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snrub #482582 11/12/17 07:31 PM
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Fish bite is really slowing down after several days of cool weather. Cleaned another 60 BG and one CC that I had accumulated in the holding pen over the last several days ( told wife there was about 20- I underestimated a little) and had just a few minutes of light left so tried fishing. Bite was really slow but did get one nice BG.

At least I did not get skunked. This one was saved from the fillet knife and went back into the pond to make babies and be caught another day.

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Last edited by snrub; 11/12/17 07:32 PM.

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Some of the results from Sunday's filleting session.

Yumm!

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Looks awesome! I could dig into that!



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That looks very good! Have you ever tried cutting the CC into steaks? That's the way we usually do it. Cut the whole skinned CC from the top down into horseshoe shaped pieces about 3/4 to one inch thick, roll in lightly salted yellow cornmeal and deep fry at 350 for about 8 minutes. The bones stay in, but it's delicious that way, and wastes very little of the fish.

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It was awesome! The pickled beets are home grown from my MIL. We send her all the filleted fish she and FIL can eat. We get beets.

Tartar sauce is Miracle Whip, sweet pickle relish and just a touch of yellow mustard.

My wife is a strictly boneless gal and beings she is the cook I do not argue with her. I like the fish coating as much as the fish so I ask her to cut it into fingers or nuggets so there is more coating.

Our current favorite mix is half commercial cajun fish coating mix (corn meal based) and half Panko bread crumbs. The Panko bread crumbs give the coating a nice crunchiness for good mouth feel. The half rate cajun spice gives it just a nice mild kick.

We used to deep fry but since Carolynn got the air fryer that is how we eat most of the fish. Taste like fried but uses very little oil and a lot less spatter and mess.

This particular 3# CC had darker meat with more yellowish tint than what we are used to seeing when we filleted it. I thought at the time the taste might be off. But it tasted great. Cooked out nice white and flaky.

Last edited by snrub; 11/19/17 01:24 AM.

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Originally Posted By: snrub
.....
We used to deep fry but since Carolynn got the air fryer that is how we eat most of the fish. Taste like fried but uses very little oil and a lot less spatter and mess.
......


I've been thinking about getting my bride one of those but they all seem pretty small. What brand and size do you have? Sounds like your bride likes it.

Last edited by Bill D.; 11/19/17 07:01 PM. Reason: Typo

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Small ain't bad if there are only two people to cook for. Carolynn says the air fry cooker cooks batches pretty fast.

Phillips HD9240 and the basket measures 8.5"x8.5". She likes it.
Air fryer I see they make some other smaller models also.

Christmas is getting pretty close you know.

Last edited by snrub; 11/20/17 05:45 AM.

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snrub #482892 11/20/17 05:29 AM
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After thinking about my reply there are a couple of other things I thought of about the air fry cooker.

We like fried fish. No two ways about it. In fact that picture above my wife had ask me if it was ok to bake the fish. I said that would be fine. But she, the wonderful partner she is, knows I like it better fried abandoned the oven for the air fryer. So the picture of the fish is how it came out of the air fryer. Don't get me wrong, on the occasions she does bake the fish, it turns out really good. But I still like fried better.

The problem she always had with deep frying or pan frying is the clean up afterwords or the storing and filtering of oil for reuse on the deep fry. It always made a mess, and cooking just for two people it seemed like a lot of cleanup work for such a small amount to cook. Oil spatter always ended up on stuff around the stove with pan frying and with a deep fryer the oil to either take care of to reuse or waste a lot of oil for a small amount of fish fried. I can't tell the difference in taste and in fact there is no danger of ending up with oil saturated fish coating like can happen if deep frying and the oil temperature is not "right".

The air fry cooker gets away from most all of these problems. It only uses a couple tablespoons of oil to begin with, so supposedly a little healthier and the clean up is minimal compared to spatter all over the stove top and area.

I think she has had the air fryer something over a year now and likes is pretty well compared to other oil frying methods. If we have lots of fish to fry like for a "get together" we will get out the propane fired deep fryer. But for just the two of us the air fryer is the "go to" tool.

Last edited by snrub; 11/20/17 05:59 AM.

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I have an old recipe that I learned from my great aunt (May she rest in peace). Like Snrub I like cornmeal with a little kick to it, but the secret I found out is to add a little yellow mustard to the fish before you put the cornmeal on it. After it has fried you can't taste the mustard but it come out golden color and the cornmeal will stick to the fish better.

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My bride cuts our CC fillets into fingers and sprinkles Old Bay seasoning on them before breading and frying. Really adds a nice little zip and smooths any "rough spots" in the taste.

