Boating for fun, work or fishing

You All have some nice boats and nice fishing too.

I enjoy fishing early mornings and am usually off my favorite local lake by 7 AM in the summer with enough fish for eating.

Boats I employ are a 1950s 11' Starcraft powered by a 2.5hp Yamaha 4 stroke, and a 14' Alumacraft powered by the same motor. I fish lakes from 50 to 1000 acres for mostly bluegill, as well as a few small lakes and rivers for walleye up north. The Stracraft is light and no problem to load in and out of my pickup by myself, which allows me to put in anywhere near parking without having to go to a boat launch.

I used to have a 9.9 four stroke Honda for the Alumacraft but sold it because it was so darn heavy, but really a reliable motor for me for years. I am thinking about picking a new 6 hp Suzuki for the Alumacraft for a little more power.



My favorite fish, and my favorite boat (11' Starcraft). My favorite bait is good old garden worms on a jig for everything including panfish, bass and walleye.



The aftermath of a typical summer Saturday morning...fillets for eating and fish remains for the garden.

 

Oh my goodness those are some good eatin. I can't wait to get back fishin again.

 

I love fresh fish too Stihl, and bluegill are tough to beat. We also enjoy our pike deboned and fried, boiled (poor man's lobster), grilled, smoked, pickled and pressure canned for a nice fish salad (mixed with a little Helman's mayo, diced pickles, a little mustard, fresh ground black pepper) for a sandwich on buttered toast with fresh garden greens.

People here in MN are nuts for Walleye, and some folks here fish for nothing else. I like them too, but typically prefer our bluegill, yellow perch, northern pike, lake trout and whitefish. I would also put our smaller large mouth and small mouth bass in the mix too. We have a few lakes where we can catch easy limits of both small and larger bass. We throw the small bass immediately in a cooler of ice for frying. A few larger ones get smoked or pressure canned.

I also may keep an occasional small carp (5-8lbs) for smoking. They are delicious this way. Bullheads are good and suckers are good for smoking, but bony. I suppose they would make good pickles.

The only MN fish I haven't have any luck making palatable is bowfin. I speared some one winter. The mean was a beautiful orange color from that particular lake presumably from eating lots of crayfish. However the meat come out bland and very soft. I even tried soaking some in a brine to make pickles, and it literally broke into lots of small pieces.

Do you fish in the winter months much in Arkansas?

 

I don't fish much in the winter, usually hunting. walleye is a big fish here in winter where I mostly fish. I could eat fish every day. those shellcrackers are good as crappie to me. ain't no finer eatin.

 

Welcome aboard!!! Can’t say I’ve ever eaten bluegill. Always figured there wasn’t enough there to bother with, but looks like I was wrong! You’ll have to fill me in on how you clean and cook them!

 

Good looking fillets there! Brings back memories of bluegill fishing on a small impoundment in Maryland as a kid. No pressure, just lots of fun. I live in the NW. I have both pickled fish (salmon, herring and sea bass) and canned a lot of salmon. The salmon and sea bass were the best, the herring being just a bit fishy. The canned salmon was great. I would arrive home during a spell of hot summer weather from a hard day of heavy construction. On days like that a hot meal is just not appealing! My Wif would serve on the porch a cold salmon salad on a huge lettuce leaf. She used mayo, chopped pickles, chopped Granny Smith apples, fresh pepper and a dash of Old Bay. Add a cold beer and 40 min later I am in a stupor in the hammock in the shade! Great on sandwiches also as you mentioned. If I did a lot of fresh water fishing I would love to try canning and pickling them. I have no use for bowfin!

 

J. Dirt, I fillet them using the 4" Rapala knife. I do a fish in under a minute. I don't cut through the ribs, rather cut around them from the top. For frying I use a cast iron pan and canola or peanut oil. First I roll them in flour, then dip in egg, then roll in a mixture of crushed corn flakes and panko, fry, then season with salt and fresh crushed black pepper.

I serve them with a tartar sauce of Helman's, a little mustard, a little lemon juice, a few dashes of Old Bay and crushed black pepper.

metalcuttr, we have some salmon in Lake Superior, but I don't catch many. I used to fish steelhead often in the spring in the creeks and they were good too if pretty fresh from the lake. We do have a lot of lake herring, and I should have mentioned those. I have a few friends that commercial fish them and they are very good fried and pickled. Their eggs also make great caviar. We eat a lot of that during deer season as it coincides with then end of netting herring and there are a lot of fresh herring eggs around.

 

Can’t wait til spring now!!!!

 

Like a glove

 

Ok, you done made me get some fish out of the freezer to thaw. I was saving it for late winter. but you done got me hungry for it now. It's not bream, but white and largemouth bass.

 

yep, deer seasons over and this cold weather can go away.

 

Yer in for a treat.

 

Brrrrr. Time to go fishing. Ill be in Key Largo by Saturday early afternoon. Counting down the hours till departure now 2 weeks of fishing in warm or even hot weather! Ill try to post some pics for inspiration Hate to miss the -25F Monday night here but I guess I gotta go..... So says the boss.

 

Any tarpon on the radar? That is one on my bucket list!

 

Few weeks till the Boston boar show. I'm gonna buy a pontoon boat for our pond this year. Gigantic boat show.

Friend down the street found the deal of the year on a barely used 5yo 18ish foot pontoon for trade value at $12k. Everything I have seen is 5 years old with the beginnings of sun damage for over $20k. I can buy new for just a little more money. And have a new engine with a warranty. It just doesn't seem to make sense to buy used.

 

As much as I love spearing and ice fishing, it is going to be nice to set anchor and fish along a weed line come early summer mornings.

moresnow I hope you get some nice pictures of your fishing and vacation to show to us.

 

Thought I would post a couple pics of the boat I designed and built. All parts were laser cut and formed in the shop I managed. Took about a year working on it at night. Interior panels are bolted to the ribs which made it incredibly strong. Then I sprayed bedliner on the entire inside. I custom molded my own 2 part foam to put between the ribs which gives it 2400 lbs of flotation. The pitch on the prop is a tad too tall but it still runs well over 50 mph.

 

Great looking craftsmanship Brandon Scott. What type of water are you fishing and what for?

 

Thanks. I fish the Ohio River mostly. I take it to Florida crappie fishing in the winter. I like to fish for any freshwater fish. The Great Lakes are so far from me I put walleye and yellow perch in my lake for fun.

 

I've never chased them. On my list also. I need a little flats boat to chase the inshore species. Lots of shallow water/reefs to navigate around. Or hit

Will do. Crossing my fingers for calm seas and warm sunny weather during the days for offshore fishing on the ocean side and cool westerly winds at night for shrimping on the gulf side. Wont take much to beat my current weather -13F this morning.. Argh. I gotta get out a here!

Looks like a stout vessel! Great project. What's your general opinion on the Honda?