Johnsfolly

@Mitch f We tried kimchee, but could not get the right Asian ingredients for the spices. Did not come out well. We need to find a decent Asian market here in Maryland. Once we do will try the kimchee again.

Little Patuxent River - MD Poplar Lick Creek - Maryland (with restablished native brookies) Gunpowder River - Maryland (filled with streambred browns) Fallfish and Tuckahoe Creek - Maryland (caught 15 species of fish in the creek and close to 400 total fish so far)

Picked up some pottery last time that we passed through Zanesville OH. We used this crock to make a simple sauerkraut recipe with caraway seeds. Fermented the cabbage for about a week and it was done. Pretty tasty. With good sauerkraut, just needed to find some dishes to use it. Love hotdogs with kraut. Picked up some pretzel rolls and caramelized some sweet onions to go with the dog. Spicy brown mustard finished the dog! Served with a side salad. (still having issue with phone camera - sorry).

We do cook them first but not fully. They don't typically overcook when prepared. We've not cooked the noodles before and I don't like the way that they get. Never seem to cook well enough for me.

Yesterday made spaghetti meat sauce. Started with 1.5 lbs ground beef and 1 lb italian sausage. Added almost 1/4 cup of dried oregano and another of basil and two tablespoons of dried thyme and garlic powder. Then a teaspoon or two of red pepper flakes. Then added 8 cloves of minced garlic. Diced one green and one red bell pepper and a large sweet onion. Cooked until onions were translucent. Added in three large cans of crushed tomatoes, four cans of tomato sauce, and two cans of tomato paste. Simmered for almost three hours. Had spaghetti when it was done. Wife made four meal sized lasagnas today that went into the freezer. Still have another meals worth of sauce in the fridge.

Tonight did a venison loin roast with montreal seasoning and garlic powder. Medium rare. Roasted new potatoes with provence herbs. Vegetable casserole.

Never made oxtail soup but love braised meats, especially shanks, short ribs, etc. Looks like a good soup in the making Mitch. We have Lodge dutch ovens.

Unlike most of the guys on this forum we are having warm weather here in MD. Decided to try to get my first fish of 2020. I went to the Indian River inlet in Delaware early this morning to catch the tide. I read some reports of a few tautogs and shad being caught in the inlet and dogfish in the surf. Those were my targets. Wind was whipping all day and made it difficult to feel any bites. I soaked a few crabs and drug many darts but nothing but rocks taking my baits in the inlet. Couple of hours past decided to go out on the jetty and try the beach side for dogfish. The algae covered rocks slick as snot. I used some strips of spot as bait. 20 mins holding the rod got a good tug. Not the dogfish but a skate. Once landed it acted weird. The fish stayed clenched and wouldn't flatten out much. Reminded me of the face hugging alien from the movie Alien. Still got a good enough photo for an id. A little skate was my first 2020 fish and a new lifelist fish. Just 11 more needed to meet my goals😀. Oh and I did fall on those slick rocks 😒. May not get to fish by myself if that becomes a habit.

Looks like a gem for sure👍! Glad that he caught the smallie bug on a beautiful creek😀.

My wife makes a great sticky toffee pudding. Looks a lot like @ness delicious pudding photo.

Heard so much about the ribeye of the sky that I would love to hunt and eat sandhills. 😀. I know a guy in SWMO that wants to hunt them too but is often too busy collecting jewelry during waterfowl season.

So did the crickets work well ?!?

Fog over the White River. Redeye bass fishing in Georgia! Lost one, but landed the second Barren Fork wild rainbow! One of my favorite Ozarks rivers - the Current! Hatch! Current river Black River below Johnson Shut-ins Pool teeming with fish like this one below!

@Seth building some great fishing Karma! Thanks for posting this story and for giving your time to help others! Teach a man to fish.....

Good Luck buddy. Looks like a fair amount of opportunities to fish in Illinois that are pretty close to you.

