[Cheesehead]

Here are some northern pike and bluegills recently caught. My son caught the northerns!

http://forum.abestweb.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2497&stc=1
http://forum.abestweb.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2496&stc=1

[Kevin]

Nice pike!

Looks like you had fun.

[sfcom]

Nice job. Did it take a while to hook them or did they just jump into the boat? Often times when I have gone fishing I find it is either all or nothing.

-sfcom

[Cheesehead]

Nice job. Did it take a while to hook them or did they just jump into the boat? Often times when I have gone fishing I find it is either all or nothing.

-sfcom

We got the two pike in the first hour. The bluegills was a different effort in a late afternoon - slow but steady action for about 3 hours.

[superCool]

nice!! superCool hopes to gather a basket full of delicious crappie tomorrow and might give everyone here at ABW a viewing

it's good to see fisherpeople brethren here on the great ABW interweb
_____________
catch on - superCool

[Geno Prussakov]

We got the two pike in the first hour. The bluegills was a different effort in a late afternoon - slow but steady action for about 3 hours.
Either the knife is too large, or those bluegills are of quite a good size. How much did each of those weigh?

Beautiful catch, Cheesehead! Thank you for posting these pictures. :approval: I can't wait to go fishing tomorrow.

What did you do with the pikes? I am always ready for new fish recipes.

Geno

[Geno Prussakov]

Also, I would appreciate any bluegills fishing tips (bait, spots, depth, anything), man.

G.

[mr_jones]

Nice fish! Hope they taste good too.

[CowgirlUp]

Very Nice! I'm jealous!! :D

[Cheesehead]

Also, I would appreciate any bluegills fishing tips (bait, spots, depth, anything), man.

G.
The easiest bluegill fishing is done in the spring and early summer when the bluegills are spawning. Up here in N. Wisconsin, this is just beginning (barely), but in Southern areas the spawning is probably long over. At this time, the bluegills will be in 2 feet (or less) of water near lily pads. You use a 1.5" bobber with a small hook attached at a depth of 1.5ft and bait with worms. Keep as far away from the shore as possible (because these fish will easily get scared away) yet still within casting distance of the edge of the shore. Cast as close to the edge of the shore and weeds as possible - often you need to cast within a foot or two. If you find an area with fish, you will get a bite within seconds, and you will get the big fish.

I took my 6 year old daughter out yesterday. I cast out the bait and set the hook when a fish bites. I then give the pole to my daughter, holding on to it, as she reels it in.

You can also catch bluegills at other times of year. Generally, you fish on drop offs near some submerged weeds growing in deeper water in depths of 10-20 feet. Use a slip bobber to fish at these greater depths with your bobber set so the bait is about 1 foot off the bottom. (A long telescoping cane pole also works very well) Worms work well as bait. Crickets work well too, when available - my Dad and I would turn over flat rocks in the morning gathering our bait before going out!

I will be fixing the pike today. Here is the recipe:

Scale and clean a large northern pike (27" or more). Do not fillet but scale and gut. Salt the fish inside lightly.

Dice up an onion and saute in butter. Fry up several pieces of bacon until well done and crumble the bacon up. Add the onion, bacon, and bacon fat to enough bread crumbs to stuff the pike along with some sage, salt, and pepper. Add enough milk to moisten the stuffing.

Stuff the pike with the stuffing mix. Sew up the pike with the stuffing inside. To make this easier, don't cut the pike all the way down when you clean it but only cut enough to gut it - this leaves less to sew.

Place the pike in a baking pan and place bacon strips over the pike. For a large pike, you may have to cut the pike in two pieces to fit in the pan. I used nearly a full package of bacon for a 32" pike I recently baked.

Mix 1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce, and 2 tablespoons butter and bring it to a boil. Pour this mixture over the pike. Bake the pike for 1-3 hours, basting every 15 minutes at 400 degrees. It is done when the bacon is cooked and the pike begins to break apart.

[Geno Prussakov]

Thank you, Cheesehead. Never heard of such a recipe. Gotta try it one day. Planning on going to Finland this summer (where a lot of pike is caught). Printed out your recipe for us to try it... Thanks again.

Thank you also for the bluegill fishing tips! Much appreciated.

I took my 6 year old daughter out yesterday. I cast out the bait and set the hook when a fish bites. I then give the pole to my daughter, holding on to it, as she reels it in. We did it exactly the same way last week with my 4-year-old. She is still remembering how she caught the fish. :cheerful:

Geno

[Alan Hamilton]

Nice fish! Hope they taste good too.

Jonesy the fish killer!! LOL

Nice catches Cheese - love the title of the thread too. Walking away from all this silly internet stuff and taking some time to counter-balance life with a day on the water is an awesome recipe for mental stability! Thanks for sharing the pics and the vision of the adventure!

[Exegetist]

Those are some nice size bluegills. The biggest bluegills I have caught were underneath a walk 0ver bridge that went over a deep part of a creek on my grandfathers farm.

