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I was reading the poaching story and was wondering what everybody does with the fish they keep?
I usually don't keep fish but once in a while I'll take one or two home. I always let the big ones go and keep a couple of the smaller ones. If I don't have the time to cook them when I get home then I don't keep any. I used to throw one or two left over fish into the freezer but they almost always ended up in the trash.
I'm not going to preach about C&R but how many days in the year can't you go fishing and bring some home for dinner? None, so why put them in the freezer and let them go to waste or as some put it "saving them for later".
When I'm out with a friends or family, I'll ask them how many fish they already have in the freezer and if the answer is 0 I'll not pressure them into not taking a couple home. I won't let them take any if I'm showing them one of my secret patterns or spots.
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In my past I found myself keeping fish for mear bragging rights to "show" what I got. And I noticed that happens alot with people. As I became one of the complainers saying the fishing sucks, or why is the big fish disappearing, I then asked myself what can I do. SO i now take what needs to be taken as in concervation for example jordanelle perch, or that craving i have for fish that day. I would much rather see the big boy get put back into the water, and the little ones be taken for the fish fry. Now I just need a nice digital camera to "show" what I got.
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No fish in my house EVER gets tossed, Like I said on the Poaching thread, I bottle it, I've smoked it, BBQ'd, baked. But most is bottled up usually that weekend. If I can I keep for the winter, but family and friends have found what I do and they are a constant drain on the amount I have around. It doens't last long and big fish take up a lot of bottles, A 2lb trout will take 2- 4 pint bottles a larger fish will take more. I usually have about 10-12 pints around but my kid was in the basement this past weekend and about half of it is now in his stomach. He loves the stuff.
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Well I for one cant eat fish so for me it is all catch and release. But If I gill hook one or know it going to die I will kill him quick and take him to a friend or familey. Everyone I do this for though KNOWS i dont stand for the freeze for later thery and if I found they kept it longer than a week they dont get em from me anymore. I have one friend though who usely fries it up the night I give it to him. So he is uselly the first call I make. I myslef wont prech the C'N'R is the only way though cause I do understand thet some need to be kept to keep a good fishery kept in place and can understand the need for harvesting.
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[url "http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=522641"]http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=522641[/url]
Hey Polo, here is a link for a $54 digital
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For me keeping fish all depends on where I fish and what kind of fish I catch and whether I can take care of them when I get home. In the Uintas I keep the decent sized fish from back country lakes(not planters) because they taste so good and because most of those lakes will never support big fish or natural reproduction. Without restocking those kind of lakes won't have fish after ten years anyway, so I eat them from there almost always. I would not keep any fish from a blue ribbon stream unless encouraged to do so by the DWR. At Starwberry I will keep rainbows, but never a cutt. In fact I wish the DWR would/could put more sterile rainbows in there so more could be taken home. And I have no qualms about keeping perch, whitebass, and catfish from any lake(within the legal limit of course). In fact it is generally a good thing to keep perch and similar fish that tend to over-populate.
I don't like to eat trout larger that about 12 inches but I will keep bigger ones on occasion. The bigger the perch or catfish the better. Any fish we keep we eat, usually that same day. The wife and kids love it and so do I.
Like Polokid, I used to take home fish to show off to family and freinds. I don't need that kind of attention anymore so I am fairly selective now. I also go fishing to just enjoy the mountains. I believe that it is more than okay to keep the right fish from the right places but I let a lot of fish go too.
m
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I only keep what I plan on eating within 1 day or enough to gather to make a load in the smoker. I personally do not like to eat fish so when I go out the first thing I ask my wife is if she wants fish for dinner, that will base what I do with them after they have been caught. Like Polo, since we grew up together, my story is much the same. But nowdays I would prefer to take a pic of them or treat my family to some tru fresh fish. The only fish that sit in my freezer are the ones in a brine waiting for the smoker.
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[cool] I will only keep what I am going to eat that night. If I come home late from a trip then it will go on the tabel the next night. I personally don't care for frozen fish. Since my wife doesn't fish, I like to eat it as soon as possibe and share witth her, all of the fish tales on how hard it fought, how cold it was and made me suffer to catch it and so on.
Other than that, I don't bring any home and just take pic before I release.
