Get'em!
Interesting returns, I think I will get my jugs out and go today, thanks to all who shared their info.
Get'em!
I’m looking forward to trying out the ribs. About that time!
That being said then crappie fillets should be deadly as well. Just so I don't get lambasted by C2 and TimY, let me be clear why I am saying this. I set a quart of crappie fillets out of my freezer about a month ago. The next morning I found them laying next to my freezer thawed. They were still cool so I figured they were still ok. I put them in the fridge which was registering 34 degs and didn't have time to cook them in the next few days. Finally I remembered them and CRAP......are they still good??????? I figured they should be fine for jugs so I refroze them. No free kicks on my posterior anatomy C2. These fillets were off some 14+"
fish. I assume that slicing them in half or quarters should be more than enough to fish on some 4/0 or 5/0 circle hooks. Thoughts????
They should stay on your hooks a little better than chicken livers and bring in those more discriminating slicks. You may be onto something but trading potential golden nuggets for catfish filets is never gonna catch on. Let us know how it goes General. Good luck.
George even though you have committed the upmost fishin sin and will probably never catch another crappie, that will work. This is just a personal preference but I don't and never have liked or used any kind of frozen bait. I only kept the rib cages when I know I'm gonna be catfishing the next day or so and I place them in a ziplock bag and put them on ice in a chest. Even shad I do the same thing after I remove the tails. Nothing beats fresh bait and mainly the blood.
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Tell us about removing the tails Tim. That’s a new one to me but I am pretty inexperienced.
Timy - I guess i must pray to the crappie gods for forgiveness for desecrating a quart of golden nuggets and be beaten about the body and face with a carp. it was an honest screw up on my part (old age) and I will swear on a gallon of rosie reds to never do it again. I feel better now. I agree with only going with fresh shad although I have used 4 year old frozen shad that were coated with cornmeal and caught a bunch of channels in the Deep Fork River. I'm gonna give the fillets a try since there is no point in wasting the fillets. I will post a response on how the trip turns out.
Now tell us about removing the tails to, I assume, release more blood and scent.
My buds and I fish a lake that is overstocked with crappie, The fish and game folks want as many as possible taken out, I started this thread. To get some answers, not start problems for anyone. Things happen and folks do what they have to do.
THEY do work. I scale them and filet into pieces. I still do not know If they are legal. I think not here in TN. I also do not think a Warden would care.
No one in trouble I know of. No way I could miss a chance to give George some grief. George/C2 I fillet just the skin off one side of the shad and try to leave the float bladder intact and trim down about an inch from the tail then cut it off. The reason I do this is because shad actually preserve better with the tails off and they bleed better. Before I put them on a hook, I also lightly squeeze the head because this is where the oil glands are and that helps as an attractant. Good luck fellas and George a good thrashing with a Carp may help your crappie fishin in the future LOL
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