Fishing with a Baitcasting Rig

[Fivetoes]

My opinion was that they tasted like a mud hole and the wife was stuck with them.

Then use them for fertilizer in your garden. Nothing goes to waste. We did that with all the fish remains whether it was tuna (neighbor would go out on half-day boats), trout, catfish, etc. We'd have to bury them at least a foot deep or the cats would dig them up. We ALWAYS had plenty of earthworms in that garden too.

Yep, everything goes in the garden.
The point I was making was that my ex wife thought she was getting a free feast.

[SeekHer]

Have you ever caught a carp? What a powerful fighter! I had snagged one just behind the top, dorsal, fin that took me 45 minutes of very hard fighting to land...I was bank fishing and everyone around me reeled in their lines thinking I had a record book top catfish and this 12# carp comes to the surface...It had given all the characteristics of a cat fish...

I didn't want to keep it and at least a dozen fishermen offered me money for it, so I sold it...It's not that I don't eat carp--smoked their lovely--it's just that I was fishing for relaxation...on the way home from work I'd stop and just relax on the bank with a cigarette and some fishing...lots of times I didn't have bait on the jig...

Why would you not eat carp? Because it is a bottom feeder? Then why do you eat catfish? The snakheads that you refer to we call moriah, (catfish type head with an eel type body) and is the freshwater burbot...we also used to just throw then on the bank and not even take them off the hook, thinking the rig cursed until I ate them, not knowing what it was, and a sweet delicate flavour came through the breading, delicious! Now, seeing them dead on the bank, I go and retrieve the lures or jig or two hook setup...

[Lokidude]

I'm particular about how I clean my cats, too, to get rid of the mud taste. As for carp, much of my distaste is based on the fact that even a catfish won't eat it. I've caught very very many carp, in fact the first fish I remember catching was a good-sized carp, I couldn't have been more than five or six.

Erik, if you ever get the desire to fish for carp in the States, I'd be more than happy to meet you in Utah and show you a lake with a few million carp that we'd love to get rid of, as they're destroying the vegetation the local baitfish need.

[Mud_Dog]

The snakheads that you refer to we call moriah, (catfish type head with an eel type body) and is the freshwater burbot...we also used to just throw then on the bank and not even take them off the hook, thinking the rig cursed until I ate them, not knowing what it was, and a sweet delicate flavour came through the breading, delicious! Now, seeing them dead on the bank, I go and retrieve the lures or jig or two hook setup...

You sure you have the right one? Here's the Wiki entry on them(the ones I've seen are a bit darker green than the picture)

I know they are a chinese delicacy, but they are hell on the native population like bream which are my favorite fish. They fight well and taste even better!

[SeekHer]

They look very similar but the freshwater burbot is a Cod sub-species...

Wiki Info

[MarkD]

I read the proper method for preparing carp:

Clean and scale the fish

Place fish on cedar plank

Grill until fish is done

Throw away fish, eat cedar plank

[HTRN]

Interesting, but IMHO not all that useful. In surf fishing the hot spot is the point just beyond where the waves are breaking, anything beyond that is just showing off. Maybe some beaches are shallow enough that the waves break 100+ yard out, but I've never fished there.

Down off the barrier islands(Lakewood, etc) it comes in handy as the sandbar extends a fair bit. As for the reels, Spinning reels tend to be the most common, with the notable exception of trolling rods, then you tend to see largebaitcasting reels. Tuna rods tend to be that kind, with the Penn Internationals at the high end(although there are some Japanese competition at this price range), with the Penn Senators being the more affordable alternative(I still need a 114 for my 80lb Ugly stick)

Penn used to be the goto name in reels - but the new spinning reels are made in China(I'm not going to pay "Made in USA" prices for a "Made in China" product!). At this point, I'm looking at the bigger Shimano Stradics(Either St5000 or the 6000)


HTRN

[SeekHer]

I read the proper method for preparing carp:

Clean and scale the fish

Place fish on cedar plank

Grill until fish is done

Throw away fish, eat cedar plank

Quite a few of the old timers will can it, along with whitefish, sucker and sturgeon...

I like it smoked or my mom used to make it in the oven by splitting it (same as for the plank method) and covering it with a cream of mushroom soup flavoured with garlic, black pepper, a little curry, turmeric and lots of cumin that was delicious--I use it for Lake trout at the lodge and our cook does it better then mom did (Sorry Mom!)...

Mom also uses it when making gefilte fish (An acquired and addictive Jewish delicacy) along with white fish, pickerel or sauger and sucker (like a very skinny carp)...All my aunts, sisters, nieces and female cousins have standing orders with me for all of the above fish that I can get a hold of...

Mom even started making burbot; I'd butterfly it, she’d add lots of butter, pepper, a few other spices that I've forgotten and don't know where Mom's recipe box is hidden and bake it or she'd cut it into pieces, make a breading of Rice Crispies--yes, the cereal and deep fry it--much better that way then with Corn Flakes (which is better with catfish though)...I've had it a few times with Special K and even with Shredded Wheat and although good, I prefer the other methods…You just grind them up in a processor or with a rolling pin!

Other items we’ve used to coat fish: Ritz Crackers, Rye bread crumbs, whole wheat bread crumbs (primary coating), Saltine Crackers (both salted and not), corn meal (especially catfish) and just plain flour and some others that I can’t recall offhand.

[HTRN]

gefilte fish (An acquired and addictive Jewish delicacy)

Ugh. The most vile thing I have ever smelled is a case of gefilte fish that broke in a trailer when I worked at shoprite almost 20 years ago. The fact that it was a warm day did not help matters.


HTRN

[SeekHer]

gefilte fish (An acquired and addictive Jewish delicacy)

Ugh. The most vile thing I have ever smelled is a case of gefilte fish that broke in a trailer when I worked at shoprite almost 20 years ago. The fact that it was a warm day did not help matters.


HTRN

HTRN, that's commercial, canned gefilte fish that no one in my family would dare eat as the elders would disown us, ban us from their homes and dinner tables and the ridicule would be never ending...besides the stuff is crap, stinks and is so bland the jar would be more flavourable!

My mom and aunts all made my paternal great, great grandmother's recipe and all the offspring use it as well...The other aunts (2) who came from Russia and were "Forest partizans" and a couple from Poland all make it almost the same way but with more pepper and would shape it in loaf pans where the first side make it into large patties...Taste is slightly different due to the balance of fish in the formula...Both are excellent...

It’s always served with "Beet" horseradish (Red not white) that is most of the time breathtaking and the other times just eye watering...For some reason it’s just hotter then the plain white HR, the kind served on roast beef, English Brown spuds, Brussels Sprouts and Yorkshire puds by a factor of at least 5…

Two of my girls would eat nothing but the fish for a whole meal if we'd let them and we have and they did...Two will eat their piece, one (1) small piece because they'll only be able to stomach that much and are doing so out of politeness more then anything else and the rest like it enough usually for seconds...

Three for sure, but if possible four things my late father demanded of my late mom at and for every dinner...Soup (piping hot) not necessarily chicken, gefilte fish, her kosher dills and/or saurkraut and (4th) her cole slaw...With those he was as happy as a bug in a rug!