My theory: Water and location does affect the smell of Crappie!

Hi folks, I live in Sacramento, CA was invited to go crappie fishing in a neighborhood pond located in North Natomas, Sacramento last week. My buddy knows I love crappie fishing so off we went. Before anyone in Sacramento gets mad at me for giving out your secret spot, let me make it clear that I am not even going to keep the location a secret because I am never going there again and for your saftey, I think you should not too! We fished for 30 minutes at the Regency Community Park pond and caught over 15 semi large crappie, I kept 5 for dinner. The pond was well taken care of but the water had a stinch. The kind of stinch ponds put out when the water has no flow or airration. I guess you can call it a dead pond. Anyways, it reminded me of dirty levees. There is a constant filled manmade creek channel the flows into the pond and I have seen people fished the channel but never the pond.

When home that night and while preping the crappies, they put out a nasty sewer smell. I had a one of those cheap Osumex mercury test strips and tested the meat. There is some mercury but not harmful. Still yucky smell though! I just tossed them in the trashed and threw it out. All the crappies I can remember prepping and eating have all came from clean reserviors and have all smelt good.

My theory: Nasty water, nast crappies!

Good clean fish don't smell too bad. But even Catfish farmers control algae to prevent off smell and taste. Fish do absorb off smells and tastes from bad water or what they consume. One thing you can do to remove fishy smells is put salt and lemon juice in the water you soak fillets. Real good tasting fish are mild and most flavor comes from the breading or whatever cooked in.

Ponds will grow a blue green algae that causes fish to smell and taste bad. It needs to be treated with copper sulfate when it shows up to prevent this from happening. The pond is not poluted this is a natural accurance during warm weather. It will form on the surface like a film.

If I was penniless and hungry, I would eat that. For me and mine, if the fresh cleaned game stinks - I'm pitching it. Just me though.

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

Good clean fish don't smell too bad. But even Catfish farmers control algae to prevent off smell and taste. Fish do absorb off smells and tastes from bad water or what they consume. One thing you can do to remove fishy smells is put salt and lemon juice in the water you soak fillets. Real good tasting fish are mild and most flavor comes from the breading or whatever cooked in.

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Thanks for the advice NIMROD. I will not return to that pond ever again, but should I ever come accross game fish from the reserviors I often fish at with an unpleasant smell, I'll will try your method.

I release almost all the bass I catch, but one fall I kept some 2 pounders I caught from a mud-bottomed northern lake a week or two after it turned over. The bass were hanging out around dead and dying weeds. The water stank, but I figured it was just a short-term change that wouldn't have had time to impact the flesh. Unfortunately, the fillets were inedibly foul, and I felt awful about it but tossed them.

It think it depends on where they live. I have a marina and the bottom is all silt. When you catch a resident bluegill from there, it doesn't smell different but it has a silty taste to it.

Every living person or animal will smell/ taste like their surroundings.Just eat garlic,not only does your breath smell of it,your sweat will reek of it.A well known fact,maggots will taste exactly like whatever they were eating.fish would be no different,though rotten leaves or muddy bottoms may not hurt you,eating them in the stinky state may ruin your appetite for them.I agree,soak them in salt water ( changing it a few times )then try them.