Sittin on the dock-a-the.....

[Tom]

Mark is a young fellow that lives down the road.  He's a machinist and has helped me on the mill several times.

He came by  today and wanted to go fishing on my dock.  Then ask if I wanted to go tpo. "I have the four wheel dive". :D

We got there about 3 and got home about 7.

I know that everybody has heard that size matters.  But, believe me, it isn't everything.  We ended up with 15 fish. Stump knockers, red breast, blue gill and 2 black bass.  I got a good run off of a big Gar fish that got my attention and stripped line against the drag for a couple of good runs before throwing the hook.

What a great day.  We sat on my dock in a whistling  wind, watched the tide go out  from a dead high, watched a hawk catch mullet in the creek about 100 feet from us and heard something big get up near the dock, in the marsh and trudge away through the flooded marsh grass toward the high ground to the west .

We have no idea what it was, but it sure got our attention.  I figure it might have been a big hog, but it might have also been a black bear.  We never saw it.

Twice, on the other side of the creek, something got eaten by a big fish that struck so hard he sent water way up on the bank.  I figure it must've been a big Red Bass.  It could have been a  big black bass but, if so, he must've been huge one.  8)

[woodbowl]

That's a fine mess of fish Tom. Stump knockers are kinda hard to find around here untill the creek gets low. I was hoping you would have a warmouth or two in the bunch. With all those bushes shakin' you may need to take a gun next time.  I'm still wondering if you ate fish for supper.  :D

[Tom]

Nope, no supper.

Both wives said "No fish!"

We cleaned them and he took them home to put in the freezer.  We figure that we'll get another mess and He and I will have a fish fry in the back yard, Just him and me. We'll show'em!

[Jeff]

I aint caught that many fish combined in the last 3 years!

[woodbowl]

My son and me went out in the boat, night before last with another friend under the tyndall AFB bridge in Panama City. I took my Coleman stove, meal, cooking oil, taters, salt. (we forgot the salt one time but not this time) Usually we catch more Whiting than we can eat, but we forgot to check the tide and when we got there it was low and still. We launched anyway and figured the most we would get is a boat ride. Nothing would bite so I decided to peel taters and heat up the grease. About the time I had the fries ready, my friend hung into a big something or other. When he finally got it to the boat it was a sail fin cat fish. He said, lets skin em'. Most people don't eat salt water cat fish, but I don't know why. That was some of the best tasting fish I've ever had. Maybe it was because we were out on the boat, or because we cooked it fresh, or because we were starving and it went good with taters.
   A time before that, we bought some squid and shrimp for bait. We only caught a few whiting so we cooked the bait too and had an on board buffet.   ;D  ;D

[Buzz-sawyer]

Woodbowl,
Eating out onthe water like that, or eating a fresh tenderloin of a deer ya just shot in the woods....ALWAYS tastes better 8) 8)

[SwampDonkey]

We started thinning today next to the Guiziquit stream and one of the boys said he's bring'n the pole tommorrow.  :

That's a nice string of fish Tom. I don't know those species though. I do know what bass is, never ate it.  All I've ever eaten from our waterways was Atlantic Salmon and brook trout. Haven't fished in ages.

[crtreedude]

Well, here I always thought that SwampDonkey was a good ole boy like us - know he goes ahead and tells us he only fishes for the fancy fish. Just shows you that you never know... I bet he only uses dry flies.
: :

Tom, doesn't bass taste like chicken?  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

I gotta cook them wives  that said 'no fish' some salmon some day.  :D :D

[UNCLEBUCK]

Good fishin Tom  ;D  sounds like active waters !  I think I like that eating the bait thing like woodbowl does  8)

[Bro. Noble]

Well,  that eatin' the bait thing might be fine ----as long as you aren't fishin' for catfish :

[Paschale]

MMMM....there's no better eatin' fish than a freshly caught bluegill, in my opinion.   8)

[crtreedude]

Perch! Big Perch, caught through the ice. Getting hungry just thinking about it...

