Another Washingtonian crappie lover

[Shoemoo]

It's nice to see that there are some other crappie lovers in the land of salmonoid-mania. I mean, other fish are fun to catch (and some of them are good to eat) but they're not crappie. I've caught just about every fish that grows in Washington state, fresh or salt water, but I must say that crappie are my favorite, both catching and eating. About the only fish that comes close in the eating department is halibut, and they're a lot more difficult to catch, strictly due to location (I lack a boat that's capable of running out to the halibut grounds when the season's open).

Little about me and what I use: I have a 10' Porta-Bote with an Eagle fish finder and Minn-Kota to slay those slabs. My favorite crappie pole is my B'n'M (of course) Buck's Ultimate which I got from Cabela's a few years ago, and my favorite lure is the Northland Gypsi Jig:



I say poop on those nasty, dumb, and beat up hatchery trout with their mushy tasteless meat. Not that I kill everything I catch, I'm mostly C&R.

[Kokanee King]

I agree about thouse mushy trout meat. but i am guilty of catching some and targeting them but don't eat them. nice to see ya here.

[Bassman]

Mushy nasty ugly trout... The fish i catch have stripes or speckles on them.

[Bassman]

The only trout i catch are green trout (largemouth bass)

[Kokanee King]

You guys are probably going to down me because i fish for Koks huh. thats fine you can do that all you want untill you have eaten some.YUM YUM.

[SlabKing]

The only trout i catch are green trout (largemouth bass)

Preach!! Preach brother....can I get a witness? :D .. :p ... :D

[Bassman]

Yes

[Shoemoo]

I'll fish for trout if there's nothing else biting, but I sure won't eat them. I either release them for someone else to catch, or give them away if they're hooked too deeply.

After they've been out for awhile they start to get smarter and more vigorous, then they're more fun to catch. I was fishing on Lake Desire one time right after the planting truck had come and dropped off some 18" browns. I caught one, and it was like hauling in a stick for all the fight it gave me.

There's only two really memorable times I had trout fishing. When I was in high school summer camp, my parents sent me to a church camp for a week that had a small stocked pond on the property. It was stocked in the spring, and then camp started, beginning with the kindergartners and preschoolers at the beginning, with progressively older groups of kids every week. So you can imagine how wary the fish were when I was there at the end of August. But there was a big grasshopper hatch going on, and so I caught a few of them to use as bait. I hooked and landed a 14 incher, and then the same day a 20 incher a on beat up reel and a hook I had to dig out of the moss at the side of the pond. I called it 'survivalist fishing'.

The other was the 18 inch wild cutthroat I caught on Lake Bryant. Since it has crappie, some of you might want to visit it. It's a beautiful undeveloped lake, no houses at all, just woods and a few fields with a short trail to the lake. Forget about launching a regular boat, but a float tube would be great, and I've seen a few people dragging canoes up the trail. I haven't tried it with my Porta-Bote, but I might one of these days. You just couldn't ask for better scenery.

[Kokanee King]

Well I Agree on theose stocked trout that is why I perfer Kokanne. They are a tuff fish to catch and boy oh boy are they great eating. Smoked, on the BBQ, baked, pan fried it dose not matter. BUt thoes same stockers after a few years can tast just as good as a wild fish. I do all my trout fishing ( to eat ) in canada more wild fish and Kamloops rainbows. I have been to lakes in canada with the Kamloops trout and seen fish after fish jump 4-5 feet out of the water.No joke! just think what it is like on ultilight tackle.