Here's what I would like to achieve in 2020. Catch a fish in 1 new state - I have 28 states already covered; so have to really travel to get just one more. Catch a MD native brook trout or stripers on fly rod (BH flies) Catch 12 Lifelist species - Including: New lifer darter and/or sculpin American Shad Northern Kingfish or Black Drum Three new sunfish sp. Two shark species including dogfish sp. Trips - White River/Norfork River - March/April - NJ/DE for Black Drum - May/June - Lake Erie - May - Chincoteague Island July-Sept - spadefish trip June-Aug - Flathead/Blue catfish in Potomac or Susquehanna - Pike or Musky trip

Great looking male rainbow! 98 to go and counting ! Good Luck!

Might be "Dead Meat" with Scott Leysath. That show highlighted lots of unusual critters being shot and eaten. I once had a conversation with Scott about a injectable mixture idea that I had to be used in a fawn leg roast. The meal turned out great!

Looks like a great way to spend a Sat morning Ness. Good for your son to get dad and the dogs out in the field. Hopefully a good pheasant dinner followed the hunt 👍.

Back to the original question. I fillet most fish. My daughter hated picking bones. Most of the fillets would get fried. I will keep some fish whole to bake or steam. Larger trout would typically get baked. Lately I have been making spicy asian pan roasted trout recipes with whole fish. Then she just had to deal with the bones.

Mitch that is my experience with farm raised tilapia - tastes terrible. I worked at the Univ. with a professor that raised tilapia for research. I would feed them when he was on vacation. The agreement was that I could have one or two. These were two to three lb. fish. They tasted good when I prepped them. Thinking back they had a good flow of clean water through their tanks and were not in a stagnant pond getting fed cheap fish feed or dog food. I won't buy or eat any farm raised tilapia or catfish.

Awesome stripers Dan! Congrats! Good to see you on the water again.

We were back in Missouri to spend Xmas with our kids. We had Xmas at my daughter's place in Warrensburg. Then on Thurs took my son and his family (including our 1st grandchild) back to Fort Riley KS. I have not caught a fish in Kansas even though I have spent a couple of springs hunting turkeys in Kansas. Just never fished the state. I took advantage of this trip to get a KS fish. Moon Lake is 10 min from my sons house and they stock it with rainbow trout. I figured that a cold water fish may be my best bet for a first KS fish. I looked over the dam area of the lake and it looked promising. However, I really wanted to check out what looked to be a spring creek coming into the lake. The water was clear and had some spots with 2 to 3 ft depths. I saw a few trout in the stream including a palomino that was hanging below the overhead tree cover in the above photo. I was fishing a 7 ft UL Airstream rod with #2 PLine. I put on a #14 hook two small split shot and baited with Gulp "corn". When I got in position, the trout spooked. I waited for about 10 min for it to calm down before I made a cast. The trout charged the bait, but I pulled the hook. Another wait then another cast. Again the fish hit the bait and I was able to set the hook and land my first KS fish as well as my first palomino/golden rainbow trout ! I caught a couple of regular rainbows in the hole just below the spot where I took that first photo. I turned and tried downstream and found another deep stretch of water. I ended up catching a couple more rainbows. They were all 9 to 11 inches in length. They fought well for stockers. Ended the day with 6 trout before heading back to put in some grandpa time .

SIO3 already replied that it is the bridge that I was referring too. All of the water above that bridge up to Montauk is the blue ribbon trout section of the river. In my opinion one of the most scenic Ozark rivers. Good luck if you get to fish there.

If you add on and start at Cedar grove low water bridge will add about another 3 to 4 miles. Good access on both ends. You can hike along the river or there are many trails along that way that will give you some backpacking experience. If adventurous, you two could go up and over some of the river bluffs. As Ness mentioned the land around North fork is mostly private. The Current is surrounded by the Ozark national scenic waterways so most of the land surrounding the river is public land. Plenty of fish in that stretch to try fly fishing. Nymphs and streamers should work well.