Not enough to make me come up North during the winter though.  ;)

[isawlogs]

 Whitefish , through the ice , deep fried with taters , that is good eating . 

[Michigan Mike]

I agree with Paschale bluegill best tasting fish ever. I like trout and salmon I like  white fish smoked or batter fried I like most fish but nothing beats blugills.

[SwampDonkey]

I like herring too, boiled on top of taters. It's quite bony fish, but good and has them good oils like salmon. ;D Can't seem to buy fresh herring any more around here. Gotta get them canned as young sardines.  :

[woodbowl]

I don't know what to think about salmon. My taste buds don't get along with it at all. It doesn't taste like fish to me.  It taste like iodine or something. Yuk !  So does tuna, but I can eat it once in a while. I worked on a crab boat in the Bearing Sea back in my knuckle head days and we caught salmon, king crab, hearing ect. I thought the cook messed the salmon up some way so I didn't think too much about it then.
   Then a couple of years ago a friend of mine raved so much about the grilled salmon at the long horn steak house that I decided to try it again. I couldn't wait to go out to eat cause he made it sound so good. I took my wife out on a date and headed to longhorns. I ordered the grilled salmon and she ordered a steak and taters. It smelled real good, but when I took that first bite .................... iodine!   I've never been so disapointed in a piece of meat. On top of that, salmon is high dollar down here in Florida. My wife felt sorry for me and offered to trade with me. It was a good trade.  ;D
    Does everyone except me just love the taste of salmon or do some other folks taste that twang that I'm talking about?

[Woodcarver]

My wife has a similar reaction to trout.  She just doesn't like the flavor.  Salmon is OK with her.  I think the two tast a little alike.  Go figure.  ??? 

[UNCLEBUCK]

I think you were on the Bering Sea too long woodbowl  :D  From the tv show of worlds deadliest jobs it looks like it would be hard to keep down any food at all in that rough sea . What a exciting job !  I do panfish and potatoes or as I now call it "specks and taters"  . Catch them in the swamp here year round .  Come on up sometime and hear me do my Roland Martin impersonation . Stay in da shack !  8)

[SwampDonkey]

Woodbowl, you can't compare our fresh atlantic to canned salmon, nor with those fish farm raised stuff. When we were angling on the rivers we could tell how fresh the salmon were on the Saint John because of the sea lice on their back. The sea lice die in a matter of a few hours in fresh water. And also, if we caught any farm raised or fisheries raised salmon we tossed them back. They tasted like mud. That's one of the reasons I don't eat that market salmon, and also the fact that they have to inject or submerge the meat in a pink die to turn the grey flesh pink. You can tell when salmon is dyed, it comes out in the oil in the fry pan. That ain't fit to eat. Wild atlantic is naturally pink as well as mature brook trout. You can catch those land locked atlantics, but I wouldn't eat one of them either.  You can fish some sections of the Miramichi or Restigouche in some sections with a guide (non residents) for the good atlantics, or pay big bucks to fish on private or leased water. Or us New Brunswickers can have a special license on a lottery to fish stretches of crown reserved waters on the Restigouche or Miramichi river drainage. There are several arteries of those rivers. Quebec and Newfoundland have some really excellent atlantic salmon fishing too. My favorite crown reserve is the Upsulquitch in NB, which feeds into the Restigouche. It's remote and the water is clear and cold like tap water if we have a summer with lots of water. The watershed is kind of messed up after logging 15 + years ago, but it will come back eventually. They have roads in there now, but I knew folks that used to pole in there by canoe in the 50's. It's a fast river with alot of 90 deg turns and deep holes.

[Bro. Noble]

We have a low place in a bottom field that gets full of carp when the river gets out of it's banks.  A friend gave me about a half dozen ways to fix carp guaranteeing us that it would taste just like salmon.