I agree with you assessment John. I've been looking into the air fryers and they sound like a nice addition to the kitchen for small families like "empty nesters" and couples just starting out. For our family with 2 teenage boys, I think they just don't have the capacity. We have ovens in both kitchens with convection capabilities which might be more appropriate for larger families and provide similar results.

Last edited by Bill D.; 11/20/17 07:47 PM.

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smokey #482936 11/20/17 09:29 PM
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Originally Posted By: smokey
I have an old recipe that I learned from my great aunt (May she rest in peace). Like Snrub I like cornmeal with a little kick to it, but the secret I found out is to add a little yellow mustard to the fish before you put the cornmeal on it. After it has fried you can't taste the mustard but it come out golden color and the cornmeal will stick to the fish better.


Interesting. I bet this is something we will try. Thanks!


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snrub #482937 11/20/17 10:09 PM
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Some random fish cleaning pictures at our fish cleaning station. This is the way we fillet BG. This particular batch of 67 BG I did myself as the wife was away.

I'm sure there are other ways of doing it that retain more meat. But we have so many BG my other alternative to thinning them would be to throw them on the bank for the raccoons. So pulling out the best and leaving the rest for the raccoons seems a better alternative.

I'm no expert at this but am getting better. Before building our ponds I probably had cleaned no more than a couple dozen fish in my life previously.

Descriptions with pictures. Is the rat bait bucket clean? No but I have been feeding fish food to the fish out of it for two years so hopefully the poison is gone. The zip lock bag in it is clean though.

The glove is a necessary tool for me. I don't have Parkinsons but do have a genetic propensity to shake at times. Without the glove I would be bleeding more than the fish.

Carolynn rinses the meat again when it gets in the house, pulls out any missed pin bones, puts it back in the bag with fresh water and some milk, lets it soak overnight in the refrigerator, then spreads the fillets out on cookie sheets lined with butcher paper and freezes them. Then she takes the frozen fillets and either vacuum seals them or puts them in a zip lock bag and back in the freezer. This makes individual fillets that she can easily take out as few or as many as we need for any size meal. A little extra work but makes using the fillets for meal preparation very easy. Dredges and coats the frozen fillets and runs them through the air fryer. Delicious.

Edit: the yellow in the middle of the bag is one of the CC fillets from the small (maybe 3/4#) CC.

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Last edited by snrub; 11/20/17 10:19 PM.

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First day out on the pond after a three month hiatus in a warmer climate.

Drove out by the pond with the UTV and did not make it 50 feet till I saw fish swimming toward me wanting fed. 40 degrees this morning and I did not expect that. Went back to the shed, got some feed, and the acceptance was very brisk. Did a light feeding then some more later in the day when the sun came out and warmed some. The fish are definitely hungry. Will try to remember to get a water temp tomorrow.

Water is clear and FA is going gang busters in the shallow water. Looks like a little Cutrine in the shallows and some pond dye tomorrow. If I can remember where I put the pond dye I bought last year and never used.

Was a dry winter here but recent rains have all the ponds within a couple inches of full pool.

Plenty to do around the pond. Life is good!


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snrub #487139 03/13/18 09:22 AM
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Looks like a very nice setup , I'm starting to see some feeding activity on warmer days but hit a cold snap again so not trying to feed lately. I'm ready for Spring!


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Water temperature hovering right around 50 and the fish are feeding well in the main pond. Seems the BG are the most active as my other ponds that lack BG not much going on yet. Seeing some what I assume to be GS feeding pretty well in my forage pond but nothing in my RES/LMB pond. Seeing a few small schools of FHM there but none rising to feed at surface.

What really surprised me in the main pond is I have seen a few CC acting like they wanted to eat. Saw a 6-8" one feeding at the surface and maybe a 3# cruising below the BG but not coming up to the surface yet. BG are tearing the feed up though.

I did not expect to see CC activity till the water got up to 60 or so.

Last edited by snrub; 03/16/18 06:38 AM.

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BG and hybrid fishing the last few days has been good, despite water temps of only 54 degrees. Fish are very active and feeding well except for one day that was really cold and windy and with the bad weather moving in tonight I suspect it will get tough again.

My BG growth has kind of stalled out around 8-9". I just have too many mouths to feed. Trying to rectify that by growing some additional LMB in my sediment pond to supplemental stock this main pond later this year. In the mean time I will remove nearly all the females I catch in the 6-8" range, any male that is less than perfect in that range, and any hybrid unless it is just an outstanding large one.

Pictures of some recent catch. I have lots of this size but few larger. Or perhaps I am just not good enough angler to catch them. crazy

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Last edited by snrub; 04/06/18 11:15 PM.

