Fishing

I usually go out with friends during the summer for some salt water fishing, sometimes we rent a head boat and go out to the wrecks...sometimes we go flounder fishing in the bay on a two man putt putt with a case of beer in the middle...sometimes we grab some stripers in the surf, when they run. Not too much into fresh water...as my friends all have the salt water rigs, and I just tag along for the good time in the sun.

 

I've fished my whole life but never got any good at it until I grew up. I lived in Idaho for ten years and got pretty good at fly fishing in streams for trout, or at least I thought I was good. I came here and couldn't catch squat. I began to doubt myself until the locals told me all the streams are pretty much fished out near the Seattle area. Lots of nice salmon are taken from the rivers when they run, but I've never spent any time figuring out how to do it. I lost interest in fishing 10 or 11 years ago. I was thinking about tooling up again and giving the streams another try this year. I found my old fly rod, but have nothing else left because the kids used it all up. Cowboy shooting comes first, then hunting...fishing might have to wait another year.

 

Freshwater fly and spin fisherman here and my best memories are the time spent fishing with my kids. Both are in college now and they have been fishing since age 3.

 

I was into Tournament Bass Fishing at the local level for about 9 years. Gave it up about 15 years ago. Got burned out on the stress and the competition. Sold my boat. Gave about 1/2 my tackle to youngsters that I knew. Still have enough tackle to last me the rest of my life. I might go out on a boat if'n I'm invited or I may hit a farm pond (tank as some would say) a couple times a year. A good mess of slab sized Blue-Gills always taste good.
For those that enjoy a day on the water, I wish you much success.

Grey

 

i don't really fish for eating, but just the pure joy of doing it. really don't care if i catch any fish either. now if i have a really good day and catch a nice mess of fish worth cleaning, i'm firing up the fryer!

 

I love fresh fish and always loved to fish. But fishing a stream, especially here, is pretty hard work and not much fun if I'm not catching anything. When I started hunting for bears I learned to navigate through these dense woods without getting lost. That will make stream fishing easier and I would like to try again. Last year I found a perfect stream while tracking a bear. There is no way it's getting much pressure where I was at.

 

Being from Kansas I know what you mean, but I love catfish. There are guys out here that have always considered them junk fish. They usually change their mind after one taste.

 

the biggest factor i have noticed about fried catfish, is freshness. cleaned and filleted, then put on ice asap if using that day, or bagged and frozen if using sometime later. when you fry them, use fresh oil for frying and eat within the first 10-20 of frying for the best flavor. i like to use a little Cajun seasoning in my cornmeal when cooking them! adds a little zing to them!

 

That sounds great. I just discover Cayenne pepper about a year ago. That stuff adds taste and zip to almost anything. It works great on Salmon.

 

If you can't catch catfish in Texas you need to watch more Outdoor Channel.

 

I like fishing but everyone around here owns the land around the lakes,so theres no tresspassing signs every where.I have an out board motor but no boat.

 

My grandpa and uncles were noodlers. When I was a kid they'd bring home 40 50 60 pounders, and the thought of just being in the water with those things scared me. The biggest cat I've caught was a 10 pounder. But I've caught gillions of the good eating smaller ones.

My greatest claim to fishing fame is I caught two sturgeons while in Idaho. One of them was about a 5 footer the other closer to 3. I was a good boy and didn't even take them from the water. One day I was fishing for trout with light tackle and hooked into a third sturgeon. He played with me for about 5 minutes then just flicked his head and went on his way.

 

I'm still afraid to go in water where critters bigger than me live. I'm sure we've all heard the horror stories of divers inspecting the base of dams and coming across truly LARGE fresh water fish, usually cat fish.

To catch large cats you have to fish for them. They like deep pools close to shallow water, in rivers and lakes. You need to use large heavy tackle and bait with larger live bait fish. Perch work real good. Folks used to catch 60 to 80 pounders out of a lake near Wichita from the bank. They would catch Bluegills for bait during the day. Then take the line out with boats at dusk and drop them into known pools. They then sat all night waiting and getting drunk. There were two or three news worthy cats a month taken from that smaller lake.