We seigned out a bunch of those DanG carp and pressure cooked some,  smoked some,  cooked some about anyway you can imagine-----they all tasted like carp >:(

Wife bought some salmon in the grocery store some time later--------tasted like carp :

My friend was right after all :D :D

[DanG]

Woodbowl, I bet that salmon you had was grilled on one of them cedar planks.  I don't know why people like that.  Makes it taste like its been marinated in gasoline. :

[crtreedude]

My theory on Salmon was it used to taste good until someone figured out it was good for you. Now it tastes like Spinach...  :

[Norm]

I don't care for salmon either, I've gone out on the charters and eaten it the next day, still isn't my favorite. Now on the same trips we'd catch sea bass, that's good eating.

One spring I was out fishing Truman Lake, caught one nice walleye. Stuck it in the live well brought it back to camp and filet'd it out. Boy was it ever tasty. We've finally started to get some size to the bluegills in our pond we stocked a couple of years ago. They are so thick I think we'll need to have a big fry to thin them out with. Going to have to get a new electric knife to do the cleaning work with first.

[thurlow]

Bro. Noble........what's your take on buffalo?  Some folks lump'em in with carp, but to us true conasewers 8), you can't get much higher on the food chain than a good razorback, rooter,  or gourdhead.  Actually, I can't tell one buffalo from another, but some folks swear one kind is better than others.........

[sawguy21]

I was always indifferent to salmon until I had fresh Pacific. What a difference. A neighbors boy fished commercially with his uncle and would freeze the catch, wrap it in newspaper and burlap and put it on the plane. His mom would have it the next day and always gave us one. Mom cut it into roasts or steaks because it was too big to go in the oven. We thought it was a real feast.
The streams here open July 1. Uhmmmm, fresh trout.

[Bro. Noble]

Thurlow,

Them buffalo and drum and yellow suckers are all OK,  but I don't know why anyone would bother with them if they could get bullheads ;D

[woodbowl]

you can't compare our fresh atlantic to canned salmon, nor with those fish farm raised stuff.

I could probably try it again one day. I keep thinking that I've just not had it fixed right yet. Another fish in our area that erks me is king mackeral and spanish makeral. The locals go nuts trolling for mackeral and rave about how good it is. I must admit they are fun to catch, but I rather eat a cold can of beenie weenies in the rain than a fresh, hot piece of mackeral. I suppose I would try it again as well if someone bragged about how well they could prepare it.
    Crawfish is another one of those things you want fresh. You can tell real quick if they were alive or not when they went in the pot. I try to bring 60 lbs or so a year back from Louisiana so we can have a family crawfish boil. That cajun seasoning puts your tounge in high gear and the hotter it gets, the more you want. If you don't get enough flavor in the meat, all you do have to do is suck the heads while giving them a squeeze. When I was a yungon' I said I wouldn't never do that. If you go to Louisiana, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that didn't. It's as common as McDonalds to see young, old and everyone inbetween  all sitting around a heaping pile of hot crawfish on the table,  Grandpaw, Grandma, friends, neighbors, the preacher and the prettiest girls you ever saw, all sitting around pulling off tails with both hands and sucking heads. Crawfish went up to about $1.90 lb  this year because of Katrina.  >:(  We only got a taste this time, but there is always next year.

[Tom]

King Mackeral is best smoked, I think.  It is an oily fish and oily fish are usualy better smoked.

Spanish mackeral are really good broiled.  When I was a little boy, Mom would take us to the Morrison's Cafeteria in West Palm.  There were three things I looked forward to getting, a shrimp cocktail, broiled Spanish Mackeral and egg custard pie.

I seldom got the shrimp cocktail because it was expensive.

The Mackeral was broiled in lots of butter and had Paprika sprinkled on top.  It was a white meat and the yellow butter and red paprika really set it off, visually.  The butter made it taste real good too.

[crtreedude]

They have river shrimp here - probably 9 to 10 inches long, without claws. They taste like the best lobster you have ever had.

10 bucks for 4 large ones are a restaurant I know - with all the fixn's. They are great!  8)

[woodbowl]

Is that fresh water Fred? Is that like a prawn? Are they timid about surviving and are sterrel?

