Nuisance Fish

[Bob_Skurka]

I like them sauted in butter instead of deep frying, but with the same Golden Dipt batter!

 

[getut]

We just had a good old outdoor southern fish fry 2 weekends ago with about 300+ crappie that my dad has caught this spring. All deep fried and battered in salt and pepper cornmeal (heavy on the pepper and throw in some red pepper to boot). All the tails cut off and battered and fried seperately and put in a basket for those of us that like the crappie tail chips. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I'm craving another fish fry already.

 

[Bird]

I've filleted nearly all (not quite all) the fish I've caught for many years because boneless fillets are the only thing my wife wants, but for panfish (crappie, bream, perch, trout, smaller catfish, etc.), I still like them best if just scaled (skinned for catfish), gutted, the heads cut off, and fried whole. There just isn't any better eatin'.

 

[slowrev]

Yep, crappie are best. I also prefer bluegill to bass for eating.

Ben

 

[PineRidge]

Some years back went on my first fishing trip to Lake Okeechobee in Florida for bass and had never heard the term bream mentioned before that. Got a real education from the southern fisherman that year.

 

[WiJC]

in my area, perch are like gold. anywhere there is a friday night perch fry....it will be packed. some up here raise them in ponds and make big bucks doing it. (selling to restaurants)

...calling perch a nuisance would probably get you run out of the state...akin to not liking miller, brats, or the packers.

any of the varieties talked about on this thread such as perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed,crappie etc we just call panfish.

all are great eating...just dip in egg, then cover with shorelunch breading and fry in the pan...mmmm

they are also all best caught out of the colder water. the meat gets softer when in warmer water....hence nothing beats a batch of fish freshly caught through the ice /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="red">
in my area, perch are like gold. anywhere there is a friday night perch fry....it will be packed. </font>


It is the same around here! I think it is common across the western Great Lakes region from Lake Erie to Lake Superior.

2 years ago I hosted a business meeting at my office, we had businesses in from all over the US visiting our operation. It is an event that occurs twice a year, but always in a different spot. Normally the host rents a room at a fancy expensive restaurant for the big dinner. Not me. I hired the local Knights of Columbus crew to come over with their traveling Fish Fry trailer, we served up an afternoon Perch Fry at my office, and then hopped on a custom bus and went to a Cubs baseball game to follow up the meal with beer, hot dogs and to see the Cubs win. Maybe it is just me, but that beats the heck out of a fancy dinner with red wine and tiny portions of fancy food.

 

[Alan L.]

Perch/bream/bluegill are fun to catch too. I feed my catfish and these bream are the first ones to the dinner table. They are getting very large - bigger than your hand. I have bass and channel cat, but they don't appear to be putting a very big dent in the bream population.

 

[Jagmandave]

My pond is fairly small, about 75ft X 100 ft, and only maybe 8 ft deep, when it's fairly full, so all I've seen are catfish. When I first got the property, my next door neighbor said he used to feed the fish cheap dogfood to get them to come to the surface. I started throwing a few handfulls on the water and was surprised at the size of a couple of them that came up for a meal, had to be over 18" long and I'd guess 10 lbs - don't know for sure, but big suckers!
Do catfish keep the pond "clean"? Cause I've been told mine is remarkably clean for not being stream fed...........