Eating your catch?

[smoke33]

I love frying up fresh caught fish, especially trout! Just curious to see how many here eat what they catch or strictly catch and release.

Just posting this my mouth is watering!


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[karstopo]

I think there’s been a poll on this.

I let cold water trout go caught in streams, but that’s like 1% of what kind of fishing I do. I’ve kept a few rainbow trout from a stocked pond way back when. They were tasty.

I live on a warm water lake and have yet to retain anything I catch there including catfish, sunfish or crappie. I know they are good to eat, I just like catching them more.

Out in the nearby saltwater estuaries, I do sometimes retain speckled trout, redfish, flounder and a few other types. I try to get just enough for a fresh fish dinner or two. I avoid keeping a limit even if I catch a limit. I really don’t want to clean that many fish and see no value in having fish pile up in the freezer to eventually get freezer burn.

I can see on rivers where the spaces for fish are pretty limited and the fish struggle with a variety of challenges like drought and thermal events people frown on retaining any portion of their catch.

Most of the fish on the Texas coast are doing better than they have in decades. The sizes and numbers are better than I have ever seen. It’s from what I can tell from the things I’ve read and seen a very sustainable fishery at this juncture. I’d rather eat a wild redfish I caught than something farm raised somewhere under questionable practices and often in a way that harms similar wild stocks of the fish nearby.

 

[markfrid]

I rarely eat trout - it's not my favorite. The only way I like trout is caught that day. Otherwise they quickly lose their texture - still taste ok, but get mushy, I think. But here in S Illinois I love to eat catfish - flatheads are best, followed by channel cats. I'm not a fan of blue cats - pretty fatty and strong. Smaller bass are good, as well as crappie and bluegill, but I prefer the cats. When we go to the coasts, we pig out on saltwater fish - I think they are the best, although on a trip to Alaska we caught some salmon in the river and they were awesome! But really, they were saltwater fish right up to a week or so before we caught them! So.. just my 2 cents!

Mark

 

[dennyk]

Trout I release unless they are injured and won't survive.

Steelhead and Salmon, will take a fish or two for the grill.

Warmwater fish, Bluegills, smaller Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass I will keep from time or time for a nice fish dinner fried up with Panko in the cast iron.

Denny

 

[fr8dog]

Cats, crappie, walleye, and bluegill find their way into the oven quite often. No sense in throwing food back and buying it in the store. I keep a few that I can use fairly quick. Cats between 1 1/2 & 3#, crappie over 10", hand sized gills, smaller legal walleye get looked at closely. I like fresh caught fish. Limit your kill, don't kill your limit and life is good.

 

[gpwhitejr]

When we have a family vacation, it is usually someplace where we can spend a day deep sea fishing, and we generally split the catch with the crew. We have eaten fresh caught wahoo (the best seafood I have ever had, grilled with a wasabi-mayo sauce), snapper, Spanish mackerel, barracuda, mahi mahi, black sea bass, bluefish, and a bunch of others I forget. My wife makes great ceviche from some of our catch. I have caught and eaten lake trout from Lake Champlain. Funny thing though, when I go fly fishing it is usually by myself (or with my dog) and it isn't about catching a meal (sometimes I wonder if it is even about catching fish).

 

[Rip Tide]

It's been a long time since I kept a trout or a bass
In the salt I'll harvest a bluefish or 2 if they're the right size. Too large and they're gross
Same thing with stripers. I don't care for the "legal" sized fish.

When my wife pitches a snit about how stupid C&R is, then I'll go catch a mess a panfish.
You can't over-fish bluegill so the only issue with that is filleting all those little buggers :hungry:

 

[rc51sport]

I would keep my catch back in Florida. I prefer deep salt water over fresh water species. Living in NC now, I haven't kept anything. I do enjoy a local farm raised trout though. I prefer to put the stream fish back to grow bigger and be caught by others.


-Dan

 

[denver1911]

I don't fish for food. And often would rather just get my fish from the market so I don't have to keep them with me while fishing and then clean them. However, I do keep some from time to time just because fresh fish makes a fine meal.

 

[mikechell]

I don't like trout. Wife doesn't like bass or catfish.
We both LOVE fried sunfish (all species) and I usually have two "meals" ready to go in the freezer. I don't keep anything until we use one of those, then I replace it.

 

[littledavid123]

I like trout if caught in a cold mountain stream and cooked fresh. Mostly I eat catfish, bluegills and crappie.

Dave

 

[flav]

I'm not very fond of freshwater fish, so I mostly let em go. I do keep every hatchery steelhead I catch to keep them from spawning with wild fish, but I usually give them to friends.

 

[bigjim5589]

I C & R most fish, but don't mind keeping any legal fish. I like eating fish, always have, but have preferences for what I want to eat. Like others have said, certain sizes of specific species are better for eating, and some are better to release to keep propagating the species.

I release bass, Striped Bass, and small fish. I'll release big fish if I ever catch any! :grin:

I enjoy eating the various Sunfish, Crappies, Perch, various saltwater fish, and will eat trout if they're from put & take waters. I like catfish too, but size is important. :eyebrows:

 

[Ard]

I haven't killed a trout since July of 1981 unless it was accidentally deep hooked. I don't have to, if I had to eat trout I'd catch them with a net not a 1000 dollar Sage rod reel and line combo. Then add in the waders, jackets, flies, trucks, and all the other stuff.................... If I wanted to eat fish I'd buy it in a restaurant.

 

[fredaevans]

I can't remember when of the last fish I kept.

 

[rsagebrush]

I kept every Cutthroat I caught in Pyramid when I fished there, they're all stockers anyways and taste superb due to the alkaline water.
I keep a smallmouth maybe 1 or 2 a year now, and quite a few sunfish.
Stream trout I let them go free almost all the time.

 

[CutThroat Leaders]

I am not a fan of eating fresh water species. Once in a blue moon, I will share a diner of fresh trout with my son. But only if the fish is cooked riverside of where it was caught. My opinion, Trout, if cooked right away can be great. But, if cleaned for another day or even a few hours later, the oils in the fish seem to get stronger and stronger is a short amount of time. I am not a fan of fishy tasting fish... I understand that is a strange statement, but I know many that feel the same way.

 

[mjkirshner]

I never catch anything edible... It's either Jacks in salt or bass in freshwater that's too close to yards with fertilizer and pesticide runoff for me to even think about eating. On the rare occasion that I have caught anything edible, it was one of something too small for anything but a ceviche appetizer.

 

[jspfishing]

I like trout, but the areas where I can keep trout get hammered hard! The heavy pressure makes it a long dragged out day. So I just stick to catch and release fly fishing only areas. Saltwater is a different story. I prefer saltwater fish over freshwater. I will keep a decent striper and other good tasting species.

 

[philly]

Generally I release most fish I catch. What I'll keep is sunfish, rock bass and crappie. When I do go to a lodge in Northern Ontario I'll keep the limit of smallmouth(6), these are 12-13 inch fish, walleye(4) slot is 14 to 16 7/8 inches and small pike(6) 18-24 inches if I even catch any. I won't eat any fish I catch in the immediate Philadelphia are. Also will keep small bluefish, flounder and weakfish but most of those aren't caught on a fly rod.