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take fish home ? why ? i bet i have taken under 10 fish home this year and they were all for the in-laws
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Sorry guys but unlike many of you, about 1/2 of the fish I bring home get froze untill there are about 5-7 lbs for a big ole "family get together fish fry". That's become a tradition in our family.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]The other half get eaten within a couple days but VERY SELDOME do we eat them the same day we catch them (unless we are camping). The reason we don't is because I'm the one who ALWAYS cooks them and by the time I get home from fishing and all the responsibilities that's associated with fishing, Im way to damn tired to cook anything.[/size][/font]
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I only take a fish home that gets injured and won't survive. I usually find someone that will take them. I seldom eat fish because to me they have no taste.
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Almost all of the fish I bring home get vacuum packed and frozen. I smoke almost all of my fish, but it's not worth firing up a big smoker unless I have enough to fill the smoker, so I waite until I have a few in the freezer. Once smoked, I vacuum pack then again and freeze the smoked fish.
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I believe in selective harvest. I take only what I will eat that day and what is good for the fishery.
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I was raised by my step dad to keep everything, and eat everything (never takes more than the legal limit though). My mom loves trout, and my stepdad fishes mostly in the fall/winter/spring at two big trout lakes in Nevada: Walker Lake, and world famous Pyramid Lake (near Reno). So, they usually eat everything they bring home, etc. and usually keep a bunch in the freezer but I think they all get eaten (especially in the summer when the those two lakes are slow fishing.
That's the way I was raised, but as I was single and in my 20's (30 and recently married now) I used to still keep most to show off etc. like a few others have said. I finally realized that sometimes fish would stay in my freezer for months and months and sometimes go to waist, so I quit doing that. My wife doesn't like fish that much, but pretty much all of what I've caught in the two years of marriage has been trout, and they are tougher to fillet and I'm not that good at it yet. So, I usually just keep a couple for me to eat that night and throw them on the bar-b-que now 'cause she's pregnant and the smell makes her sick. I don't always keep what I catch. I think as I catch more warm water fish and fillet and deep fry them, my wife will like that, 'cause she loves fishsticks, and halibut at restaurants so I think she'd love walleye etc. Also as I have kids down the road, hopefully they'll like them and I'll bring more of them home, but right now I definitely practice selective harvest etc. Someday I hope to get a smoker and smoke lots of rainbows from strawberry/scofield etc., but first things first, I've gotta get outta the condo and into a house, and then I'm getting a boat, then the smoker later.
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[font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2] Well. . . we do keep some in the freezer 'for later' but, we will usually cook them within 1-2 days and usually only have 'extras' in our freezer for the next fish meal.[/size][/#004080][/font]
[font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2] There have been several times we don't catch limit so we'll freeze those 4-5 or whatever and then keep a few more the next time to equal one meal.[/size][/#004080][/font]
[font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2] I have 2 kids & 3 step-kids along w/my husband and just our (mine and my husbands') 1 day limit is what we'll need to feed 7 people (8 - my husband usually eats 2)[/size][/#004080][/font]
[font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2]We'll also 'save them' for a big get-together w/my Dad, friend, and her kid every once in a while and they [/size][/#004080][/font][font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2]DON'T get wasted at my house. [ ][/size][/#004080][/font]
[font "Alfredo's Dance"][#004080][size 2]Of course i've already said that we do a lot of CNR and don't keep every single little or 'big' fish we catch that day. . . Selective harvest is good! [ ][/size][/#004080][/font]
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Very seldom a fish is frozen in my house! Freezing fish is a sin for us! If for some reason i do freeze one or two fish i make sure they are well prepared before they get frozen so they dont get freezer burned .Me and the kids love fresh fish hardly ever eat anything frozen!
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I've got a Muskie, a couple trout and a few channels in my deep freezer. None of it will be wasted.
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I very large portion of the fish I catch go right back into the water to fight again another day. I will occasionally keep a few fish, especially the Kokes, but they get eatin within 3 days. Myself, my wife, and my daughter love fishies, so it's not a problem eating them.
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I'm with you RNL and OC. Warm water fish seem to do better or at least taste ok after being frozen for a month or so but after I get four or five meals in the freezer I don't keep any more. Trout are another matter, I never keep trout unless they are hurt but I wait until I get a smoker full before I smoke up a batch. Smoked trout taste a lot better to me, even after being in the freezer a month but I'm not a fresh trout fan. WH2
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I keep fish often, but only enough for a meal that very night.
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