Home Forums Fishing Freshwater is there a fish you won't keep or a fish you always keep?

I always keep silver carp. You can't keep enough of them to reduce the population.

Silver carp,, are those the ones that jump in your boat?

Oh, I'll keep all the ones I don't catch on his boat. He does own the boat...haha

Yes, silver carp are the jumpers. It is an experience to be tooling down the river at 35 or 40 mph and get hit in the chest by a 6 lbs. silver carp. I can easily see why the f&g guys have chain-link fence barriers in the boat to protect themselves from silver carp hits.

Somethin' wrong with you...

I don't really care for Trout either,,, or Salmon for that matter,,, although my buddy brings me a fresh caught fillet once in a while that go down pretty easy but I don't want a steady diet of it.
I keep any decent sized panfish....

Bluegills, redeyes and walleye are keepers here. As long as they're legal and not too small.

Small and Largemouth Bass go back.

Catfish are 50/50, I don't care for the big ones to eat.

^^To add to the above, I don't care what people keep though, long as they eat it.

What I really hate, is when a "proud" bass fisherman will put a dying/dead bass back in the water. Like they wouldn't dare be caught keeping one of their trophy fish, and would rather see it floating that have someone think they kept/ate it.

Redeyes are one of my favorites. Especially good out of cool clear mountain streams! With a side of fried taters and cornbread whew, that's a meal fit for a king.

I like trout but I would take a mess of good sized bluegills, crappie or redeyes over a trout any day of the week.

seal, you have that right.. Brookies are ok, only because we have no good eating fish in this country..

Very interesting. Some fish I never heard of. As for me, I love blue gills if they are big enough. I keep most any fish, even sheapshead ( freshwater drum) now and again. They are better than store bought crap for $8 lb. in a box. I will keep smallmouth, nice sweet taste, better than walleye actually. Most of my fish are small channels cats. I smoke them for my arthritis in my back. Fish oil all but takes my pain away and channel cats are very oily. Don't like fried channel cats though. Walleye don't go back. I guess the only fish I won't keep is a musky, dogfish , Gar fish, eel pout ( Eel pout are for Viking fans)

For the table,sunfish, crappies, perch and walleye are the best. Pike go into ground patties or the smoker. Salmon and occasional trout get grilled or smoked. Joining them in the smoker are spring rin suckers. haven't figured out how to catch whitefish yet, but they smoke good and are rumored to eat goods too. Haven't tried but other yet.

Bass, pike over 10, walleye over 4 (excrept from the Columbia river), and murkiest don't come into the boat. Lake trout too -fun to catch but not to eat. Grayling are not my type.

Sure I'm forgetting someone's favorite, but I made myself hungry-going to thaw some salmon for tomorrow!

Crappie and Stripers are the only fish I keep.

I agree, strippers are very good if you know how to clean them, white bass are the same. Gotta get that red meat out of the fillet.

Amen, trout are for the tourists out here

I am not a fan of eating fish,especially freshwater fish, though I love to catch them. That being said, I had some walleye this spring for the first time and would be happy enough to eat more, given the chance.

I will keep trout, big bluegills and some cats. I release all my bass though unless it's a striper the that will be consumed

I target crappies and big bluegill for eating, and I set trottlines for 20lb+ flatheads. I'll fish for other species, but just for fun.

I can't think of any of our freshwater fish that aren't worth eating. I have fished some lakes where the rainbows have a swampy taste to them.