We are traveling. From Missouri to PA and NJ. Today we left at 3 AM to go to Belmar NJ. My sons and some friends and nephew had never been ocean fishing on the Jersey coast. We went out at 6 and returned at noon because the boat had an afternoon deal scheduled and everyone else was sold out. 17 of us chartered a boat. We went for flounder and Sea Bass. Everyone caught several and really enjoyed the day. I was interested in the mates fillet knife. It has seen a lot of use.
And about 25 North of me. Looks like a great trip. What do you guys normally catch in your neck of the woods? I woukd guess Bass, pickerel, crappie, maybe some yellow perch?
We stock our lake and ponds with bass, hybrid bluegills and catfish. Crappie are in some ponds and the Lake of the Ozarks. And spoon bills, catfish, striper, and white bass. Some yellow perch also.
Good thread Brian. I saw someone post white bass pictures a year or so ago. I've been kind of fascinated with them since. Sadly I haven't found any place close to catch one. I may have to make a trip into Utah for them one of these days. I'd love to take a trip down to Lake Powell or somewhere for stripers, too.
A few years ago, I was out with a buddy at a local trout stream. The score prior to the last 30 mins of fishing: Chris: landed two or three shorts and lost a keeper. Me: Skunked... As the day was winding down, I started to try and talk myself into the whole "at least I got to spend the day on the stream with a fishing rod" type of mindset that you only think of when you don't catch anything. But as I said earlier, in the last 30 mins, I had a Massive strike on a Panther Martin sonic spinner (classic black body, gold blade). After a surprising fight, I landed a Monster 22" Brown. I mean, people travel to South America to catch trout this large... It was a dream fish, and unfortunately it gassed itself out in the fight and I couldn't release it. So it came home as the guest of honor for dinner that night. I held the fish close to my body, so I can show the true size of the fish, I didn't want folks to think I was holding it out to gain size with a camera trick. Especially since it isn't needed! (I cut my face out of the pic intentionally)
Heck ya! That is a dandy brown. You made me think about my dad's buddy that caught some nice catfish here awhile back. I had to laugh because he was holding them as far out toward the camera as he could get, it was so obvious I like the way you did it much better Here's a few rainbows from this spring. I sure wanted to get back to that lake, but work and all that....
Jersey doesn't look so bad from your pictures. The way some people talk about Jersey, it is as if it were a cesspool. Not so it seems!
My last trip to NC gave me plenty of bass action as NC always does for us. The topwater bite that day was insane. I don't get to fish much up here anymore because of work, so when I go on vacation it's all I want to do.
When I scrolled back through here I noticed in this picture that those filets still have the skin on one side. I'm curious, did you notice what the guy running the knife did to finish them up? If there's a trick there that I haven't seen, I'd like to know it, and I'm thinking a guy with that much use on a filet knife knows what he's doing. We usually filet down the side and leave the last bit attached to the tail, flop the filet over rib-side up, and then slide the filet knife nearly flat to the table to remove the skin. This helped to serve as an anchor point, as the skin was still attached to the fish. I'm probably not explaining that very well, but it basically comes off like the filets in the picture, but no skin left. I've always tried to avoid taking them all the way off because the dang things are so hard to hold onto! But I'm sure someone who has a knife that looks like that must have a system down.
Fishing on Sand Mountain My wife and her bass Hybrid Dinner! My boy and I with the buck I shot a few years back I'm really proud of this one!
ha ha! Glad I could help! 45-70 will put the smack down on any North American game within distance...