Crappies are okay when the water's cold enough. But, during the summer months down he'ah they taste like, well ............. crap. Their flesh gets too soft.
Crappies are okay when the water's cold enough. But, during the summer months down he'ah they taste like, well ............. crap. Their flesh gets too soft.
I’ve had a similar experience with crappie and ‘fishy’ too. But I’ve also had crappie that are delicious, probably caught in cold water.
I've never liked the word crappies; they are speckled perch hereabouts, and I've always fished for them in the cooler months. I think they taste just fine...Geo
I never knew a speckled perch was really a crappie until I saw a picture of one in a magazine. And what's worse, some people call them croppies. If you're going to say it, say crap-pie, not crop-pie. If they're crappy, just say so.
Gil's confusion about how to spell speckled perch is understandable because he's a Francophile at heart. Stan must have grown up watching yankee fishing shows on the TV...Geo
I never knew a speckled perch was really a crappie until I saw a picture of one in a magazine. And what's worse, some people call them croppies. If you're going to say it, say crap-pie, not crop-pie. If they're crappy, just say so.
In these parts Stan, most fishermen pronounce the word croppie. I Googled "crappie pronunciation audio" and got the result with the pronunciation spelled out as "kraa-pee", and if you click on the face, there is an audio clip that you can play fast or slow. I couldn't post a workable link, just a screenshot.
Another result had this to say:
Why is crappie pronounced Croppie? The word crappie comes from Canadian French crapet “sunfish.” Speakers of English borrowed the word first as crappé [krop-é], pronounced like “crop-ay,” which then spawned the variant croppie [króp-e].
I also found a YouTube video that pronounced the word as "crappie", but many of the comments that followed vehemently disputed that version.
I've never eaten them caught from very warm waters, so they have always tasted great to me. I guess that you could say I have never tasted a crappy crappie. But none compare to the cheek meat from a walleye. Now that is a delicacy.
I've eaten croppie.....errrr crappie from the lakes here in N ID that I can't imagine, any fresh water, white fleshed fish tasting better! I have eaten crappie given to me, that were caught in mid-late summer from the Snake river that tasted like mud! I don't think I've heard anyone in these parts, pronounce it any other way than croppie.
A plate of deep fried crappie, with mashed red potatoes, and steamed mixed veggies, said fish taken through the ice on the same day they are cooked, may be one of Mother Nature’s finest gifts to mankind.
Warm water fishing? What is that? Why would you do that?
Warm water fishing? What is that? Why would you do that?
Ask the tens of thousands of bass fishermen who have been trying to top George Perry's 22 lb. 4 oz. largemouth bass record since June of 1932. Big bass don't grow under ice. But, they do grow big in the warm waters of the backwater river lakes down he'ah.
Next time I'm topwater bassin' alone on a warm summer night, I'll look up at that big full moon and I'll picture in my mind you sitting in a shack in a fur trimmed coat, with mittens on, by a little heater looking at a hole in the ice. I'll take a deep draw on my Hoyo de Monterey, listen to the bullfrogs holler, and the occasional gator grunt, and smile................
Yes, he and his family ate one side that night and the other side the next night. Times were hard, George was a 20 year old cotton farmer, and he was fishing for food. Bass filets are astoundingly good, though probably not so much off of a 22 pounder.
Agreed, five pound bass aren't much to brag about. Despite the song lyrics, nobody stuffs a five pound bass. However, a five pound bass is my benchmark for application of the the word "Lunker". Catch one on a bream pole or an ultralight spinner and you will not think of them as panfish any longer. Best...Geo
Once caught a 6 pounder on a cricket and a no. 7 Carlisle hook. Buddy has one that I don't think can be topped too easily. He caught a 20 pound striper on a cane pole in Brier Creek, near me.. According to him it was "a battle royal".
Heck, I’d brag about a five pound bass, a good bit more of it was a smallmouth. I got less interested in winching largemouths out of sticks and weeds with heavy tackle. I’ve eaten a fair amount of Texas crappie out of warm water. No stingers or buckets for me, right into an icy cooler made them plenty good for eating later.
I have two good sized farm ponds on my property. One was built by my Grandad in about 1955. The other, on a place I bought, was built in the mid-70s. My nephew caught a 16 pounder out of the older one about 25 years ago. There was another 16 pounder caught a few years earlier in a farm pond about 1/2 mile away on another property. Both were weighed in my Dad's country store on GA certified produce scales. They grow big around he'ah, but 16 is still a long ways from 22 plus 4.
The largemouth world record is shared: https://www.luckylures.nl/largemouth_bass_record.php Many believe that if/when the record is surpassed, the fish will likely come out of a California lake (Dixon, Castaic, etc.).
It might be worth remembering that George Perry's 22.4 lb fish was completely wild caught out of a backwater of the Ocmulgee River. Plenty of folks now are using the GA/FL strain giant bass to purposely grow their own record fish. Feed lot style management can produce fish the size nature never could. I read yesterday about some movie star having his own biologist to direct his big fish projects.
I remember Georgia's Paradise Public Fishing area before it was run by the State. The owner had one lake (Bobbin) he dumped surplus/damaged Stuckey's candy in so heavily the wrappers covered the lake banks. The water was pea green and thick with algae. There were some big bass brought out of there...Geo
Geo, a buddy was turkey hunting on Horse Creek WMA and stumbled on the lake where Perry's bass was caught. It had a sign on the shore commemorating the event. I fished Patrick's Paradise before it went to the State. Caught zip but that was more or less indicative of my ability rather than the lake's quality. Pond 4 on Ft. Stewart was predicted by one of the premier hook and bullet magazines to be a prime spot for a new record before a track vehicle breached the dam and drained the pond. The army decided not to refill the pond. Gil
Geo, my buddy was staying with another friend who owned abutting property to the WMA. He made a killing off the property when Thomas Kaplan bought it to make the Orianne Indigo Snake Preserve. The land has a high density of Indigos and Gopher tortoises. Gil
The bane of bass fishermen in these oxbow river lakes in the South are the mudfish, bowfin, or grinnel. Whatever you want to call them they are frustrating. They'll tear up your tackle.