Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

fish for dinner!

stike
stike Posts: 15,597
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
went fishing today. had to play hooky after two weeks of crazy work deadlines. couldn't take it any more.

caught a 21" largemouth bass, and a 16" chain pickerel. the chain pickerel was awful skinny. this guy was too. he's gonna need to fatten up for winter.

i released them both. the bass was a beautiful fish. 4.5 pounds or so, but felt like i hooked an old boot filled with water.

had to take the pic with my phone, because whenever i bring a real camera, i get blanked. bad luck to bring the real camera i guess.

ii never know when to keep them. 12 to 14 inches or so, you throw them back thinking you'll be able to come back for years and catch them again. big ones you send back because they've earned it. maybe i'll catch him again, who knows. was a good day in the rain. no one at the lake. five hours of nothing but cast and retrieve.

bass.jpg
ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante

Comments

  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    That's a nice fish - I'da skinned him, dredged him, and fried him - but that's just the leftover country boy in me.

    Ole bucketmouths make a good meal in my book.

    Sounds like it was a good day.
  • AZRP
    AZRP Posts: 10,116
    I'll eat a bass up to 1 lb, beyond that I turn them loose. Same with catfish. -RP
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    Catfish I agree, on bass I have no upper limit - but I've never caught anything over 6 pounds except stripers. I like to cut the filets into 1" strips and fry. Gotta add the hushpuppies though.
  • FlaPoolman
    FlaPoolman Posts: 11,676
    Sounds like a great relaxing day. Fished a lot of bass tournaments so got in the habit of not cooking them. After a day of throwing bass back we would stop and catch a bucket of bluegill on the way back to the ramp.
  • Big'un
    Big'un Posts: 5,909
    Good fish, Stike. I would've eaten him.
  • AlaskanC
    AlaskanC Posts: 1,346
    eeeeeeew

    Well at least you got to go fishing. I'd rather do that any day!
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    My rule of thumb is I only save bass if they have swallowed the hook and extraction means sure death. OTOH Fidel I have lived my life believing catfish were NOT eaten down South. So that's not true? It kind of goes with the fact I have known many people who lived on a farm who refuse to eat chicken. They must know something the rest of us don't!
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    these were both hooked thru the upper lip. was a nice clean take. the largemouth actually bent my hook. i had a light trout hook on there and said "ah well, no need to change it", and then hooked that thing.

    up here, that's a big bass. the chain pickerel was a great looking fish. never caught one before. it had teeth, but was hooked in the upper lip.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i know. i know. nothing is ever as good as the fish you catch. we get it already. yeesh....

    but we don't exactly have them down here 12 miles north of boston. kinda nice to cast out a lure a few times to a spot where you are pretty sure the fish is. drive it craz by running the lure by a couple times, then getting it to strike.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    hahaha

    last one i caught was 17". what's a "big" one? do you ever throw them back?

    i just enjoyed being out there. no one around, a mile into the woods. steady drizzle.

    i needed a break. the day before the presidential election, a client told me to take out all the "minorities" from one of my illustrations. i was sick about it. needed a break. this day and age, i could not believe i was told that.

    you can bet i read them the riot act, but still.
    they said they only wanted "rich white people" in the image because that's who their audience is. i charged them a thousand dollars to take out the people they wanted scrubbed out. they said 1000 was too much, and they'd pay me 500 to "fix them". i told them it was a thousand. "i thought you were rich white people, you can afford it" f*ckers. grrrr...

    but i digress....

    the fishing was great. maybe need to go back tomorrow!
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i stopped at the spot i always fish. i never get anything there. had some worms and tried them, and caught three bluegill in two minutes. EFF that, i said, and drove to this new place i hadn't fished. i still had some crawlers and ended up fishing them all day. one rod with a crawler, another with a lure. no junk fish in that lake. seemed to be nuthing but bigger stuff. i'm definitely going back. never saw a bluegill.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • Big'un
    Big'un Posts: 5,909
    Talking to the water has it's benefits. And so does letting a fish go for seed. What a shame about your illustration. At times, fish make much better company than people!
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    Down south we generally only eat catfish that we call "squealers" - basically channel cats that are under a pound.