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My CNBG in the first pond are about the same as yours, about 8" max after 2.5 years in the pond, from starting at about 1.5 to 2". Even after the otter invasion back in the winter, I still have too many BG mouths to feed. I did catch and release a nice looking 12" LMB in that pond a couple of days ago that may help with control.

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I watched Bobs Facebook video How to grow giant bluegill with Bruce Condello and learned that I may not be using large enough bait to catch my largest fish.

When it gets a little nicer weather I want to get the boat out around some of my sunken structure and specifically fish for my biggest BG and RES.

It may be that I have some bigger fish, but with the smaller size so abundant and the small bait I usually use maybe just not getting in the right spot and using the right bait to entice the larger specimens.

Even if I do have some larger fish, it still does not change the fact that I have too many BG overall and need to get my predator base more in line with my goals.

Last edited by snrub; 04/08/18 02:16 PM.

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John,
I can see most of my BG when they come up to feed. I have had that problem of excessive visibility for almost the life of the pond. I don't have any that I know of over about 9", and only a very very few of those. Most of the originals are 7-8 inches. I think they ate more pellets last year than my now defunct CC did. I fed a mix of CC pellets, Optimal, and Aquamax MVP. I like the MVP, just can't get it. If I get up your way this spring / summer, I will try to purchase a couple of bags of MVP where you buy it.

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If I ever get any. Had it ordered over a month now. They keep telling me "next Thursday". At least they did get some 500 in. I have been feeding it mixed about half and half with Optimal BG. Cut the feed way down the last few days as it has got colder. The fish are more sluggish but are still coming for feed. Just not eating as much of it. Some days I will not feed if not getting any activity to speak of but that has only happened a couple days.

I think I have talked the feed store into stocking it so maybe they will keep a few bags on hand once they start getting it.

I guess Purena doesn't figure fish feeding starts till June.


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John,
Around here, I guess Purina figures people don't feed fish at all.

I have not fed the last two days. Water temp has dropped dramatically. Air temp was 22 degrees F. here early this morning. When water temps drop, and fish eat, the food doesn't digest anyway.

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Been dang busy around the farm this spring but have had a chance to do a little fishing the last few days.

Good news on this main 3 acre pond is that I caught a couple of LMB on the 12"+- range. Picture of one below. Was fishing for small to medium size BG to transfer to my old refurbished pond and caught them a few feet out from the bank where the BG were feeding. Also a friend caught a couple of smaller LMB a few weeks ago. This is good news because I have had a terrible time getting successful LMB spawns. I have had a few large LMB that were fairly hard to catch but almost no smaller bass. Catching these gives me hope that the tide is turning and I am getting some LMB replacement to help take care of my oversupply of BG.

Speaking of BG the second picture is of a male BG I caught just a few minutes ago. It is close to 9". This is the kind of fish I would like to catch regularly. The problem has been I can catch 6-8" BG in large numbers and also plenty smaller, but these larger specimens have been too few. I've just had way too many BG overall. I hope to get my LMB numbers up to help take care of that. I like pan fish fishing so having an abundance of 12-15" LMB would not bother me at all.

Or considering the BG it could be that I am just a poor angler. I only fish my own ponds and only been actively fishing for the last four years. Maybe there are lots of large BG out there and I just don't know how to catch them. Maybe some of you guys can come up to my Pond Boss Forum informal SE Kansas get together and show me how it is done.

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Last edited by snrub; 05/20/18 03:57 PM.

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snrub, that lmb looks pretty fat and healthy! I am betting you get some nice fast growth with those two lmb.


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Thanks.

Here is a fish I caught tonight I'm posting specifically for the GSF lovers fan club. All two or three members. laugh I put this one back to grow bigger.

I'm going after a trophy GSF.

Edit: Now that I look at it in a picture, it looks like it might have a little BG genes in it. When I had it in my hand, it sure looked and felt like a pure GSF. Not so sure now. The vertical bands look a little too distinct for this large fish and the mouth looks a little small.........dunno.

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Last edited by snrub; 05/22/18 10:31 PM.

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John, I've caught one real trophy GSF. I quickly returned it to the water without measuring or taking a pic. Actually didn't have my cell phone with me. It had to go 11 inches.


The only GSF genes were the green on the side of the head. I've often wondered about spawning. Over succeeding generations of a GSF back spawning with bluegills, does it keep only spawning annually or do the BG genes start taking over and it starts spawning multiple times?

Assuming it was about 90% bluegill, judging by it's size and body, it had lost almost of its GSF characteristics. The fight was like a 14 to 15 inch bass.


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