a cool fishing experience

[lenny]

So, My wife and I went fishing today. We were in my boat trolling for small mouth or n.pike. My wife says she has a fish so I kill the motor and she is bringing it in. The small mouth was about 12" and jumps out of the water and as soon as he hits a 28" norther pike hits the bass. Both of us are like "what the." She pulls them to about 10 ft from the boat and I expect the pike to let go but he didn't so I grabbed the net and I said next time up bring them my way and so it was. I netted both fish and that is a true story. The next cove I came to I dropped and anchor and put on a lure I never used before but had for 10 years. The lure has 2 little props that spin. The lure floats and make a racket as it's coming through the water. I threw it out into the cove and yanked it a few time and while both of us were watching a 30 pike nails it. The top water commotion was incredible.

What a day of fishing it was and the best part was fishing with my women, she loves to fish and for both of us to experience that was extra cool. I practiced cleaning the pike with a new technique. I did okay but will improve next time. Filleting the y bones out looks easy on youtube but takes a bit of experience. My kids like pike but shy away because of the bones so I figured why waste a good tasting fish just because I didn't know how to clean them properly. I tried 2 different ways and I like the 2 fillet system better then the 5. Check these guys out for cleaning pike


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-K1ioGEiNs&feature=player_detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3-GLr9bTXM&feature=player_detailpage

 

[windingtrailgal]

That's so cool, Lenny! Who woulda thought that pike wouldn't've let go! I'll let bigdaddy and my 10 yr old watch the fish cleaning tech vids since that job is theirs!

 

[mjkaliszak]

Times are tough all over.... have to fight the NP for the bass LOL....
I have had them roll up on us just as we had the fish on the side of the boat and " swoosh " they just do a roll , take the fish , lure and all.... right with them.
Cool Story

 

[lenny]

it was kinda like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Z2DxDPHjSak

 

[yamarage07]

Awesome story lenny, I found that if you find the y bones and follow down the top side of them with your knife and continue all the way through the fillet and then do the same on the bottom side of the y bones you will end up with two strips of boneless northern pike. cut each strip into pieces 2 or 3 inches long,dip'em in your favorite batter,deep fry em, and have some of the tastiest fish strips ever.I've tried to end up with one fillet and never have much luck.this method works better on your smaller pike

 

[lenny]

I agree, that's kinda what I ended up with today. I tell ya, pike is a good fish for eating. I have been to Canada many times and find the taste similar to walleye, so much so that it is hard to distinguish the difference with a simple batter

Awesome story lenny, I found that if you find the y bones and follow down the top side of them with your knife and continue all the way through the fillet and then do the same on the bottom side of the y bones you will end up with two strips of boneless northern pike. cut each strip into pieces 2 or 3 inches long,dip'em in your favorite batter,deep fry em, and have some of the tastiest fish strips ever.I've tried to end up with one fillet and never have much luck.this method works better on your smaller pike

 

[tomxc700]

Thats cool man. I haven't had anything like that happen to me yet, but I did have a release on a down rigger last month. A nice 8 lb coho hit the free slider and a 5 lb laker hit the main line at the same time. That was a different kind of fight for sure, reeling in 2 fish that were trying to go different ways that were with in five feet of each other, I ended up getting both fish too.

 

[skiroule]

Very cool experience!

I've had this happen once and I've never forgotten it. I was fishing Lake of the Woods back in high school and I had a small walleye about 6 ft from the boat. A monster Northern took the walleye, hook and line and just kept going. Snapped the line before I could even think about what to do.

As far as Northerns go, we grew up fishing them in the river and I still prefer the taste to other fish.

 

[rp7x]

lenny i throw the walleye back, pike are my favorite i fillet similer to the first way once you learn, they are white flakey meat , best you will ever eat

 

[lenny]

I cannot wait till dinner tonight

 

[mrsrunningbear]

COOL Lenny and Di!! What a rush huh! Great story thanks for sharing! Totally jealous! We've only been out fishing once this summer. I'm real good at cleaning Northern it took me two fish and I got it down, you'll get it and it sure is great eating! My parents were Northern fisherman and we ate it all the time. Enjoy!

