As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Today my children, I teach you freshwater fishing for the walleyed pike and or sauger, if you have that perch type minnow in your waters.
There once was a time in America where the sophisticants all fished trout, with flies and wispy long fly rods. I realize it is an art form, but.........when one can put salmon eggs or kernel corn on a bare hook and the lovelies gobble it up like hogs, those pretty fish lose their sophisticated standards.
If you have not noticed, I just informed you how to catch those not so nice eating chubs of the streams.
Then came the time when the big mouth bass reigned supreme and the great outdoors of Virgil Ward fished to every person's excitement with the lovely Craig. Bass do rip yarn off the real, but when it comes to eating them.........well it is like fishing for them, in they bite on plastic worms, bits of plastic plugs, which really no intelligent fish would think was food. They are ok to eat like all the bass from silver, small and rock, butt when there is better, you just .........like Virgil went to South Dakota to catch walleyes, and with all his bass knowledge, they never got one of the northern fishes, just allot of stupid silver bass.
Yes I know that catfish are a staple in being the chicken of the lake, and in Iowa they would not turn down a carp as for some reason the people there like stinky, oily, ugly fish that leave a fish taste in your mouth, until next fishing season...........carp you just chum up like hogs with corn, and catfish you just set line with something liver rotten and you got dinner in the iron pan, but with those crappies, perch, bluegills, pike and walleyes it is a different fun matter.
I will add that the muskelunge was a big prey for some time. Odd thing in these giant spoons and monstrous things the boys were not catching them with.........and then some local dink put out a big chub on a big cork and caught muskies........sort of took the glam out of that too.
So Midwestern folk entered the market, as they had no bass, but lots of walleyes. Walleyes are the lobster of the freshwater folk. In other words, there is not much flavor to them. In other words, they do not taste like fish and leave a fish scent in your mouth like carp.
There is no fight in a walleye, unlike the pikes or the bass. They just sort of thrill you with a bite and then offer themselves up to the table. That is what practical German and Scandinavian Israelites prefer.
You can jig for walleyes, which is a metal lure that you bait with part of a minnow through the ice or in a boat. You can use a Lindy Rig which is a bare hook that you bait with smelt, leech or night crawler, that a line slips through a lead weight. You can bottom bounce for walleyes, which is a lead weight with a spring steel wire through it, that bottom bounces your bait, usually with a spinner to where the walleyes are with motor or drift fishing. You can use plugs like the Hot n Tot or the Shad Rap to troll for the fish in a boat. You can use a downrigger in Great Lakes waters to get your bait down to the fish and troll away as you drink beer. You can also cast for them while they spawn along shore with Rapala type minnow plugs in the spring, or you can use feather jigs to bounce along the shore in casting in the autumn.......along with the infamous spoon or Daredevil to catch walleyes.
Long ago I like most people had no fortune with the Daredevil as a child. The long ago part is I read this when I was a verde bambino. In those salad times, I read in a very old Harding's Magazine AKA Fur Fish & Game, I believe when old Maurice Decker was in charge there of the gun page.....he was a very fine Gentleman, but I digress.
But they had this story in there from a fisherman who was writing of Daredevils for Northern Pike. Fortunately the article fascinated me, as I read it, and he wrote of his methods for Northerns with spoons, which amounted to basically throwing a Daredevil out into the water and leaving it set for a minute. Then reeling up the slack and giving it a jerk and reeling in the slack again. He repeated this until it hit the end of the rod again.
The idea was that the pike struck the alarmed spoon by response. I have fished with spoons since for walleyes, and with a red and white striped Daredevil I have caught walleyes with this method. Of course if you got rocks on the bottom you will hook up........then perhaps in a boat Uncle will use the oar going down the line to free the spoon.........I hope you paid attention to that tip so you do not leave your expensive lures on the lake bottom.
Any case, the fisherman also said he used pork rinds on the hooks.......think it was the frog mimic type thing and pike would bite on that too.
I do like Crappies, Bluegills and Perch too. They are good in cane poles, casting spinners with rubber lures for the first two, along with teardrop jigs getting into the perch, which are more walleye in responding to live baits better. Perch are mucho fun through the ice in being quite active.
A wire leader is a good thing to have in pike waters, as their sharp teeth cut monofilament line. I always use 12 to 15 pound test line. I can not afford to feed lakes my lures and in testing I have found that I caught fish just as readily as the people who use the light stuff. I just put a medium pole like a Berkley Cherrywood rod into the mix whether trolling or casting and things turn out ok.
For me there is nothing quite so heart thumping exciting as drifting with the waves on a nice summer day. My holding the rod, with the line in my finger, as you rock along in conversation, and then feeling that very excited drumming on your line of a walleye jerking it three times.........and then you release the line with your finger, let the boat rock perhaps three waves, set the bail and real to the slack almost, and then set the hook hard.......and when it goes right, you got a fish on the other end.
If you have someone good at it, they will get the net, scoop the fish up and into the boat in one motion, so the fish falls into the bottom, and that way you do not have to have a tangled fish in the net.
You can always tell a walleye on your line as if you lift the rod tip, it will be a smooth pull. A drum or sheephead will pound on the line and the end of the rod will twitch. Also you will see the walleye's white spot on the tail in water before you see the fish......makes you an expert in such things.
That was all million dollar knowledge........and do not gob your nightcrawlers onto your hook. You are not bullhead fishing. Instead, hook the crawler through the saddle on the head end, and then leave about two inches of the tail as you hook through the end. That will present perfectly and catch anything in the lake in spinner trolling with bottom bouncers and drift fishing.
I have never been allured to hunting, fishing, trapping or gardening just to do it. I explain in this, that while I like the adventure, I really need to eat a goose or walleye, have a pelt on the board or some melon on the table as my reward as I like eating things. This business of just shooting things or catching things, or manicuring some hedge or flower really has no appeal for me.
What is the appeal is a pound and half walleye, filleted, the little bones cut out in that area just behind the gills, wetted in egg, dried in flour, and fried in a cast iron Wagner pan in vegetable oil, until they are golden.
That is really a lovely experience, along with fried potatoes and onions. I see in Minnesota they do things like that in shore lunches.
In my judgment, the walleye is supreme in fish. The crappie is next. The pikes are good, but they have a sweet flavor, and then the bluegills. Then come the perch, perhaps the bass and then the trout.
Salmon is like carp in being too fishy as is tuna. Grilling assists them, but I do like them smoked.
I had whitefish once, smoked................Lord that boney thing tasted like Lake Huron. I never attempted the purchase a second time as I was not spending Mom's money on that again. The Indians and the Canucks though come to whitefish call like a hog to the slop.
I like fish without bones, as I like to eat fish that do not taste like fish....not out to fight a fish to validate myself either. Someday I hope for dolphin, wahoo and red fish.......oh and that is dolphin the fish not the mammal, but in old days that sea beef of porpoise was looked upon with favor.
So that is the fisherchic and the bonafides that I know a bit about fishing too.......just no money at this writing to do it.
agtG
