Frying that bass tonight.

All of those fish are great eating!

Yes, they are. I take the time to scale them and then filet. I sure wish my pond was bigger so I can fish it more often.

My breeder bass are 2X the size of the one I kept. I also have a good supply of channel cats in there but am letting them grow another year.

All of the fish were caught on a #6 with Japanese beetles, leaf worms or some hornworm caterpillars I picked off my potato plants.

Hey Ann, do you have bullfrogs in that pond too? A mess of frog legs would be a nice diversion from the fish.

I only seem to have one out there this year. I battle with herons trying to steal fish and frogs but frogs are pets tome anyway. My lone male BF has been named Elvis several years ago due to his deep soulful voice. I enjoy listening him sing the song of his people while I do some fishing.

Yum. Actually, my two favorite spiny ray fishes for eating are crappie and yellow perch, but bluegills are very tasty too.

Ann
We always scaled ours. Not a whole lot of flesh on one so one needs to preserve every bit for eating.

Bill
As I remember it, you are in a state totally bereft of yellow perch. Maybe some in Eagle Nest.
At least you have crappie and "bluegill" but not close. Much closer if you could go straight west.

One of my neighbors put some small crappie in my pond a few years ago. I caught a few sometime back but that was the only time. I don't think they did well. They do not come for fish pellets like the blue gills and catfish do.

I absolutely love yellow perch and wish I had some in the pond. It probably needs to be bigger for them though.

When you start to catch catfish use circle hook design. I have fished for channel catfish and blue catfish with rod and reel after switching over to this type of hook yrs ago. Largest was a 38 lbs blue catfish on shrimp with a very small c hook. The fish will take the bait with lots of slack in the line and get hooked in the side of the mouth. You can release them to live for another day, but with regular hooks they seem to get caught too deep in the throat. Most people can't stand to watch a pole jumping around, but wait and the fish will hook itself without jerking to set the hook.

Les,

I have a terrible time getting hooks out of the corner of the mouth on these channel cats. I feel like I am fighting for my life with their rubber lips!

quote:

When you start to catch catfish use circle hook design.

Great advice!

Ann,
Use a leather glove in the catfish's mouth and turn the lip down hard. This is the trick on catching large catfish. A good long nose pliers is a must to remove the hook. I like to fish with two or three rods in holders at Lake Somerville , Tx because you can get close to the water and the beer close to me. The bottom is sandy and is two to four ft deep. The poles will tell me to get up and remove the fish by how much it is shaking. A relaxing way to fish!!! I will find a couple of pictures to post.

A couple of Pic's on catfish

This is a blue catfish caught on small C=hook at 1:30 PM.

Really nice cats, Les!

My hemostats are not cutting it for pulling the hooks out. I'll try your glove and pliers recommendation next time I fish the pond. My channel cats need another year on them for size yet.

I'm with you Ann, frogs, turtles and snakes are all safe from me. I spent so much time as a kid playing with them, I go way out of my way to make sure they are safe.