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hila2006



Joined: 22 Jul 2011
Posts: 582
Location: Ellington

PostPosted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We do eat fish and enjoy a good fish fry. But we do release most of what we catch. We keep panfish if the lake is already overpopulated with them, also stocked trout if we go for them. I'd say we release 99% of what we catch, live to fight another day.
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Mr.Cranky



Joined: 26 May 2012
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems that more of you are keeping at least some of what you catch than I originally thought. My family really enjoys the fish I bring home and I'm glad to see that many of yours do as well. Thanks for the input. Ken
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Bluegill Terminator



Joined: 03 May 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Plainville

PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I will never keep a largemouth or smallmouth bass because they are not stocked. They are born in the wild and survive on their own and I hate people who keep them. Pike and pickerel to many bones so I just throw them back. Trout and salmon def yes! I'll keep them everytime I target them because they taste good. Although in the dead of winter depending on how they look and by that I mean nice fins, and beautiful colors I'll let them go to live on. Stripers I'll keep same with bluefish and flounder everything tastes good from the ocean. Walleye and perch are amazing thru the ice but open water I'll toss them back too. So all in all, depending on the month I keep mostly trout and salmon (kokanee), and in winter walleye and yellow perch.
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SmOoTh OpErAtOr !!!



Joined: 03 May 2012
Posts: 108

PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I catch and release 99.999% of all my fish!! If I keep any it's one striper and one walleye a year max !! Most years i dont keep any mater of fact ive been 100% catch and release for the last 4 years ! To me fishing is a sport if I want to eat fish I'll buy the stuff at the grocery store ! It's already dead and only going to go bad if no one buys it and eats it . if I could get walleye and striper at the store I would !!! My outlook is the more fish in the water the more that spawn which means more fry which means more Fish to catch!! Just imagine if everyone took their limit every time they went fishing ! There would be no fish left ! Just imagine If everyone who fishes for trout stopped taking their limit every time they go out maybe we wouldnt need to stock our lakes and rivers just so people can fish them ! Now if I was poor and hungry that would be game on and I'd be a FAT fisherman!! Lol it is nice to know that if i ever needed food for any reason i wouldnt b going hungry ! Just my 2 cents
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rxpxtx



Joined: 06 May 2012
Posts: 259

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bluegill Terminator wrote:
I will never keep a largemouth or smallmouth bass because they are not stocked. They are born in the wild and survive on their own and I hate people who keep them. Pike and pickerel to many bones so I just throw them back.


While I totally respect that there will be all different kinds of people on a public forum, hating someone for eating a bass, ON A FREAKIN' FISHING FORUM - is a little over the top. I'm not even going to go into how strong the bass population is. I've never seen a DEEP pickerel stocking truck out there, but they get passed by because of being too bony. What about the nightcrawlers...and the minnows....and the crawfish. Think about the poor worms. What about the CHIIIILLLLDRENNN!!! Who's restocking them when you pluck them out of the leaves in the back yard. Who's advocating for them???

I eat about 5% of what I catch, which is bass, trout, and cats. I never freeze fish I catch, so if I'm not cooking them that night or the next they go back for another guy, another day. I can buy frozen fish. It's all about respect for our environment and for the sport and sportsmanship. Eating fish you caught makes you neither villain or hero. It's your approach to doing so that does. My grandmother from Wisconsin was a fishing fiend. For those that dont like all the prep fuss and filleting...Gram loved panfish. She would head and gut them. She would then make 1 1/2-2" slices down each side from dorsal to gut....deep, but not all the way through. Spice rub, and fry in oil hot and fast. The thing looked like a bloomin onion finished. Great finger food. Works for anything you can get in a fryer. Exceptional for porgys!!
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Last edited by rxpxtx on Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:54 am; edited 1 time in total
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Mr.Cranky



Joined: 26 May 2012
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Regarding the pickerel, there is a video or 2 on youtube on filleting around the "Y" bones. It doesn't look like rocket science and if I catch a big one, like 20" plus, I'll be trying it again. Many, many years ago I had a fabulous day with a couple of guys and we brought home 5 pickerel in the 26-28" range, beautiful fish. One of the guys was a cooking enthusiast and he did them in foil out on the grill. They were Delicious, with a capitol D. I vaguely remember having to pick around the bones but they were big enough that it wasn't too much of a deal.

I'm a bit surprised by the recent......energetic...... responses regarding keeping our catch to eat. There is a lot more to the equation of stocking and natural reproduction of all the different species than simply catch and release everything or keep everything. I do appreciate and respect the different opinions and appreciate the basic information of how the different species are cooked by different folks.
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PECo



Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 5203
Location: Avon, CT

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I prefer to cook bony fish like chain pickerel or trout whole. It's s lot easier to remove the bones from a cooked fish than filleting them out of an uncooked fish. Plus, my knife skills really suck. Rolling Eyes
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Mr.Cranky



Joined: 26 May 2012
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had to go and mention getting a big pickerel, didn't I?
I had mentioned to a friend that I was willing to try to do a pickerel if it was big enough. And sure enough, he called me today to say he had one for me to work with. He kept it just for me, he said. A 21" fish, it turns out.

I wish I had used this video to guide me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcelLOjh1E

I figured that pickerel and pike are in the same family so whats good for one should be good for the other.

Instead, I used this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3-GLr9bTXM

I had some problems with the cuts down the sides and it didn't come out as well as this guys's did. It looks great, very white, I'm looking forward to trying it tonight. I do still have a few bones in it to work around on but with a little careful eating it should be edible. The first cut along the backbone for that top fillet is a meaty cut, totally boneless.
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MANIMAL



Joined: 08 Jun 2012
Posts: 242
Location: Manchester

PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I only keep trout and even when I do catch I usually release so they grow bigger.

Illl keep 2-3 trout a year


This year, having never done so before, I'd like to keep a few panfish and filet them and try them for the first time.
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Mr.Cranky



Joined: 26 May 2012
Posts: 57

PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, that pickerel was darn good! Very mild, pearly white meat. I'll not be so hesitant next time I boat one thats keeping size. I've been watching a few video's of cleaning pike this evening and I can't see any reason that the techniques they show wouldn't work just as well on the pickerel. I found a couple of them showing taking the entire side off, then take out the Y bones with a couple of cuts on either side of them. They make it look easy.
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SeaDog1



Joined: 21 Dec 2009
Posts: 2629

PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,

Just as an FYI.

Trout in Ct. are listed in the put and take catagory.
Only a few waters here in Ct. have the necessary requirments for trout to hold over.
Those that can will have slot size limits per DEEP.

Other than that -> Take your allowed daily limit, but eat all that you take!
If not -> Then throw them back!

SeaDog1
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rxpxtx



Joined: 06 May 2012
Posts: 259

PostPosted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Couldnt have been said better SDog. Eat it or let it go. (Of course it's kind of a silly conversation, with the only other option being driving back and forth over them with your pick up.)
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Dave..... I can be a pain in the bass.
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