Folks around here have tried to raise a type of fresh water shrimp from India but there are problems. They are so hybred that they can't reproduce so you have to get the nymphs.

Good ole' Gulf shimp as the main stay around here, but I have always wanted to raise something like that.

[crtreedude]

Yes - they are fresh water. They are from the Rio San Juan which is a big river. I gather that the 100+ lb tarpon munch on them.

I don't know what a prawn is - they call them Langostino here, which translates to prawn.

No one raises them, but that is an idea!

[Tom]

Fred,
The commercial farming of longostine's, Fresh water shrimp, has been and is being studied.  My next door neighbor, one who always was looking for a quick, get-rich scheme, tried it.  He got his information and shrimp from Australia.

He bulldozed out a pond that was about 3 acres and 3 feet deep.  He put shrimp in one side and catfish in the other.  He blamed his neighbors for stealing his shrimp, but, we watched as the occupants of the swamp had a banquet that year.  I've never seen Wood Storks here until then.  Now we have a flock that lives here.  There were coons, possums, gulls, kingfishers, buzzards and an abundance of moccasins.  When the rain hit and the pond flooded, the catfish found their way to the shrimp side and added to the malay.  Then the heat of the summer came and the shallow ponds practically boiled.

The neighbor is gone now.  All the folks in the neighborhood still talk about the "Shrimp Man", and jokingly wonder if he ever found his thief.

[crtreedude]

When you raise Tilipia here - you cover the ponds. Otherwise - you have a lot of winged theives. Herons, and eagles and fishers.

Doesn't help with the dogs though - river dogs that is (perro de aguas), otherwise known as river otters.

And, of course there is the possible caiman...

[Pete J]

The Connecticut river is famous for Shad. They have annual Shad derby's in towns that line the river every year. I've never eaten it myself, but I did hear of the best way to cook it.

Start a big cooking fire and get the coals good and red.

Clean your freshly caught shad and nail the tail to a piece of red oak that has a big knot in the middle.

Splash some lemon juice and black pepper all over it and lay the oak plank directly on the coals.

Once the fish is all cooked and the plank has burned up, cut the fish away and eat the knot.

[UNCLEBUCK]

 :D eat the knot ! 

[SwampDonkey]

Clever fellow there.  ;) 8)


I remember when we was fishing salmon on the river you'd sometimes hit onto a run of gaspero. Those things would attack your artificial fly like crazy. When we hooked one, not intentionally, you'd just make kick snap as if your were making a cast and it would come off in mid flight. It's possible it could land in the fising boat behind ya. :D :D

I remember a couple of clowns on the river, and they didn't know how to cast a line. Trying to cast a handful of reemed line of 100 feet or so, tangled around their feet. They'de be swinging and swear'n and tangling. Sometimes, once they got the line all out from under thier feet and out the last eye loop of the rod, the guy in front would make the big final cast and the fly would either come back and knock the guy in the rear of the boat behind the head or it would take his fishing hat off and toss it into the river with about 40 flies attached to it. The guy in the rear often times caught into the dang anchor and that was fun retrieving with 30 other fishing boats around them. To top that off, they didn't know enough to pull anchor and drift a few feet every so often. That's when a friend of mine, known to be the mouth of the river, would lay into them and tell'm to move a little down through the pool. Those guys would have better luck at the fish market. :D

[metalspinner]

The humble little Blue Gill is the best tasting fish I've had.  Crappie is a close second.  And, boy, do I miss a good crawfish boil! :(

[DanG]

Years ago, my Dad showed me a neat way to scale small panfish.  Ya take a board and stick 2 nails in it, about an inch or less apart.  Stick the fish's nose between the nails and hold on to the tail.  A hard stream of water from a garden hose, sprayed from tail to head, will take every scale off in a skinny minute. ;D 8) 8)

[SwampDonkey]

What we used to scale salmon with was a small block of wood the size of a chalk eraser and attach 6 beer bottle caps by screws so the frills of the caps are facing away from the wood. Take your salmon down to the river bank and scrub the scales off as your gut'n the fish. Watch out the river eels don't snatch the salmon out of your hands. :D :D