 

[michaeladams]

if ya pickle the northern you can just eat the bones

 

[lenny]

I bet the pan was deep that night with fish

Thats cool man. I haven't had anything like that happen to me yet, but I did have a release on a down rigger last month. A nice 8 lb coho hit the free slider and a 5 lb laker hit the main line at the same time. That was a different kind of fight for sure, reeling in 2 fish that were trying to go different ways that were with in five feet of each other, I ended up getting both fish too.

 

[tomxc700]

Yeah with salmon, I tossed back the laker. I don't like the way they taste.

 

[lenny]

got 5 nice small mouth in the last few days. Had fresh fish twice this week for dinner and have 3 bags in the freezer and you know tomorrow is fri so ya gotta have fish on fri!

The pike were very good and so are the small mouth. The area I fish is loaded with small mouth and is feed by the Ontonagon river. I recently had a few people tell me they dont like Bass. I see the bass and pike as a nice clean white flaky fillet. Cleaning habits contribute somewhat to the taste IMO. I have a friend that handles the the fillets without rinsing them very well. I rinse the fillets twice and there is no hint of fish smell after rinsing. Is it possible that if you leave the slime from your hands all over the cleaned fillets you could get hints of fish smell and taste while eating?

 

[skiroule]

Lenny,

It's interesting that you like the Small Mouth. Most people won't even keep them. It might have something to do with where they are caught and how they are cleaned. I've eaten White Bass that were caught in North Dakota and cleaned by a guy who knew what he was doing. They made for an excellent meal! The same might be true for Small Mouth.

Man, has this thread made me want to go fishing!

 

[lenny]

interesting,,,,the SMB is a white flaky firm texture very much like the walleye and N.Pike. I eat them all the time and probably couldn't taste the difference is a taste test.

Lenny,

It's interesting that you like the Small Mouth. Most people won't even keep them. It might have something to do with where they are caught and how they are cleaned. I've eaten White Bass that were caught in North Dakota and cleaned by a guy who knew what he was doing. They made for an excellent meal! The same might be true for Small Mouth.

Man, has this thread made me want to go fishing!

 

[skiroule]

I catch em' all the time on the St.Croix river and have never kept any. Mostly because I was led to believe they weren't very good eating. You've convinced me to keep a couple and try them next time. Maybe an old dog can learn something.

 

[lenny]

tonight I took some Bass and Pike to my buddy Beer Belly Bob and he couldn't tell the difference, neither fish were heavily battered either.

 

[mjkaliszak]

got 5 nice small mouth in the last few days. Had fresh fish twice this week for dinner and have 3 bags in the freezer and you know tomorrow is fri so ya gotta have fish on fri!

The pike were very good and so are the small mouth. The area I fish is loaded with small mouth and is feed by the Ontonagon river. I recently had a few people tell me they dont like Bass. I see the bass and pike as a nice clean white flaky fillet. Cleaning habits contribute somewhat to the taste IMO. I have a friend that handles the the fillets without rinsing them very well. I rinse the fillets twice and there is no hint of fish smell after rinsing. Is it possible that if you leave the slime from your hands all over the cleaned fillets you could get hints of fish smell and taste while eating?

This is my spin on this, we could say my .02
My experience has been that fish sometimes taste differently depending on their enviroment that they live in. May not always be true but we have caught fish from open lakes that tasted fine and then fish that came out of the weeds. They had a grassy taste. It is like they lived their entire life in the weed bed in some cove . Every once in a while we catch a walleye that might be fishy but they are few and far between. We normally filet the fish, place them in a bowl with water & ice , then rinse them in fresh water & ice and let sit in the frig over night. Go thru them 1 more time looking for bones since we use an electric knife , and then vacuum pack the filets. Most importantly keeping them cold all the time. When the fish are caught, we place them in a cooler on the boat with ice in it.

I have eaten SMB and thought they were strong, never had NP but have heard they are good. We mainly fished for them due to them being a predator fish. SMB are fun to catch, look at UBEE's picture, I can't imagine. They are like a smaller version of a " steel head " which we have lost more of those than we have landed. When you hook one .... it's 100% Battle ON ! The steelheads normally leave you with an empty feeling since they take your lure & tangle up all your other lines if your not careful.