How many eat their trout?

[Jonezee]

A guide in the U.P. of Michigan, whom I see at least once a years, wife is full Indian. She taught me how to clean Pike from the Y bone and cut it into 2" chunks. Pan fried with butter....amazing taste! I have a Luhr Jensen, Little Cheif smoker I received for a Christmas gift back in 1969 from my father-in-law. Nothing is better than smoked brook trout or sea-run cutthroat (brined with rock salt and brown sugar). It has been many a stapleth is watering as I write. Blue gill will hit the frying pan too. The smallmouth, largemouth and local trout without exception are released.
Oh yeah, I release all the carp too.

[This message has been edited by Jonezee (edited 18 May 2006).]

[speechless33759]

The only time I keep trout is if the hook somehow gets lodged into their gills...I feel sorry for the lads and don't want any fish to go to waste. Other than that nope, usually don't keep them...

[Marco]

Well my conscience has got to me. In an earlier post I wrote I eat only walleye and I buy those, well,I LIED. I also eat halibut, and if you're ever near Gig Harbor WA, stop into the "TIDES" restaurant for their fish fry. It'll make your eyes roll and lips smack. And THIS from a person who doesn't like fish.JC and LF are just a few miles up the road from there so give em a call to join you.

Mark

[MarkKillam]

Pemi-Man...nice to see someone from New England and love the name you have. The Pemi is a beautiful river and the White Mountains are a wonderful place to visit and hike.

OK now to the post....I keep very few fish I catch. Usually it happens when I catch a fish and it is deep hooked and bleeding and I doubt it will survive. In 95% of the places I fish it is legal to keep fish, so I keep the fish if it is legal to do so.

Frequently while fishing the Madison, I dont keep fish because I hike 2 1/2 hours up the river and I know there is little way to keep the fish from going bad....unless it is cold which during spring and fall here it can be LOL. As for keeping fish in mountain lakes, I dont for two reasons....one it means I have to carry in my filet knife (a Swiss Army Knife just doesnt do it) and I am trying to keep the weight in my pack down. Two: I hate cleaning fish and having to get rid of the smell of them. It is tough enuff if you have to handle them (which I dont do unless it is too tough to get the hook out by just grabbing the hook with the forceps), but cleaning them is a whole new ballgame. The mountains where I fish and hike are grizzly country and the less smell I can leave to attract them to the campsite...the better.

When I lived in NJ, I used to keep trout because they were stocked every year and the water really got too warm for them in the summer (at least where I fished).

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

[MarkKillam]

As an afterthought there are a few lakes I fish that because people keep enough fish, the fish grow better than they would normally). On the other hand there are a lot of lakes where if everyone who fished them kept 6 fish each time they fished, then the lake wouldnt have a stupendous amount of 6" brookies. Its a catch 22....some waters need constant pressure to remove the excess population...some waters are C&R so the fish are able to survive on their own without the need for restocking.

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

[EdD]

So all of y'all actually CATCH trout?... I suppose that IS a pre-requisite for eating them. That seems to leave me out...
(must-get-to-trout-stream arghhhhhhh!)

[This message has been edited by EdD (edited 18 May 2006).]

[flytackle]

[gadabout]

Personally I have never been able to eat fish of any kind and have always been a bit jealous of those that do. It's a part of the fishing experience that I feel I am missing, but so be it. I will keep an occasional fish for my family but not all that often in comparison with amount of fishing that I do.

[mmcqueen45]

I will eat trout but depends on the waters they come from...I know a lot of work goes into some of our local brook trout waters here so I usually just let those guys go...but when I go to Arkansas and fish the Little Red River I usually keep the fish. Yummy.

McQueen

[littlebrook]

Hey Coach!

Sounds to me like your wife's bacon and lettuce dressing ought to be a "What's Cookin" column. Your guarded description sounds wonderful. What are the details?
I bleev the comment is "Inquiring minds want to know."
Thanks in advance.
Bill

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Name indicates where I fish and for what I fish.