Crushed the fish on the SF Shenandoah today

[TurbineBlade]

Hey -- Beth and I absolutely crushed the smallmouth on the river today......literally from 9:00 to 5:30.  The whole day.  Everywhere.  We didn't get the really big ones, but we got an absurd number of small and medium ones....and of course 6X that in redbreast sunfish (and one catfish, and a monster fallfish).  

We elected to keep a few sunfish -- using the old school scaling method.  I can't wait to eat 'em!  

Most fun I've had in 2015.  If you go out often enough, you hit it right once in a while ;).  

Gene

[TurbineBlade]

[TurbineBlade]

Oh!  I forgot -- Beth unfortunately stuck her finger with a hook pretty badly about 2 hours in.  The fishing was so good she didn't want to stop fishing, so we fed the hook up under a fingernail, crimped the barb, and ran it back out in the other direction!  What a woman!  

Gene

[Joe Mathews]

FISH MURDERER!  I've never eaten sunnies.  Are they tasty?

Nice work, and thanks for the report.  I may float the SF or main stem on Sunday. 

On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 8:48:10 PM UTC-4, TurbineBlade wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

Poppers and any small streamers worked (which is all I fish in warm water)......and one of those days where every place you'd scan and think "boy there should be a smallmouth there" had at least one, sometimes a few.  We ran into 2 other guys doing the same float and both were hammering them too, but they were in kayaks and kept getting stuck on rocks ;).  They were also sitting down, legs out front the entire time, since all you can do on a kayak is be miserably uncomfortable.  They did say that the orange color and rad graphics provided the feeling of ocean waves and sharks crashing all around you in the high seas though!  

And yes, I am a bad, bad person!  If I could source a good supply of rotenone or antimycin A and carpet bomb every back eddy and strip the riverbed entirely, I'd eat everything that floated to the surface and then go sleep on the couch (like a baby).  They wouldn't let me be a fisheries biologist because the electroshocking gear got me disturbingly excited.  

Gene    

[tatu...@gmail.com]

Nice report Gene and congrats on the great day of fishing.

 

What gear/flies were you so successful with?

 

Cheers

Collin

 

On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 8:48:10 PM UTC-4, TurbineBlade wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

I was actually only using my custom-made, 6-foot Carl Z. rod -- with a 5-weight line.  It's a glass spinning blank made into a fly rod.  To be honest with you, I'm not a fan of casting short fly rods (I find it awkward), but they're quite a bit easier to fight/land fish.  (nods to Carl).  I mostly stuck with the little blue Walt popper and had fish all day.  

Beth uses spinning tackle from the canoe as she has a lot more good sense than I do, and says that managing fly line and all that crap while steering a canoe down a river is "too stupid to hassle with" and I don't think she's too far off given that I've gouged 2 fly lines now.  

For anyone else with Dalton's summer vice, a black/silver heddon torpedo in the small size is pretty darn exciting if you're familiar with one and how to work it (walk the dog) and a 1/8 - 1/16 oz mepps with black/gold blade catches everything.  

Gene

[Andy Thomas]

Heck yeah their tasty.  I prefer them filleted and fried.  small bites but that means you just have to eat more to get your fill!

On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 11:33:30 PM UTC-4, Joe Mathews wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

They were just as good as everyone says!  Our general de minimis impact on fisheries can probably allow a few sunfish here and there....particularly when Virginia permits 50 in nearly every area in the state.  We aren't interested in taking more than the two of us can eat -- which we think is about 5-6 a piece (10-12 total).  It made the weekend very enjoyable -- 

Gene

[namfos]

That's some kinda woman, you got there, Gene! Brava, Beth!

Mark

[Misha Gill]

How do you filet the sunnies? Do you drag em through flour or cornmeal?

[TurbineBlade]

We didn't fillet them, though you can apparently do that too similar to crappie and it works fine.  Beth wanted to do her grandmother's scale and gut method.  Basically you get one of those cutting boards with the clip to hold the fish (or just grip 'em hard), and then you scrape the fish against the grain with a sharp knife to fling all the scales everywhere....like on the picnic table, deck, in your hair, etc.  Then you cut between the pelvic fins to access the guts, and then pull those out and throw away.  

You can make a few "scores" parallel to the ribs for the oil to soak in, but you probably don't need to do that.  

That's about it -- a few minutes in the hot oil after breading!  I think Beth used some kind of "fish fry" stuff from the store.  I don't know what it was.  Most of the meat pulls off the bone easy enough with a fork once you cook it, but there are a few bones -- no big deal.  I view boneless fillets as a modern luxury ;).  

Gene 

[Scott Stankus]

Growing up, we always used a fish skinner to remove the skin and scales, then cut the filet off the body. Then dip the boneless, skinless fillets in egg and coat with breadcrumbs. Deep fry and enjoy!

I'm sure there are YouTube videos out there on how to use it, but it's basically like a can opener... for fish. 

--Scott

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[namfos]

You'll love pike steaks. Not boneless. Not luxurious. ;-)

Mark

[Carl Z.]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 7:57 AM, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

Poppers and any small streamers worked (which is all I fish in warm water)..

Maybe if you used a larger streamer or a larger fly rod, you would catch larger fish?

BTW, I hate scaling bluegill.  If they are not big enough to fillet, they are a C&R affair.   

[TurbineBlade]

Fair enough. It's just a difference of opinion.

[Parker]

I decided to keep a bluegill form the South Fork last weekend partly because I hadn't kept a fish in 3 years, but mostly because I had never eaten a bluegill. Though it should be noted that there are warning signs advising consumption of more than two fish per month due to the mercury levels for fish in that river. 

Btw, the bluegill was delicious. 

On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 8:48:10 PM UTC-4, TurbineBlade wrote: