uncadonego on 29/6/2009 at 20:30

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Beauty. Do you fillet and skin? How do you like it compared to walleye or yellow perch? That's a pumpkinseed right? Everything is hybrid around my place.

Edit: your bluegill are probably a bit darker striped than ours. Pics on the net I checked vary wildly. Some are almost violet, some are almost yellow.

uncadonego on 30/6/2009 at 01:33

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Have you ever tried largemouth bass? It seems it might taste good. For example, yellow perch, walleye, and sauger are the same family of fish, and they taste similar. A couple of sidewinders like flounder and halibut taste similar too. So what I'm thinking now that I've tried bluegills and found them tasty is that they are a sunfish, and despite being called largemouth bass, they are actually a sunfish, not really a bass, so they may taste similar. Do you have an equivalent species in Dublin to a largemouth bass, and have you tried it?

uncadonego on 30/6/2009 at 17:42

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Oh so you border on Lake Erie like me. Do you ever get out in the lake and fish the stocked Rainbow hybrids? You know the steelhead, part salmon part rainbow trout. They are coloured just like a rainbow trout but have that long salmon body. Flesh tastes great too. We use downriggers around sweet spots cruising at just about 3 m.p.h.
I have a pond that's 70 ft. across and about 18 ft. deep, and there's a huge snapper in there. I have a couple of drum in there, a bunch of Koi, some largemouth bass, a bunch of bluegills, catfish, etc. I don't even try to support fish that like fresh moving water, because it's a round closed body of water. Anyway, for fishing my own pond on occasion, I take the barbs off the hooks and just release. One time I swear it must have been that monster snapper I catch sunning on the tree trunk I keep floating in the pond. I was reeling in from the bottom. BAM! For one second or a tad longer the line stops DEAD in its tracks with something holding it as though it might as well have been my horse. Then almost immediately the line is loose and my tackle is gone. I wouldn't want my fingers anywhere near that monster. You are quite compassionate and brave at the same time to get the hook out of one of those guys' mouths!
EDIT: Just looking at a geographical map of OHIO here. There aren't as many inland bodies of water as Ontario, but there is a pretty generous amount of inland water there. Lots of rivers and small lakes. Looks like anyone in Ohio that wanted to go fishing would be within an hour of a nice fishing hole.
EDIT:Added picture. These two fish have the exact same species name. Environment is the only difference. One is landlocked and the other returns to the ocean. Note the differences in shape and colour. One is a trophy if it's ten lbs., the other has been recorded around 60 lbs. I think Ontario and four states produce fingerlings of the ocean variety and stock the lake for some awesome fishing. Since they are the same species, you get many variations in colours and shapes, and even the colour of the flesh. Last year I caught one that had almost peach coloured flesh. You usually catch stockies, and they are the more silverish and salmon shaped ones.
http://www.3dgathome.com/theadams/cgi-bin/steelhead-rainbow.jpg
these pics aren't my catches, they were taken off the net. Errr...INTERnet that is. Ha! Get it? How about on your side of the lake gunsmoke? Which closer resembles what you usually catch on that side?

uncadonego on 6/7/2009 at 15:41

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I don't know, I've never tried dead crickets. I've used crickets and grasshoppers live hooked through the back to attract largemouth bass and panfish, but never dead. I'll experiment. I'll catch some crickets and once they die I'll give it a shot in my bass pond and let you know if they still take the hook.
I know dead minnows were still catching yellow perch galore last week, but hey, if they are hungry enough you can use canned corn on the hook for those guys. I doubt they would turn down a cricket in any stage of liveliness.

ALSO: I saw a rig that allows you to twist a couple of wires around the body of the insect rather than skewer it. The head points toward the tip of the hook, with the bend going around the top of the head. Then the tiny wires are twisted so it can't escape, but can swim pretty freely and stays alive longer. You can rub crisco on the hook to help it float better. Pretty elaborate, but good for finicky fishing times.

uncadonego on 7/7/2009 at 02:35

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It was a hand-drawn diagram in an old fishing magazine. I don't even remember the name of the rig. I'll see if I can find it sometime. If I find it I'll scan the drawings and post them here.

Another oddity I had great success with was 33 years ago. My ex brother-in-law worked at Ford at the time, and he made some jigs and soaked them in the blueprint ink until they were a dark purple. We rowboated out from the Riverdale Ave canal in Windsor towards Peche Island until we lined up two points of reference with two points of reference further away (the non-GPS old fashioned way of finding your same spot). We just raised and lowered the jigs gently and caught both our limits of walleye, while others nearby weren't having any success. They asked what we were using, but they didn't believe us. Colour has become so fundamental nowadays. Never hurts to experiment.

I have a very wise largemouth in my pond that never takes bait. He just seems to know. The bigger they get the more they learn. They say fish have two minutes of memory, but I swear the huge ones in the channels look first and remember baits and never try them again. Well, I took a long fake purple worm and melted two yellow small wigglers to the front and two small white wigglers to the back for legs. The SECOND it hit the water he came after it and I finally caught him and released him. He never took it again.

Once I lost a largemouth that I wanted for my pond. I know they like to be somewhat territorial, and by feel I realized that next to the bridge where I first caught him, there was a deeper section in only one spot. I went back three days in a row and put the bait in front of his spot and got him again. Since I got him out of the water before he threw the hook the first time (don't you hate that?) I am pretty sure he was the same guy. Now he's in my pond.

Some people only like fishing for certain species, but I'm just as happy reeling in a rainbow from a downrigger as I am catching a mess of perch anchored in one spot, as I am catching a bass under the dock. It's all fun in its own way. And as long as I can tell the fisherman isn't lying through his teeth, I like listening to their experiences too.