October

Had an appointment later in the day, but the weather looked nice so decided to try a quick jaunt.

I saw about five boats all close in to one another. They tend to remain close as I think, they think, that will improve their catches. Spider rigging minnows is their MO. I did see one catch a small fish as I trolled past the flotilla, but mostly I saw jaundice eyes.

I had some new plastic baits from Slabonator to try. They sold me their 2” and 3” Hot Rods. These looked to be good for trolling and I had one each out in my boat’s 8 rod spread. One of their large 3” Booty Thumpers (trimmed), and one 2” Thunder Booty thingie. Couple of Devil’s Minners as well. Their baits are very nice in color, action and seem to last pretty well and they service me better than most. Very pleased with what they have sold and their fish counters are very nice and only cost $3.

I have seen “long lining” videos and that isn’t exactly what I do. My technique is more of a convoluted and a mishmash affair. Bastardized trolling. Anyways I aimed the boat with the wind and stayed at about 1.2 mph. That is a pretty good speed for me as it seems to turn the blades the best. I look to see if rod tips are jiggling as that indicates vibrations are being created. The wind speeds vary and that alters my GPS speed, and of course TM batteries will change speeds as they discharge. I look at floating debris to keep up with everything, but that rod tip deal is my real decision maker. I have taken to turning the fish finder off as it never seems to do much for me. I watch the rod tips and the line for indications of nibbles. I see nibbles often times before bites begin to occur. Alerts me that the area is a good one. Sometimes fish will hook themselves and ride Sally ride along with no rod indications at all. Just see the line move sideways.

Started off slow with no bites the first 30 minutes. Then saw a nibble and knew it would soon be on. It was. Landed fish pretty regularly after that with pairs coming several times. Hook sets were all over the place with some in the lips, some down deep. The jig colors didn’t seem to matter as all of them were involved. The bright orange/chartreuse yellow Slab Curly was nabbing the smaller fish though. I wondered about that some.

I had about 10 throw backs and was almost up to a limit when the bite petered out. I risked being late wanting to get to a limit, but it didn’t happen. Got home, made it to my appointment, only to learn that there had been an internal office error and that I would not be seen. Nice. I was pleasant about it and didn’t complain. Just headed home to get the fish cleaned.

I have taken to freezing my own ice. I discovered plastic buckets break, but rubber feed store type buckets seem to last. So far my bucket has easily paid for itself and seems to be going strong. I fill the five gallon bucket with about 4 gallons of water and place inside the deep freezer. The night before i go fishing I get it out and let it thaw some, so that it will release the block. I like to sprinkle ice cream rock salt on top and add a little water to encourage that thaw. Then I will bust up the ice into chunks and dump the mess into the cooler. Then I add water to the cooler and create a slurry.

This mixture gets extremely cold over night and it knocks the slobber out of those fish. Dropped down into that super chilled water, they wiggle just a little and die very quickly. I read on an aquarium website forum that the most humane way to dispatch a fish pet was cold water immersion. It works the treat all right. Not much flopping going on in my cooler.

At home I drain the water and leave the plug undone until I am ready to pose them for your viewing pleasure.



They clean so much better when they are chilled well. Some fish come out literally frozen stiff and water bottles will freeze solid as well. This quick chilling should help them taste as good as they possibly can as well. I imagine it as killing those pesky little microscopic parasites.

I don’t do a fantastic job cleaning fish. It is more like a back strap sort of affair. I don’t take one fish through all the steps, rather take all the fish through one step at a time. I gift fish so not really concerned with getting everything a fish has to offer, rather I want really clean fillets. People want their gifts to look really good. I just cannot get everything and have seen videos countless times and gave up trying to do it right.

I vacuum pack the meat into two bags. Insert meat, wipe inside of bag with paper towel to remove moisture where the seal will happen. Then I roll up a paper towel and place it in the top so as the vacuum sucks, liquid gets captured in the towel. I like the bags to be flat, not bulged. Then I write OCT 2021 on the bag and stack them like cord wood in the deep freeze.

I discovered that cheap vacuum systems do not last. That the top quality bags can be found on sale. That freezing fish in water and ZipLoc bags isn’t for me. Although Ziploc came out with a vacuum bag system that isn’t too shabby at all.

Once I have a nice supply in the freezer I will begin the pitch them back routine, keeping only what I will want to clean and eat that night for dinner. I read that we should not be eating a lot of our caught fish due to mercury contamination. Unsure how that works but it is what it is. The medical examiner can test human remains for contaminates, pollution levels, and narrow down the area where the person lived. This based on what levels of what is present. Some of our waterways are unfit for us to drink from, so eating those fish seems silly. My lakes are said to be suitable but still there really is no one out there actually checking, and if they are we will never be told.

I hope the weather will continue to improve as these colder mornings are very nice. Today was not killer hot and soon these fish will really turn on. Hope you get out and get into some fish.