I'm from the southern tier of the United States, can't say I have ever caught any Pike. Have had some real pole jerkers on my line before - catfish! I have enjoyed catching trout, too. I'd like to fish for Pike one day. I hear they are like bass; good sports fishing.

Nice pics. I think every kid should have a chance to go fishing. I don't know what my childhood would have been like without those trips to the ponds, rivers, or lakes.

[Cheesehead]

Walking away from all this silly internet stuff and taking some time to counter-balance life with a day on the water is an awesome recipe for mental stability!

Yes, I agree! When I am fishing, I forget about everything else. And sometimes, you just have to do that.

And Exegetist, I love catfish fishing too! Although it is a bit limited here - I take the kids out on an overnight camping trip once a year on a river that has channel cats.

[Geno Prussakov]

Guys (and gals),

Here's my yesterday's catch:

http://www.amnavigator.com/images/abw/personal/2008/fishing_07.jpg

9 ounce bluegill. The largest I have caught so far.... See how you have inspired me, Cheesehead? :cheerful:

Geno

[2busy]

That's a nice size fish, good catch! They fight like they're much bigger than they are.
I have spent many carefree hours fishing Wisconsin and one other hint I have for catching them is to use a short piece of red thread tied to the hook above the bait. At the right time of year and the right time of day you can catch phenomenal numbers of bluegills - crappie too.
The recipe for pike sounds delicious but pike have always been more fun to catch than to eat for me, many tiny bones. That recipe sounds like it might cook the hairlike bones into an edible state. :)

[Cheesehead]

Guys (and gals),

Here's my yesterday's catch:

http://www.amnavigator.com/images/abw/personal/2008/fishing_07.jpg

9 ounce bluegill. The largest I have caught so far.... See how you have inspired me, Cheesehead? :cheerful:
Geno
Nice fish Geno! Actually, what you have there is a crappie. It is one of my favorites since it often grows much bigger than a bluegill. A jig I use for crappies is shown below (it is tiny 1/16 or 1/32 oz jig). You need to use a light line (6 lb test) and cast the jig out, let it sink, and twitch it. Reel in slack after each light twitch. Crappies spawn about the same time as bluegills, but tend to be closer to the dropoffs near submerged weeds and lily pads in about 6-10 ft of water - and the crappies are scared off much less easily than the bluegills in shallow water so you will often catch them within eye-sight. Often, I will fish for both crappies and bluegills at the same spot, casting toward shore for bluegills with worms and along the dropoff for crappies.

Thanks 2busy for the red thread tip! I will try it next time out. The pike recipe will not soften the bones, but in a larger fish, the bones tend to separate out easily. For smaller pike, there is a method for filleting out the bones that I use - and then I fry them.
http://forum.abestweb.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2501&stc=1

[Geno Prussakov]

Actually, what you have there is a crappie....Aha! This explains why the taste of it was nowhere as great as the bluegills' we fried two weeks ago. Thank you for educating me, Cheese.

Both of these (bluegill and crappie) are not known in Europe. So they are quite new to me.

Thanks again, and I will definitely use the above-mentioned fishing tips next time we go fishing.

G.

[Kevin]

Fly rod = Many Blue gill and paper mouths (crappie). A dry fly or nymph presented to these kinds of fish is a killer. Especially when spawning.

[2busy]

The yellow throat and the bluegreen gill defines the bluegill, but I have been fishing with people from various parts of the coutry who refer to crappies as bluegills and bluegills as crappies so I never would correct a person on that. It seems to be a regional preference. Although there is a definitve difference, they are all freshwater panfish. The bluegill definitely tastes better to me, and you'll need to put back about 15 for every keeper as they are a smaller fish.

[superCool]

superCool was blown off the lake today by high wind and waves. only 2 small crappie came to visit. one good thing, superCool's boat still runs....always a worry after not using it for a couple months.

maybe more fish next time eh fishers?

superCool

[Cheesehead]

Fly rod = Many Blue gill and paper mouths (crappie). A dry fly or nymph presented to these kinds of fish is a killer. Especially when spawning.

Yeah, it is a lot of fun using a fly rod! These days, however, I am too busy helping the kids. I used to use small poppers for bluegills and floating deer hair flies (that I often made myself) for small mouth bass. Flyrodding takes a bit of practice, but I was eventually able to launch my dry bass flies as far as I could cast a lure with traditional spinning gear - it takes a while to learn how to use the rod and line to do your casting, sort of like launching a green apple off a sharpened sapling stick. Never tried trout fishing - that's a whole new challenge that I might try in my later years if I have any gas left in my tank.

[jeremykcdeer]

Nice catch! I am going bass fishing this afternoon and hopefully I will be posting some Pics in the morning!

[Xoote]

nice fish

[jeremykcdeer]

I went fishing yesterday and landed a few. These bass are going to be great on my plate tonight! I caught one really nice one that I released. It went 7 lbs.

Now I've gotta get to work and generate some $.



Later,
Jeremy