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Last edited by Proud_Dad; 03/21/21.
"Kids don't remember their best day of television."
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Awesome! I love chasing catfish. Few more weeks and a few degrees higher water temps and we’ll be after them.
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Congratulations, memories for sure.
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I love the Blue Cat. The slot limit to me is a two edged sword, the lakes get full of large shad eaters. I usually throw anything back over 8 pounds anyway. You just about have to grill the big ones to melt the fat off of the fillets.
Dog I rescued in January
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Department says the big freeze was tough on our shad stocks. Hoping bait isn’t scarce this year. Nothing better than fresh cut shad for blues.
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Department says the big freeze was tough on our shad stocks. Hoping bait isn’t scarce this year. Nothing better than fresh cut shad for blues. Cut and live perch works pretty good and stays on the hook better. I did notice a heck of a shad population on Eagle mountain lake day before yesterday.
Dog I rescued in January
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We always use cut perch when the shad aren’t on the bank. Crappie heads work better than perch but nothing compares to fresh shad. Of course perch sure beats staying at home.
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Fresh shad is definitely one of the favorites, but any fresh cut bait seems to work better than other options. We tried a couple of day old heads/cut pieces off fish we caught and filleted the day before and couldn't buy a hit on those. Layne is getting things figured out to be able to throw a bigger bait cast net, so hopefully we can find the shad next time we go out.
"Kids don't remember their best day of television."
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Department says the big freeze was tough on our shad stocks. Hoping bait isn’t scarce this year. Nothing better than fresh cut shad for blues. Well I'm more into natural bait. I like fresh chicken breast soaked in strawberry kool aid and garlic! :-)
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take the cat fish fillets after you skin them put skin side up on wax paper in the freezer for 15/ 20 min. the fat will rise to the top and then fillet it off . makes it a lot better
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take the cat fish fillets after you skin them put skin side up on wax paper in the freezer for 15/ 20 min. the fat will rise to the top and then fillet it off . makes it a lot better Haven't heard of that technique before. We have cleaned and eaten a few flatheads up to 40-45#, but haven't ever kept any of the bigger blues.
"Kids don't remember their best day of television."
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We eat a lot of blues, easiest way for me to get the fatty red off is to split the filet down the lateral line then take a triangle shaped slice off each half. What’s removed is all the fishy tasting stuff. Hard to explain but if you try it you’ll understand.
But if you have ready access to flatheads I’d say heck with the blues for eating, flatheads are far superior. At least the ones we have around here. Of course they’re far more difficult to catch too.
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We eat a lot of blues, easiest way for me to get the fatty red off is to split the filet down the lateral line then take a triangle shaped slice off each half. What’s removed is all the fishy tasting stuff. Hard to explain but if you try it you’ll understand.
But if you have ready access to flatheads I’d say heck with the blues for eating, flatheads are far superior. At least the ones we have around here. Of course they’re far more difficult to catch too. I agree on the flatheads being very good eating. We will start setting limb lines for them in May/June. Here's a post I shared last summer when the two boys teamed up to put a 45# fish in the kayaks. We released that one after pictures: Personal Best Flathead from the kayaks last summer
Last edited by Proud_Dad; 03/22/21.
"Kids don't remember their best day of television."
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