Haw Fooled the Snapper
Jul 21, 2020 23:20:20 #
I tried all my favorite baits and couldn't get a catfish to bite so I made a minnow pole and started catching minnows for bait. I used a samon egg hook and a very small piece of squid. Snatched 6 or 8 minnows in. Getting some excitement going in the minnows and in comes a Mangrove Snapper and grabs my bait. Well had to land it & take it's picture. I did end up catching 3 keeper 🐱s and 1 runt thats growing up. All 13 minnows and fish were all on my new pole that I put white braid on. No bites at all on my old poles with old line. I am (at least for now) a braided line user.
Jul 22, 2020 00:28:59 #
What kinda white braid? Why white? Thanks for the photos Fin. Better get to smokin.
Jul 22, 2020 05:46:35 #
Jul 22, 2020 06:44:41 #
fishrmans
Loc: Waushara Cnty Wisconsin and Port Charlotte Fl
Look like hard heads to me. What do you do with em. Not good to eat....
Jul 22, 2020 08:02:44 #
Spiritof27 wrote:
What kinda white braid? Why white? Thanks for the photos Fin. Better get to smokin.
Piscifun ONYX 50 pound and white white was the only color that Amazon had in stock. I had bought 30 lb blue green and it was so tiny that it took me 20 minutes to tie my terminal tackle on. That braid is so light and small. It doubled my casting distance. I'm really impressed. Yes, the other day I caught 3 other hardhead 🐱s that I froze in zip lock bags in water so probably tomorrow I'll smoke em.
Jul 22, 2020 08:08:33 #
flyguy wrote:
Are those freshwater cats, or hardheads?
Those are hardheads. I've developed a way to brine them in the refrigerator then usually I smoke them. They are quite good.
Jul 22, 2020 08:34:11 #
FinFisherman wrote:
Those are hardheads. I've developed a way to brine them in the refrigerator then usually I smoke them. They are quite good.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!
Jul 22, 2020 09:03:45 #
fishrmans wrote:
Look like hard heads to me. What do you do with em. Not good to eat....
They are good to eat. I can fix them so you can't tell them from Cracker Barrel's. Not that Cracker Barrel has the best. Most usually I smoke them and I think they great 👍.
Jul 22, 2020 09:19:32 #
fishrmans
Loc: Waushara Cnty Wisconsin and Port Charlotte Fl
FinFisherman wrote:
They are good to eat. I can fix them so you can't tell them from Cracker Barrel's. Not that Cracker Barrel has the best. Most usually I smoke them and I think they great 👍.
You need to come down here to Port Charlotte on the Peace River. I can catch them one after another under the hwy 75 bridge and often catch a few topsail cats also.
Jul 22, 2020 09:58:44 #
fishrmans wrote:
You need to come down here to Port Charlotte on the Peace River. I can catch them one after another under the hwy 75 bridge and often catch a few topsail cats also.
The sail cats are very good eating. Meat is very white and mild tasting. My brother has a lot somewhere in Port Charlotte. I had a sailboat and wife and kids and I have sailed down the coast past there several times most times we would stop in Charlotte Harbor. It was amazing when we would sail over schools of Tarpon. Never fished for them tho but to see fish some more than 6' long was a sight! I will keep your invite in mind and may PM you if you don't mind when my itch comes to that.
Jul 22, 2020 10:07:55 #
fishrmans
Loc: Waushara Cnty Wisconsin and Port Charlotte Fl
FinFisherman wrote:
The sail cats are very good eating. Meat is very white and mild tasting. My brother has a lot somewhere in Port Charlotte. I had a sailboat and wife and kids and I have sailed down the coast past there several times most times we would stop in Charlotte Harbor. It was amazing when we would sail over schools of Tarpon. Never fished for them tho but to see fish some more than 6' long was a sight! I will keep your invite in mind and may PM you if you don't mind when my itch comes to that.
Do that. Tarpon are all over Charlotte harbor. Love fishing Boca Grande pass. Lots of everything in that area including Goliath grouper and large sharks.
Jul 22, 2020 10:30:27 #
fishrmans wrote:
Do that. Tarpon are all over Charlotte harbor. Love fishing Boca Grande pass. Lots of everything in that area including Goliath grouper and large sharks.
My son caught his first shark a black tip in a little lagoon in Boca Grande. We tried eating it but it tasted like an old diaper smells! I've tried every way suggested to cook, fix shark and never found anything to neutralize the ammonia. Sharks dont pee. So not interested in shark at all. Since the Red Tide my fishing is limited to Sheepshead or Black Drum and an occasional Mangrove Snapper and of course the 🐱 🐟.
Jul 22, 2020 11:27:27 #
fishrmans
Loc: Waushara Cnty Wisconsin and Port Charlotte Fl
FinFisherman wrote:
My son caught his first shark a black tip in a little lagoon in Boca Grande. We tried eating it but it tasted like an old diaper smells! I've tried every way suggested to cook, fix shark and never found anything to neutralize the ammonia. Sharks dont pee. So not interested in shark at all. Since the Red Tide my fishing is limited to Sheepshead or Black Drum and an occasional Mangrove Snapper and of course the 🐱 🐟.
Shark are ok but you have to bleed them out and remove the blood line along the spine to help with the ammonia smell and taste. Lot of people eat them but I stick to the snappers, flounder, cobia, grouper, snook and pompano mostly. I live on a channel that is full of channel cats, bluegill, red ear, tilapia and some Mayan cichlids. I do eat the bluegill and red ear.
Jul 22, 2020 12:23:09 #
fishrmans wrote:
Shark are ok but you have to bleed them out and remove the blood line along the spine to help with the ammonia smell and taste. Lot of people eat them but I stick to the snappers, flounder, cobia, grouper, snook and pompano mostly. I live on a channel that is full of channel cats, bluegill, red ear, tilapia and some Mayan cichlids. I do eat the bluegill and red ear.
You must be pretty far up the canal that you have fresh water fish or isn't it open to the Gulf? The only Tilapia I've eaten was store bought and it wasn't real good. It's probably 50 or 60 since I've eaten Bluegill. As a kid we would have fish frys and that was Bluegill. If the neighbor fished with me it would be 2 family's 8 people eating and no one went hungry. Don't remember any left overs.
Jul 22, 2020 12:53:18 #
fishrmans
Loc: Waushara Cnty Wisconsin and Port Charlotte Fl
FinFisherman wrote:
You must be pretty far up the canal that you have fresh water fish or isn't it open to the Gulf? The only Tilapia I've eaten was store bought and it wasn't real good. It's probably 50 or 60 since I've eaten Bluegill. As a kid we would have fish frys and that was Bluegill. If the neighbor fished with me it would be 2 family's 8 people eating and no one went hungry. Don't remember any left overs.
My channel flows into other channels and eventually to the peace river. Would have liked a channel to Charlotte Harbor but flood insurance is nuts in those areas. So mine is a fresh water channel with no outlet to the gulf. Tilapia from the store is all farm raised fish and I wouldn’t eat it but the wild caught tilapia is good. I prefer the bluegills and cichlids coated with a little Andes coating and deep fried. I just sold my boat so most of my fishing now is from the beach’s or fishing piers. I do have a couple friends with boats that get me out once in awhile.
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