    They catch some monsters in the lakes down here, especially in Santee-Cooper, but I wouldn't eat those.

    In Missouri growing up I used to eat bullhead and flathead cats all the time. We use to set trot lines and jug lines in the Nodaway and Platte rivers.

    Bass down here are so plentiful it is actually doing the population a favor by thinning them a bit.
  • AlaskanC
    AlaskanC Posts: 1,346
    welll.....

    I really don't care what kind of fish I catch since I don't really like to eat them.
    (shhhhhh)

    4cf7e9cb.jpg
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    LOL - then you're even a better reference for me as we can relate! I too, grew up in Missouri (Centralia, near Columbia) and that's where I first heard that catfish are avoided in the South. Yes, about eating bullheads and channel cats - hey I remember one time my Dad and I caught a 35 pound prehistoric spoonbill catfish in the MO river. Yup, we ate that thing too. No bones, just that grissle-like cord of a spine that pulled out with pliers!
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • Excellent way to unwind. Used to walk to a neighbors pond after work in the evening when we lived in MS. Caught a bunch of bass in the pond but never took one out. Did add some occasionally after trips on the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway.
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    I grew up between St. Joe and KC - right between the Platte and Mighty Mo in a tiny town called Wallace.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    HA - even more commonality! My wife and I graduated from CMSU in Warrensburg back in 1966.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • Nature Boy
    Nature Boy Posts: 8,687
    21 inches was the largest largemouth I ever caught. It was five pounds. I thought it was 9 pounds when I pulled him out of the water. 15 years later I had twin girls. Yep. 21 inches. Not quite 5 pounds each.

    Anyways, my point is, nice fish buddy!! Especially up North.

    What did you catch it on?
    Jealous. Chris.
    DizzyPigBBQ.com
    Twitter: @dizzypigbbq
    Facebook: Dizzy Pig Seasonings
    Instagram: @DizzyPigBBQ
  • Nature Boy
    Nature Boy Posts: 8,687
    I wuz thinkin that's just the right size bass to cut some serious steaks crosswise. Thinking about 3 inch slabs. Work around the bones as you eat the beautifully seared steaks.

    Hell, Stike prolly released him so he can catch him again next year at 7 pounds.

    Cheers!
    Chris
    DizzyPigBBQ.com
    Twitter: @dizzypigbbq
    Facebook: Dizzy Pig Seasonings
    Instagram: @DizzyPigBBQ
  • Way to go, Stike!
    Catch and release most of them, keep the occasional one and go home relaxed and feeling better for it.

    al
  • TomM24
    TomM24 Posts: 1,366
    Stike:

    Thats a nice fish. Alot darker then the ones around here.
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    bad phone pic, and i was in low light (overcast, misty, under the trees). he really was your typical beautiful green. but i see now why some call them "black bass"!
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    that's what i did too.

    he didn't fight very hard either, and was kind of tired, cold and shagged out, so i wanted to let him have a better fight next time. didn't feel right dragging him out in a less than spectacular fight
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i didn't have a scale, but i'd put that fish at at least 4.5 pounds.

    the water is getting cold, and he was a little sluggish. felt like i'd hooked a log, but it was oing sideways, so i knew i had something. actually, that's the FIRST largemouth i ever caught, truth be told. i kept waiting for him to break the top of the water and fight/slap a bit (thinking it was a smallmouth). as he came in, the water depth was only 4 inches or so about 10 feet out and MAN, i could see it was a big one, and he rolled and slapped a bit. i thought then it might be a largemouth, because he was so languid, but big.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i see you had a heck of a haul. wow.

    you are right, nice day fishing. i was burnt out on work. needed the break!
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante