panfisher

Excellent !

BP Swing..... No that was no typo.... Like I said I too thought it would have weighed more. It was 32" and weighed with a Zebco scale. Not rusty or beat either. A beautiful fish, especially being a pickerel. I caught a 9lb. northern in the Larry, a longer and heavier fish but of similar proportion. Not snakey and slender, nor fat and stuffed with food. Just nice thick even fish all the way around. And I will say that pickerel do seem to take to the air more readily than pike, much like some musky (as I have seen on tv and videos; only caught 1 musky, all of 9 inches!). That big pickerel did not go airborne though, probably because it was bottom orientated and in 12 fow....Perhaps some pike aficianados who have caught them in shallow waters in spring spawning mode may get more "airtime" from them.

Justin.......just retire from work.....you'll find a whole lot more time to do fishing and hunting and family and whatever........ .....!

Excellent story and beautiful fish......!!

Your killin' me! Posting that shot has got me ready to make some up and eat them NOW ......With fries (maybe even sweet potato fries) and some home made slaw.......Ooooowweeeee ! Oh...and some cold brew... maybe the rebrewed Schlitz or some Golden Ale!!

Yeah they have been a problem in aquaculture circles for a few years now, especially with issues of farm raised salmon getting infected with them and then getting into wild stocks. Part of on of the largest biomass citizens on the planet....copepods. Bugs. Like shrimp and lobster.....and spiders and flies. I'm not sure but I think they call fleas (the ones that get ganged on your trolling line) sea lice in lake Michigan. Not the same bugs, but.....what's in a name...Anyone out there vouch for that?

That pic looks like a pure pickerel to me. I think I discern a black bar under the eye. Some of the pike/pickerel crossbreeds caught in Seneca will have various combos of pike "bean spots" with pickerel eyebar. Or pickerel chain marks with no bar. Or even wierder, a fish with no eye bar and spots not as small or "spotlike" as on normal pike; light spots almost made chain marks but were more like just bigger spots than on other standard pike. BTW, the largest pickerel I've ever caught was at the south end of Canandaigua lake. Picking up decent largemouths in 12 fow before the dropoff into 100 ft plus. Caught using unpainted 1/4oz jighead threaded with plain natural earthworm colored Creme worm bouncing and dragging on the bottom among standing weeds. It was noticable because this thing fought for about what seemed like10 minutes; I was definitely challenged and knew I had something special on, whooping and yowling and standing in boat attracting attention from other boats in the area. It was 32" and weighed in at just over 4lbs. I thought it would weigh more. No thin fish but a nice thick even lenghtwise girth. A very healthy fish. And what a fight. I'd say better than a four pound Largemouth!

Nniiiiiiccce haul! With some gills too. Even though the skeletal structure is a little heavier on the crappies, they are right up there on that eatin' list (I guess I consider them as "sunnies").

Your pops was wise! Never tried the fishcake/patty thing. Something new I'll want to check out.....MMMMMMMM,,,,,crab cakes....! We are so blessed with seafood (freshwater included) opps! ...... ..... !

Yeah, those y bones are annoying. It seems the pike bones (likewise laid into a layer but a slightly different bone shape) are a bit easier of a "bone layer" to slice away from the remainder of the flesh. But I learned the way to remove them from any Esocidae (dare anyone eat a muskie.....Les Stroud lost in the woods surviving ...) was essentially the same. From illustrations in fishing books when a kid, before I ever caught my first pickerel. Carefully remove that layer and a wonderful long meaty and thick fillet is left. i've even caught and cleaned small (12 in and less) pickerel and found them fantastic. If ever in the New York City area, especially long island and maybe jersey and Connecticut, and looking for a tasty fish fry, try and find that "chicken of the sea"- northern puffer. It is available at some fish fry shops and restaraunts and can be caught on charters. That little fish is sooo good! U won't be disappointed. Man this talk of good eating fish is definitely making me hungry! BTW, there is a aquaculture company out of Indiana specializing (exclusively) in farm raised yellow perch....$13 a lb.! No, haven't tried it....don't need to. But good ol American entreprenuership at work.....

Agreed with the perch! Sunnies are, to me, just as tasty, sometimes even sweeter. Did I forget good old haddock from many fish fries in the northeast region....? But, for fish personally reeled in by myself, it'll be perch, sunnies, 'eyes, and, surprise....smaller pike and pickerel (got to know how to remove the bone strap). Lots of tasty fish types commercially caught or farm raised at the markets. Shop, though for currently sustainable species (info online) as we, I believe, need to support our fisheries by not overfishing.......some commercial fishery folks may care the less for tomorrow for the cash today.....

Yea, I've mentioned these before here. Really run into them a lot in Seneca lake. Love to do some in-depth dissection and taxonomic breakdown of some of the obvious pike- pickerel hybrids there. We've picked them up plenty... "all pike", all pickerel, and obvious combos. Always when jigging grub tails for smallies near shore. They are all in the same areas but I'll bet they may be scattered all through that lake. (And there r muskies there too...)

Yes, that muddy seaweeds flavor. I got that with that cat, but again everybody seemed to like it (possibly because they were starved!). I got that from a large (9lb+) northern from the Larry as well. And I usually like pike & pickerel meat. Have also run into that taste in bass sometimes, usually sweet and mild and very nice textured meat (getting $10 lb. live in markets.....largemouths in tanks!) and these fish were all caught in clean waters like Seneca or canandaigua lakes. I've had bass of equal size caught from under the same dock within minutes of each other, kept alive and cooked exactly the same way and same pan at the shame time and had fillets from one fish have that weedy muddy taste and the other sweet and creamy. Must be some type of body chemistry thing. I even had saltwater whiting that had that taint. I did stumble upon a marinade paste of my own making that actually made that "taste" taste good. Trouble is that is not always handy. Give me good old perch, sunfish, smaller pike, smaller trout and something called "chicken of the sea"; northern puffer, a saltwater fish found around Long Island (absolutely scrumptious), as well as bluefish, for can't fail eats! (I guess I could add a few others, but I'm with u on those large channel cats.....good fish none the less!).

That'sa nice catfish Kevin! There r some very decent channel cats in th St. Lawrence. I remember catching a nice 8lber a while back when fishing for whatever while on the annual 1 or 2 week camping trip to Wellsley Is. These vacation trips usually had 5 to 12 of us, most not being big fishing folks. I decided to make a fish stew from the cat, as this was one of those all 12 of us affairs and it fit the bill perfectly for the hungry clan..... I personally found the fish chunks were nice but had that slightly muddy, veggie flavor that can often be in many kinds of fish. Oh yes, I'm a pretty good cook and this fish was alive and ready to leave and live minutes before dispatching and cutting into the stew. Everybody else thought it was great food and it was completely finished off though!

Great shots of some niiiiice bass ! Great to hear of someone targeting 'em and actually getting them......seems I hear of a lot of incidental smallie caught, and all of the whining (deserved) about the south shore of Big O.....

rustyrat......like'n that story about your wife setting those that should know right!

Just read up on some current info published online by DEC on 'eyes (and sauger!) in NY.....pretty interesting.

Back in the 80's, N.Y. instituted a major push to develop and increase walleye throughout the state. They even put out a hefty publication (magazine like) of their efforts and results and other info. Had it and lost it somewhere. They are in many waters and Hemlock regularly produces giants. Don't know, however if DEC is continuing to stock into there or anything else about ongoing DEC walleye enhancement activities (if any at all). Sure would like to know......

On reading about round gobies at wikipedia, seems they have some commerial value as food in the Ukraine. You can find gobies (not sure of which variety) frozen in asian food markets in packages everywhere. You know where I'm going.....Perhaps a viable commercial food source here.....? Anyone out there ever try them? I know gamefish like 'eyes and smallies and others do love them. Like yellow perch and shrimp maybe..... I say maybe..... they could be tasty morsels for fish fries. If that were the case, and that is IF.... I'd rather see them overharvested than yellow perch for food. Lots of maybes and if's here........I'm sure testing for contaminant uptake and other such whatnot would have to be done to see if they were good for marketing as food for us....and they would have to taste good.....but.....I'm just sayin' .......Also along the same line, I understand (never tried it) that the dreaded snakeheads are really good eating.....

Just plain GREAT STUFF!!

Good report and excellent rainbow....Love Seneca for all of it's excellent variety of fish, all of which on some days can be caught on the same day, including salmonids, bass, cats, Big carp ( ), catfish, panfish, and various esox members.....Love Seneca!

8lb.test...... .....now THAT is ultralite fishing for Big O salmonids trolling!! Nice job ......and hope the coho "survived the cut" in the video....