Fleet Farm is a great place to buy fishing and boating equipment but if he don’t live in Wisconsin, Minnesota or Iowa he ain’t going to find a Fleet Farm store.

10 lb test braid and 10 lb test flouro leader. Learn to tie a couple of good strong knots. Albright (line to line) and palomar knot to terminal tackle. I do not agree with tightening up your drag all the way. If you happen to hook a bigger fish he will break your line for sure. I tighten mine enough that I can still pull line out before anything breaks and I have landed 30 lb fish on 10 lb line. Make sure to use a good name line and replace it every year or two depending on how much you fish. Watch out for frayed spots especially in salt water where barnacles and oyster bars can weaken a line quickly. Should be able to get an 8 - 10 lb bass in within 5 min or so so as not to kill him. If it’s taking you 20 min now that fish probably will not survive.

Sportsman’s wholesale if you have one in your area.

The only time I tried them I didn’t like the taste or the texture but I am always willing to try eating them cooked up another way. We get a lot of them down here but we get so many other good eating fish I guess I figure it’s not worth the effort. I do use them as bait.

Skates do not have a stinger and are safe to handle.

Not a horse shoe crab. This is a horse shoe crab. Completely different animal.

I agree. Not worth it to me. Too many good eating fish in my area to go through cleaning and trying to eat something that’s not that good anyway. If Wayne wants them he can catch tons of them off the piers in south Florida. I’m pretty sure anyone else on the pier will give him the ones they catch also.

Yes...

They don’t taste like scallops..they taste like ammoniated crap. Different texture, different taste, not even close to scallops.

Luckily it didn’t break off in his foot. I think you did the right thing with the hot water and peroxide. If you are going to use him for bait or eat him, pull that barb out with a pliers. You don’t have to worry about him biting you. No teeth.

Menominee river in Wisconsin is a great smallie area. Northern Wi has tons of small lakes that produce a lot of smallies. The Menominee River is up by Marinette Menominee and flows into Green Bay. Beautiful country in that area.

Not that good eating. Through him back. Just watch for that tail barb when he gets to whipping that tail. They also make good bait for bigger fish. Or you can cut those wings into strips for smaller fish.

Strange how different places work. I feed the fish by me also. I get lots of grass carp, catfish , bluegill Turtles and red ear but the tilapia don’t feed with them. Lots of large bass in here also but they don’t feed either. I feed a floating pond food every night about 4:00 or so and probably get 75 - 100 fish maybe more.

If she has a decent pond I would say go catch some of the tilapia and give them a try. Catch them and keep them alive and than on ice until you clean them. We use an electric knife and only keep the back part of the fillet. Discard the guts and stomach meat. I think you will like them. Tilapia can be very hard to catch. Sometime they will bite on a small piece of worm. They are for the most part vegetarian so try corn or peas or a piece of algae. A cast net works pretty well. You should be able to fish right from the shore as they like shallow water and make their nests right next to the bank.

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.