[metalspinner]

DanG,
I'm going to have to try that! 8)

[DanG]

Give'er a try, MS.  It gets the slime off, too.  I guess you could use a pressure washer, but it'd probly take the meat off the bones, too. :D :D :D

[metalspinner]

It de-slimes , too?!! 8) 8)

When I was little, I would go fishing down at the bayou just about everyday after school.  I would always catch a whole mess of Bluegill and bring them home in a five gallon bucket.  Then I would wait for Dad to get home and show off my big catch.  He was always a good sport about it,  but after I would go inside, he would be stuck cleaning a bucket of fish each night.

It's not until now  that I realized what I did to him all those times.  Imagine working hard all day and knowing that when you got home there was a bucket of fish waiting to be cleaned.  Father's Day is coming up soon, maybe we'll take a road trip and go fishing with PaPa so he can clean some fish his grandson's caught. :D :D

[UNCLEBUCK]

My cousin makes and sells to Cabela's and Fleet Farm something called the fish scaling bucket ,dump your panfish in,add water, hook up your drill and within a minute about 2-1/2 gallons of panfish are scaleless. I fillet boneless but some people still like to fry fish skin on .

[woodbowl]

Hey UB, I sure would like to see that drill/fish scaler! Do you think you can get some pics of it? Even a diagram may explain how it works.

[Radar67]

UB,
   I'm with you, filleting is the only way to go. Once I learned how, there was no going back, not to mention you can clean twice as many fish in half the time as someone scaling.  ;D

Stew

[DanG]

With the size of the fish I usually catch, filleting is not an option.  The fillets would get lost among the crumbs in the pan.

[sawguy21]

I dont make a mess of a perfectly good fish by trying to fillet either. Just cook em up then lift the skin off with a fork.

[Radar67]

Dan, if the fish is too small to fillet, we throw them back to let em grow.  ;) We also call them minnows.   :D

Sawguy, it took a little time to learn to fillet, and it is definitely easier with an electric knife.

Stew

[Tom]

We eat a lot of "little" bream.  If you put them back into a pond, they over populate it and none of the fish will grow.  Those little bream are tasty.  They fry up so crisp that you can almost eat them, bones and all. ;D

[Radar67]

So do I, if they are half a hand in size, they get filleted.   ;D

Stew

[clif]

Up here we fillet our salmon with a big butcher knife.   When the second run of big reds come in in mid JulyI will take some picture of the process. It's pretty slick and hard to explain.

[UNCLEBUCK]

This is just one of the many wierd things my cousin makes and markets ,the cyclone fish scaling bucket . I did a search on many different search engines and found his stuff . Some stuff showed up on ebay , he makes ice fishing seats with beer and rod holders, beer belts,this scaling bucket etc.. I will see him in the next few days and get his brochure on this one. His business name is mag's manufacturing . I will take pictures of the process of making this bucket ok .  Ever since I can remember we always filleted our fish walleye,panfish,northern eliminating the y bone , trout have always been a difficult fillet to do for me . The best is filleted panfish or walleye and then rolled in a beer batter and dropped into the hot oil

[SwampDonkey]

We don't scale brook trout, nor fillet it. When it's cooked the meat falls off the bones. We do scale salmon, but only skin it when cooked. It slides right off and the meat falls away from the bones. You guys work too hard for your meals. ;D :D :D :D

[metalspinner]

Tom,
I remember people keeping the little ones to fry up.  They ate them like potatoe chips. :D
That bucket looks really cool. I'm guessing one wouldn't put live fishes in there.

[Den Socling]

My in-laws eat a small fish like potato chips. I think they are called smelt and they catch them in a lake in NY. Far as I can tell, guts come out, most of the head comes off and the rest is good eatin'.

A guy was telling me about traveling through the countryside of China. He was surprised to find fresh prawn available everywhere he went. Then he discovered the practice of digging a pond, adding a few prawn and then setting up the town's outhouses around the pond. Chinese recycling.  :