PM EST –

I used to scale whole fish and never again. Filleting is much easier and if done correctly you get all of the flesh. Then I lay the fillet skin side down on a flat surface and with the knife flat next to the skin pull the skin to remove the skin and almost zero flesh.
I caught a nice sized crappie in the river earlier this spring and it was tasty!!!! Spotted bass are tasty too. My favorite fresh water fish is Walleye. Blue gill are probably my least favorite but even they are OK. Hand sized bluegill fillets are fine. But smaller bluegill are too much trouble for a little flesh. Catfish seem to depend upon the water. From clean water a flathead catfish is hard to beat. Even channels and blues are good from clean water.
Fishermen need to be aware of the water where they are fishing. Some waters need fish to be removed!!!! Too many fish results in small stunted fish. A friend has a pond and lets me fish with the only requirement that I keep every bluegill!!! His pond has great bluegill all big and fat because he keeps them thinned out. I agree that some waters are overfished and catch and release is a good policy. But in lightly fished waters removing fish is not a bad thing. Ideally you release the really big fish and keep the smaller fish. The big fish eat a lot of forage fish and keep the ecosystem healthy. Also a large female produces a lot more eggs than a smaller fish. In short a given body of water can support so many pounds of fish. Too many fish and they are smaller. When you catch and eat a fish you make additional food availble for the remaining fish to eat and grow larger. Without large fish smaller fish take over and you have a lake full of small stunted fish. http://www.kentuckygameandfish.com/fishing/bass-fishing/KY_0508_02/index.html

Disagree about bream (bluegill and other
sunfish). I’ve not had walleye, at least not knowingly, so can’t say about them, but sunfish are, hands down, one of the top three freshwater fish for table fare, all sizes. I call them the pompano of freshwater. As for catfish, they’re all good and it doesn’t seem to matter what the water unless its polluted. Don’t catch many flatheads, but the blues are my favorite. Channels have more meat for same size fish and are fine fare, but blues are just a bit better.

'eyes
Walleye were made for the fillet knife. Just like trout.



If you’ve never had one, when you do, you’ll quickly realize the 'eye’s have it over panfish for taste.

YEA GEORGE!!!
Welcome to this board ya crazy midget!


  • Big D

canoe fishin’
i loved the way you tell this. sometimes i dream about hooking into a huge fish while in the canoe and being pulled around the water. i saw some huge fish jumping out of the water when we went to the yough res. never did catch one but i think that’s when i started having the dream. thanks for sharing your story